4 Moreland Kids – Three Continents Acquire US

I typically check with the 4 Moreland youngsters (Jemima, Catherine, John and Mary Jane) as “orphans” however that’s not totally true.

The kids’s mom, (my 2nd nice grandmother) Agnes Bell (Hind) Moreland died at thirty-three years-of-age in 1888 in Springburn, Glasgow, Scotland. The kids’s father Charles Moreland was a steam ship fireman crusing between England and Australia and away on the time of his spouse’s loss of life. Agnes’ aunt Mary (Bell) Weir (1825-1893) was the informant on their mom’s loss of life registration and took cost of the youngsters within the father’s absence.

Grandaunt Mary (Bell) Weir (1825-1893) would additionally finally determine the fates of the 4 youngsters Jemima (11 years), Catherine “Kate” (9 years), John (7 years) and Mary Jane (5 years) and by 1914, these youngsters can be situated on three continents: North America (Canada), Europe (Scotland) and Australia.

What follows is their story of separation, reunion and plenty of unknowns.

Mary (Bell) Weir (1825-1893)

In telling the story of the Moreland youngsters, the story of Agnes (Hind) Moreland’s aunt Mary (Bell) Weir is on the centre and we learn about her actions with the youngsters instantly following Agnes’ loss of life in 1888 as a result of she despatched Jemima Gray Hind to The Quarriers home in Scotland.

 The Quarriers of Scotland

In the weeks following Agnes Bell (Hind) Moreland’s death in 1888, her two children (John and Mary) were sent to Smithston Poorhouse and Asylum, her daughter Catherine (known as Kate) was put to work as a domestic servant, and her daughter Jemima was sent to The Orphan Homes of Scotland (The Quarriers) and eventually sent to Canada.

Jemima Grey Hind

In 2018, I wrote to The Quarriers hoping to be taught extra about Jemima Grey Hind and what I discovered was that Grand aunt Mary (Bell) Weir confronted some tough choices about her nieces youngsters.

Twenty-four 12 months outdated kitchenmaid Agnes Bell Hind was single when she gave start to Jemima Grey Hind on the twenty third of June 1876 (Agnes married Charles Moreland in 1877 and it has been speculated that Charles may very well be the daddy however was at sea not realizing of the being pregnant and married Agnes when he returned to Glasgow in February 1877).

The start certificates within the Quarrier file reveals Jemima because the illegitimate daughter of Agnes Bell Hind.

Delivery Registration: Jemima Grey Hind; Illegitimate; 23 June 1876, Stanley Place, Millstreet, Dunoon, Scotland

The kids at Quarriers, Scotland

The following web page (193) in Jemima’s Quarrier file provides a succinct abstract of what occurred to Jemima between February 1888 and Might 30 1889:

1888: Jemima Grey Hind:  11 years previous 23 June, born at Stanley Place, Mill St., Dunoon. She is illegitimate. It’s thought she has not had measles

Mom, Agnes Bell Hind, died at 10 Downs St., Springburn of coronary heart illness on third Jan.

Mrs Weir, grand aunt to Jemima, resides at 20 Colgrain St., Springburn. She introduced up the mom however can not hold the kid now.

Got here to Nittingshill … (Bridge of Weir) 18th February 1888 and positioned in No. 17 Cottage (“Allan and Dick House”)

Might 30 1889: Jemima has been despatched to Canada.

Quarrier File: Jemima Grey Hind: Web page 193

Two key factors 

1. Inside fifteen months of her mom’s loss of life, Jemima was taken away from her brother and sisters and was positioned on a ship to Canada. This should have been very traumatic for an 11 year-old lady. There may be completely no point out of the opposite youngsters Catherine, John and Mary Jane within the Quarrier file on the time.
2. Grand aunt Mary (Bell) Weir had apparently raised Jemima’s mom, “She introduced up the mom however can not hold the kid now.” When Agnes married Charles in 1877, each of her dad and mom (Jeweller Joseph Robert Hind and Agnes Bell) have been useless. They should have died when Agnes was very younger.

Extra particulars have been provided on Web page 93 of Jemima’s Quarrier File:

“Mrs. Weir who appears a good Christian lady is getting up in years and is anxious some everlasting place ought to be received for Jemima who has not been very effectively cared for. She signed papers at dwelling. Mr Fleming 171 Hospital St SS advisable Miss Weir to come back right here which she did however didn’t convey Jemima as she will not be very robust. She sends Alex Miller 16 Craigen Ter., Springburn along with her now. Jemima guarantees to do effectively. She is on the third Normal.”

Quarrier File: Jemima Grey Hind: Web page 193

Two key factors 

1. Jemima doesn’t appear to be wholesome “she will not be very robust.:
2. Son-in-law  Alex Miller (1856-1901) is now a part of the actions relating to Agnes’ youngsters. The identify “Miller” was given to our nice grandfather John Miller Moreland 1882-1940 (and our Uncle “Bud” Frederick Miller Creighton.1931-2007)
   

The remainder of Jemima Grey Hind’s story entails a ship (the S.S. Siberian) to Canada in Might 30 1889 and might be present in my 2018 weblog submit “John Moreland’s Sister Jemima Hind: Was She Despatched To Canada? “. 

The story of the remaining three Moreland youngsters, “Kate”, John and Mary Jane, and the way they ended up dwelling their lives on three completely different continents follows.

One factor that stands out within the following tales is that these 4 youngsters didn’t know something about their mom. That is evident when the ladies report on their marriage data that their mom’s maiden identify was “Weir” and never “Hind”. A chunk of their very personal Hind household historical past was misplaced with the loss of life of their mom.

One other factor that stands out within the following tales is that regardless of their sudden separation at a such a younger age, these three youngsters remained shut and in contact. When John Miller Moreland enlisted within the Royal Garrison Artillery (R.G.A.) in 1901, he named his subsequent of kin as “Sisters, Mary and Kate, 110 Richard St. Anderston, Scotland”

 Catherine “Kate” Moreland

Catherine, often known as “Kate” was born on the twenty eighth of Jan 1878  in Springburn, Glasgow, Lanarkshire, Scotland. She was the primary of the 4 Moreland youngsters to marry. 

She was 18 years outdated working at a Paper Store when she married a steamship fireman (like her father Charles Moreland) named Alexander Freeman (1871-1919) on the twenty seventh of October 1896. (Be aware the naming of her deceased mom as Agnes Weir on her marriage document)

Moreland – Freeman Marriage: 27 Oct 1896; Anderston, Glasgow, Scotland

Alexander and Kate had one little one, a daughter Agnes (1898-1961) who married James Patrick Rankin in Glasgow in 1919.

Following Alexander’s loss of life in 1919, Kate married once more on the thirty first of December 1920) a John Gentles (1890-1943) who was a bachelor quay employee (eight years youthful than her) and what I discover attention-grabbing is that she lists her mom as “Weir” once more and in addition that she data her father Charles Moreland “seaman (deceased)”. Charles lived to 1930 in Melbourne, Australia.

Moreland – Gentles Marriage: 31 Dec 1920, Anderston, Glasgow, Scotland

Kate (Moreland) Gentles died on the 14th of January 1927in Glasgow, Scotland. On her loss of life certificates, her father Charles Moreland is listed a “Marine Fireman” not deceased and her mom is listed once more as a “Weir”.

Kate died from persistent myocarditis and cerebral thrombosis on the younger age of forty-eight years.

 John and Mary Jane Moreland

John and Mary Jane have been the 2 youngest youngsters when their mom died in 1888 and maybe that’s the reason they have been stored collectively.

Though all of John Miller Moreland’s army data point out that he was born on the sixth of October 1882, he seems on the 1881 census together with his mom and sisters  Jemima and Catherine and is 11 months outdated making his start 12 months 1880.

On the 1891 census, John (9) and his sister Mary (7) are “inmates” on the Smithston Poorhouse and Asylum. The constructing was additionally regionally often known as “The Palace of Inverkip”- so fashionable have been the services it offered for the time.

The constructing was demolished in 2017, nevertheless, there may be drone footage of the way it appeared in its last days under.

On the 1901 census, John Moreland had enlisted with the Militia after which the Royal Garrison Artillery (RGA). I’ve written extensively about my nice grandfather John Miller Moreland from 1901 to his loss of life in Kingston, Ontario in 1940.

 Mary Jane Moreland 1882-1948

The Mary Jane Moreland story is the final to inform and the story that I’m most enthusiastic about as a result of I’ve discovered a lot about this department of the Moreland household tree this previous week. 

Ancestry DNA has linked me to a third cousin in Australia who’s descended from Mary Jane Moreland and Mary’s grandson, the 90 year-old father of my DNA match, although blind, has a razor-sharp reminiscence and he believes that my thriller picture of “guests from Australia” is most definitely Mary Jane (Moreland) Hamlin and her daughter (his “Aunt Peg” who would have been married in 1940 however had no youngsters.) (Names withheld for privateness causes)

From left to proper: “Aunt Peg” (1904-1985), unknown man, Dorothy (Moreland) Creighton (1909-2000) holding Ken Creighton (1940-1992) and Mary Jane (Moreland) Hamlin (1882-1948) and two younger ladies (L to R) Claire Creighton (1930-1995) and Barbara Creighton (1933-2021) Picture taken in Tuft’s Cove, Nova Scotia, Canada circa 1940

I’ve additionally benefited this previous week from the in depth analysis achieved in Australia by Marion and generously shared with me over the previous few days. The story that follows is feasible solely due to these two girls and I’m so very grateful. (Full identify withheld for privateness causes)
 

By 1901, Mary and her brother John had left the Smithston Poorhouse and Asylum. John had enlisted with the militia (and later the R.G.A.) and Catherine was married to Alexander Freeman (working as a Tailor’s Machinist) and dwelling 110 Richard St. Anderston, Scotland with Mary.

In 1904, Mary Jane (23) married William Stenhouse (28) in Lochgilphead, Argyll, Scotland. Mary and William have been each working as attendants on the Lochgilphead Asylum. The wedding document reveals that Mary was previously a nurse and William previously a fuel stoker.

William was the son of Edinburgh Police Constable John Grey Stenhou Lochgilphead, Argyll, Scotlanse. (On the 1901 Census, William Stenhouse was additionally a Police Constable in Edinburgh)

Moreland-Stenhouse Marriage: 1904, Lochgilphead, Argyll, Scotland

Mary Jane Moreland and William Stenhouse have been married a second time in 1905 in Edinburgh maybe for the good thing about Williams Stenhouse household. William’s occupation is now said as a “cooper” and Mary Jane once more data her mom’s maiden identify as “Weir” and lists her father Charles Moreland as a “Marine Engineer”

Stenhouse-Moreland Marriage: 1905: Edinburgh, Scotland

In 1911, William and Mary Jane had settled in Edinburgh and had three daughters: Margaret (b. 1904), Mary (b. 1906) and Agnes (b. 1910)

1911 Census: Edinburgh, Scotland: Stenhouse Household

By 1914, the Stenhouse household had determined to immigrate to Australia for causes unknown. The Stenhouse household boarded the ship Orama on the dock of London on the twenty second of Might 1914.

R.M.S. Orama

R.M.S. Orama 1914 Passenger Checklist

William Stenhouse died at forty-five years-of-age in 1921. The burial was introduced within the newspaper  The Courier Mail (Sat Feb 5 1921 P 4)

“STENHOUSE. — BRISBANE QUEENSLAND ROYAL ARCH CHAPTER, No. 127, S.C.—The Principals,Officers, and Companions of the above Chapter are invited to attend the Funeral of their deceased Companion, William Stenhouse, to depart the Caboolture Railway Station ….”

I wish to imagine that when grand aunt Agnes (Bell) Weirs youngsters and grandchildren, the Millers, emigrated to Toronto in 1910, Jemima’s cousin Mary (Bain Weir) Miller (b 1851 Glasgow, Scotland) wrote to the Quarriers in 1914 to inquire.

Mary (Bain Weir) Miller pictured in Toronto.  Picture from the Weir-Dade Assortment ( used right here with permission)

In July 2021, I made a decision to go to the Fairknowe House in Brockville, Ontario. It has been transformed to flats and the historical past of the house is famous on a plaque on the entrance garden.

 It’s the final identified residence for Jemima Grey Hind. (Video hyperlink: )

Three of Agnes (Bell Hind) Moreland’s 4 youngsters have been discovered.  There may be simply Jemima nonetheless lacking. We cannot cease wanting till we discover her.

Some Moreland Hyperlinks

 Some Scotland Hyperlinks