Rhind Family in Leven *completed thank you*

[Forfarian]

Great.

However I have since dug a bit further and it looks as if Alexander Nicolson may not have emigrated.

I think he beame a sailor/seaman, married Mary Muir in 1847 and had two children, Robert in 1850 and Elizabeth in 1853, then died before the start of civil registration in 1855. However I would like to find some more evidence to confirm that this is the right Alexander Nicolson.

I have looked for him in the VIC death indexes and there isn't anyone who could be him unless there is a significant error in the death record.

His elder brother Robert became a tailor, opened a shop in Dundee in 1841, then disappears from the records in Scotland, so he may well have emigrated after the deaths of his mother in 1843 and his grandmother in 1845. But I can't find a possible candidate in the VIC deaths index.

On a cursory look William too disappears from the records, but I'll keep looking.

The other avenue to be investigated is that Elizabeth Nic(h)olson, born 1853, died unmarried in Fife in 1937, and her death was registered by David Smith, Grand-nephew. I need to investigate David Smith to see whom he was descended from. It would be straightforward enough, albeit potentially tedious, if I could get to a Scotland's People Centre, but that will have to wait until after the pandemic.

[Nojiri]

Have searched for Nicholsons on the 37 shipping lists of assisted migrants who arrived in Portland between 1851-1857.  There were very few.  From Skye there were 2 families on the  Arabian and 1 on the Edward Johnston.  All agricultural families. Also, one 18YO servant girl on the New Zealander.   Only other family I have previously mention was Daniel Nicholson, wife and daughter on the Shand. Also searched Tasmanian shipping list from UK for Alexander, William and Robert Nicholson of the appropriate ages.  No luck.

A closer look at the two pencil inscriptions in the Bible throw another perspective to the mystery.
•   The writing style indicates that the same person wrote the two inscriptions.
•   Enhancing the Thomas Nicholson born 1828 inscription reveals his death was 1883.
•   Have checked PROV death records for death of Alexander Nicholson.  There are 3 in the 1880s but do not match up. 
It is highly likely the Bible was still in Leven after 1883. If it was, did a subsequent generation or another family bring the Bible from the Leven region come to Portland after 1883.
Do you have any suggestions of any Leven based researchers I could contact to see if they know any families who went to Portland?
P.S having trouble sending other thee jpegs

[Forfarian]

Now that you have made a few posts I can send you my direct e-mail by Personal Message.

I am now almost certain that Alexander Nic(h)olson, seaman, born 1825, married Mary Muir in 1847, had two children, Robert and Elizabeth, and died between 1851 and 1854, so I am not surprised that none of the Australian deaths matches him.

Their great-uncle Alexander Rhind, who died in 1841, bequeathed "To Robert Nicolson William Nicolson and Alexander Nicolson, all children of the deceased Robert Nicolson in Leven, the sum of Ten pounds Sterling each". This is in a codicil dated 29 February 1841, so it is reasonable to suppose that all three were living in 1841. There was no mention of Jean, Margaret or Thomas.

I have found Robert in the 1841 census and I think Alexander in the 1851. I have not yet found William in 1841.

If that image is the part of the bible with the date of death of Thomas, I cannot see it as 1883. I can only read it as April 1831.

The Fife Deaths Index records a death on 5 and burial on 8 April 1831 of Thomas Nicolson in Scoonie. The source of this information is the Scoonie parish register.

There are only two deaths of Thomas Nic(h)olsons in 1883 in Scotland, both infants.

Also, Thomas was not with his grandmother, mother and brother Robert in the 1841 census, and there is no Thomas Nic(h)olson in the census in Scotland who could possibly be him.

So if Thomas is not the one who died in Scoonie in April 1831, he must have managed to fall out with his great-uncle before the age of 12, leave (or be sent away from) home by the same age, evade the census enumerators and eventually die somewhere other than Scotland.

Robert became a tailor, and opened a shop in Dundee in 1841. However the shop is not listed in any of the trades directories, and I have yet to find Robert in the 1851 census, so I suppose that the shop was not a success and that Robert emigrated after the deaths of his mother in 1843 and grandmother in 1845. As he was the eldest son, I surmise that it would have been Robert who took the bible with him when he emigrated.

No idea what happened to William.

[ecksdochter]

     Could this be the missing William?
          William Nichalson died 14th Jan. 1851 at Scoonie, aged 33yrs. [OPR Deaths 456/00 40 492 Scoonie]
     Viewing actual entry might not give any more information than the above OPR Index.
     Also, on the Death Entry for Betsy Rhind she is described as Relict of Ro. Nicholson, Sailor. (ie: Widow of). Buried: 28th April 1843. Place: 1 DP? or OP?  N.E. (North East) end of Donald Grants Tomb. [OPR Deaths 685/1 1010 108 Edinburgh]
               Regards,     Dod.
     

[Forfarian]

Well found. That does look as if it must be him.

I've been searching using Nicolson and 'name variants' so it looks as if the algorithms don't recognise Nichalson as a variant of Nicholson. Though having looked at the original I don't think it is Nichalson at all - it looks like Nicholson to me.

Though 'my' one would not actually have been 33 - he would have had his 31st birthday in August 1850.

[Forfarian]

Update on the Nic(h)olson family.

I have found what became of all of the children of Robert Nicolson and Elizabeth Rhind in Leven, parish of Scoonie, Fife.

Robert Nicolson, born 31 January 1815, died in Dundee and was buried there in the Howff on 6 May 1845
Jean Nicolson, born 1 February 1817, died 4 February 1825
William Nicolson, born 20 July 1819, died at sea aboard HMS Monarch on 21 April 1842
Margaret Goodsir Nicolson, born 7 September 1822, died 2 February 1827
Alexander Nicolson, born 7 September 1825, married Mary Muir on 4 December 1847 and was lost at sea before 1855
Thomas Nicolson, born 20 September 1828, died 5 April 1831.

Alexander Nicolson and Mary Muir had three children
Robert, baptised 20 July 1850, died 9 December 1854
Margaret, born 1852, died 25 July 1852
Elizabeth, born 15 May 1853, died unmarried 22 November 1937.