Having trouble tracing the parentage and date of death for this chap, who on 19 August 1880 married Jane (Jeannie) Finnie, daughter of Thomas & Mary Finnie of "Lisburn", Saddle Hill, East Taieri, Otago, NZ. Their marriage cert unfortunately gives none of the usual helpful details of parents and their place of origin, though Scotland would be a likely guess. His daughter Vera's birth cert gives his birthplace as Canada and as the wedding cert gives his age as 23 at the time of his marriage I can tell his date of birth must have been ca. 1857.
Alexander is first described as a flour miller at Timaru, Oamaru and later as a carpenter at Ngapara. Was he the "A. Nicol" who started a flour mill at Duntroon in 1896, but had difficulties and ended up selling to Milligans? Could he have been a relative of Robert Nicol, who operated a flour mill at Waimate? I can't find a family connection which jumps out at me. Another faint possibility is a link with Captain John Nicol, who captained the ship "Gil Blas" which brought Thomas & Mary Finnie to Dunedin in 1858.
Alexander & Jane Nicol left Ngapara in 1920 after 20 years in residence there and moved to Geraldine. Jane may have been living with her daughter Vera McFadgen (nee Nicol) at the time of her death on 20 September 1948 as her son-in-law, Presbyterian minister Jim McFadgen, paid for her burial plot at Gore Cemetery. This suggests she was a widow. Of Alexander's death & burial, though, I can find no trace. If I could work this out, his death cert might give me the missing details of his family.
Any help much appreciated.
