« Reply #5 on: Tuesday 26 July 16 21:03 BST (UK) »
He is usually listed as a General Labourer (including this census were she is listed as "Ag Lab wife") but when he died in 1891 he was listed as a Master Cabinetmaker and operating John Alexander and Co. on Union Street in Aberdeen. I believe this is the company that recently closed after being in business for 156 years (therefore started around 1858) but none of the early records for him support his involvement.
That might be because the John Alexander, cabinet maker, who died in Aberdeen in 1891 isn't the same John Alexander who was married to Barbara Gellan. That John Alexander was the son of James Alexander and Elizabeth Shepherd, and was born in 1832 in Old Machar (although he gives Aberdeen as his place of birth in the 1881 and 1891 censuses) - he remained unmarried, his unmarried sister Elizabeth can be found with him as his housekeeper in Old Machar in 1871 and 1881.
Your John Alexander was born in Rayne in 1833 to John Alexander and Jane Robertson. He married Barbara Gellan in 1854 in Old Meldrum.
Ruth
McArthur, Milne, Mitchell, Black, Robertson, Morrison, Slessor, Lawrence - Aberdeenshire/Banffshire. Muir, Waddell, Fraser, Orr, Cowden - Lanarkshire/Renfrewshire/Dunbartonshire. Dalziel, Dalzell, Gourley, Cromie, Crombie, Bell - Co Down. Lewis, Corrigan, Morris, Cox, Hay - Monmouthshire/Pembrokeshire. Baker, Ginger, Woodhurst, Swift, Jones - Kent/London.
