Hi, just jumping into this thread here as John is my GG Grandfather. Interesting reading, thanks everyone 😊
In relation to the family McLauchlan from Marlborough, buried at Omaka, that Isabella was a spinster.
It is likely to be a spelling error that our John McLachlan was buried at Omaka under the name McLauchlan, as all other records (marriage, births of all children) point to McLachlan as the spelling of his surname.
I’ve been looking at the arrival of John, Isabella, John and Elizabeth McLachlan to Nelson on the Cresswell in February 1859….There is a John McLachlan on the NZ Jury lists for both 1860 and 1861 in Nelson – likely to be John snr?
https://www.ancestry.com.au/imageviewer/collections/1839/images/32341_224133__0004-00264?treeid=&personid=&rc=&usePUB=true&_phsrc=nbL441&_phstart=successSource&pId=83960https://www.ancestry.com.au/imageviewer/collections/1839/images/32341_224133__0004-00274?treeid=&personid=&rc=&usePUB=true&_phsrc=nbL442&_phstart=successSource&pId=85082 Although there is no further mention of John that I can find after this date, he is linked through Isabella and David, as David’s parents are named as John & Isabella, and furthermore both Isabella and youngest son Nelson Martin are linked to David through the other documents already provided within this thread. (I’m just clarifying this here…bear with me).
So if the John & Isabella that arrived on the Cresswell in February 1859 are indeed this same couple, then they settled in Nelson, had three more children, but somewhere along the line John snr has disappeared. And what happened to the daughter Elizabeth?
Going back further…using a combination of Scotlands people records and references via Ancestry trees etc. the only “John & Isabella” I could find that fits would be John McLachlan and Isabella Henderson. However, they were married in 1837 had five children between moving across Strontian and then Tobermory, before settling in Gorbals, Glasgow, where they had two more children John b. 12/09/1851 and Elizabeth b. 12/03/1854. However, I have now discounted this John & Isabella as they both died in Hutchesontown, Glasgow, Scotland (in 1865 and 1870 respectively)…BUT, I cannot find them in the 1861 Census (which would properly discount them as being the couple that arrived via the Cresswell in Feb 1859).
Just to add a bit more...on John McLachlan Jnr's death (1925) printout it states he was in NZ for 70 years...but that may not be correct of course.
I’m going to keep working on this but any other info or suggestions would be most welcome thanks!