Who is John Melrose in NYC 1870, and what happened to him?

[zumaro]

I have a James Melrose in a slightly different branch of the tree, born in 1847, who arrives in Hartford, Connecticut by 1870.  He would have been an agricultural labourer going over, but somewhere along the line, he and his brother John reinvented themselves as cigar and liquor merchants.  Wonder if that is your James in the 1869 voyage?

[zumaro]

Hi Maddy - that could very well be her. Is the Southern Reporter a South African paper?  Can you provide me with a link?  Her brother John definitely was in Queenstown, South Africa by then - I am guessing circa 1890, as he married that year in Queenstown, and her father apparently dead sometime between 1891 and 1901 (from Mary's censuses). That would narrow his death to between 1891 and 1897.

[Lisa in California]

I have a James Melrose in a slightly different branch of the tree, born in 1847, who arrives in Hartford, Connecticut by 1870.  He would have been an agricultural labourer going over, but somewhere along the line, he and his brother John reinvented themselves as cigar and liquor merchants.  Wonder if that is your James in the 1869 voyage?

It looked like the occupation was Draper.

I look forward to seeing what has been discovered while I sleep.  Night everyone.

[zumaro]

Hi Maddy - that is definitely her. She has mother Mary Middlemass and father John Melrose, master draper, but the wedding certificate says nothing about him being deceased. It does say he is of Peebles however...

[maddys52]

 

The Southern Reporter was published in Selkirk, Scotland. I access via British Library Newspapers through my library card - not sure where you are, your local or national library may have a similar arrangement.

The notice was also published on Thursday,  Dec. 16, 1897 in the Evening Telegraph (Dundee)
"At Bloomfield House, Peebles, on the 15th inst. by the Rev. R. Burgess, Leckie Memorial Church, R. A. Henderson, merchant, Queenstown, South Africa to Jeanie, daughter of the late John Melrose, Peebles."

[zumaro]

Found the newspaper thanks!  And Robert Anderson Henderson was born in Dundee on 30 June 1854, to the same parents as on the marriage certificate.  We are doing very well in filling out Jane Ballantyne Melrose's life. I suspect they went to South Africa however, as I can't find a death record for her in ScotlandsPeople.

[Lisa in California]

It sounds like her parents were not living together (later in life).  Is there a possibility that Jeanie didn’t communicate with her father and she didn’t know of his passing at the time of her marriage?  Could her mother or other family member be the one who supplied the newspapers with the details?

[zumaro]

Could well be the case - I have seen these marriage records be very wrong as well (sometimes purposefully). I note that my great grandfather was probably church organist at their wedding, as a small aside...

[Lisa in California]

Jane Ballantyne Henderson died 12 October 1920, Trenton, NJ.
Wife of Robert Anderson Henderson.
(From Anc*try.)

Added: it appears that she was living in England, so perhaps she was just visiting Trenton at the time of her death.