Jessie Elizabeth Oldfield/Willison (1857-1905) 

 

If my hunch about ‘Jessie’ being a substitute for ‘Janet’ is right, first born Jessie Elizabeth O (CR), was named after Maria’s paternal grandmother Janet/Jessie and perhaps a maternal relative, Elizabeth Brown, for whom one of Maria’s sisters was named. Four years after her father’s death, on 16 June 1875, 18 year old Jessie married lawyer’s son, Andrew Willison (1832-1907) (CR), aged 43, in Lightcliffe, York. Andrew was a Dundee oil merchant and commission agent from Broughty Ferry and this is where the couple made their home for most of their married life. Jessie died at home, The Laurels, East Newport (a suburb over the Tay from Dundee), of heart disease (nine months) and embolism (10 days). She was just 48 years old.
    Andrew died 19 months after Jessie. According to an obituary and various other newspaper items, Andrew had a “courteous and affable disposition” and had spent part of his younger life in an unspecified part of the Antipodes. He was a staunch Episcopalian, an office bearer in his church and had sung in its choir. He was a keen golfer and a founding member of the Dalhousie Golf Club. In his will is a donation to the Dundee Council of five paintings by his granduncle, George Willison, a renowned Scottish artist. The gift was to be known as the Willison Bequest. While he originally left his estate to be shared equally among his children, subsequent alterations seemed to limit the bequests to £200 each (except for Annie who was left £150, and £50 to her, at the time, only child, Frank). Later, he reduced the original bequests for James Carnegie W and John W to £100 each. Jessie and Andrew had seven children, most of whom emigrated to North America, leaving only eldest son, John, to carry on their Willison name in Dundee.

Marion W (1876-1952) was a nurse who had earned promotion to matron by the time she migrated in 1920, aged around 45. She arrived

in Seattle in September, en route to Canada. She was living in Victoria City, British Colombia in 1921 when her occupation on the census was ‘nurse’ then ‘retired’. An immigration record from 1923 noted she was a woman of private means “now engaged in charitable work” when she arrived in Washington in August. The immigration papers also record that she was five feet, eleven and a half inches tall, with brown hair and blue eyes. She named her niece, Annie, as her closest contact in Canada. From other ancestry.com hints, she remained single all her life, dying in North Vancouver aged 76 although a cemetery search of British Colombia finds no record of her death there. I can find no records for her at all, post-1923. She may have had a chronic ill-health condition because, in his will, her father stipulated that any monies he spent on hospital, nursing home or treatment costs should be deducted from her £200. Or perhaps this was because, being an independent woman, Marion’s father foresaw there being no husband to cover such costs.
 

John W (1877-1952) was the only one of the Willison siblings to stay in Dundee where he was a jute and oil merchant and commission

agent, as was his father before him. Following the Scottish (albeit not Anderson) tradition of transferring immovable property (e.g., real estate, business) to the eldest son, he inherited the family business when his father died. Further, it may be he who was the John Willison, jute and oil merchant and insurance broker, who dissolved a partnership managing Willison Forbes & Co in 1921 to continue as just Willison & Co. What we do know is that he married Williamina Marshall Wallace in Dundee in 1905.
    John seems to have had a love of cars because he volunteered to take his to France in 1914 to join the Army Service Corps and act as a driver in WWI in both France and Macedonia. In 1921, he was sued for an outstanding £125 by the Dalton Motor Company over three cars he bought from them then returned for a variety of reasons mainly to do with the company’s misrepresentation of the year of manufacture and mechanical faults. Or that his wife didn’t like it (a Sunbeam) and it wasn’t fast enough. The decision went against John; the Sheriff thought “the defender was a little apt to take somewhat exaggerated views” as evidenced by John’s counter-claim (for a self-estimated £157/10/- loss on the various deals) that was thrown out of court. That same year he was again in the court this time objecting to a Communist conscientious objector being on the Dundee Voters’ Roll. This time the court found in his favour and the man’s name was deleted.
    The inventory of John’s will totalled £12,479 when he died in 1952. His obituary says he was “an ardent Conservative who took a prominent part in the administration of Dundee Unionist Association”, earning over 100 hits between 1920-50 in Dundee newspaper archives for his Unionist office-bearing activities. The couple had four children.

John Norman W (1906-07) died of broncho-pneumonia/cardiac failure just after his first birthday.
Williamina Winifred W (1908- ). Typist Williamina married married insurance inspector, Malcolm McKenzie (1902- ) in 1932,

brother James witnessed the marriage. ancestry.com hints she (i) had two children, one named Ian who was born in 1954 which seems a long time after her marriage, and (ii) died in Dundee in 1996 although ScotlandsPeople has no record of this.

James Albert Edward W (1910-89). There are records of a James AE Willison arriving in 1929 to farm in Canada, arriving

back in Liverpool in 1932 and in London from Gibraltar in 1936. There are also records of a James Willison, farmer of Moose Jaw, Saskatchewan but these are countered by actual records of our James’ death in Dundee in 1989 and a 1954 newspaper report of his marriage to Hilda Cook (1915-85) at the Royal British Hotel, Dundee, not to mention being at his sister's wedding in 1932 although, I suppose, it could have been he arriving back for the nuptials. JAE Willison served in the British army (with the Royal Engineers) during the 1930s, returning to active duty when WWII hostilities began. The Dundee Courier (and military records on ancestry.com) report he was taken prisoner of war in Poland in 1940.

Cyril Andrew W (1914-15) died a fortnight before his first birthday after suffering three weeks of whooping cough then

broncho-pneumonia.

Annie W (1879-1939) may have been the girl of that name whose scholastic achievements were reported in the Dundee Courier

in the early 1890s. Our Annie, aged a youthful 19, married William Stewart Sandeman (WSS), jute manufacturer and assistant manager (possibly in his father’s business), in November 1898, the same month WSS's father died. I have great admiration for Annie. 1907 was either her annus horribilis or the making of her. Pregnant with her daughter, she divorced WSS at the beginning of February after he had decamped to the USA. (WSS had arrived in New York in October 1906 with Ethel Davies Wears (1874-1945) and her daughter, Gwynneth, whose father was solicitor Thomas Martin Wears (1861- ). WSS and Ethel had a daughter, Stella (1908-91). According to his 1946 voter registration, he was a Republican.) Annie’s father, Andrew, died towards the end of February. Her daughter was born in mid-April 1907, the birth attended by her aunt Marion. Annie and her three children (aged eight and three years, and 5 months) arrived in Quebec in September on the SS Corinthian.
    The 1910 US census finds Annie the head of a household in Tacoma, a port city in Peirce County, Washington. As well as her children, included in her household were brothers James, George, Louis and Andrew. Annie remarried in 1916, to Robert Wingrove Lee (1884-1978) who was born in British Columbia and that is where Annie died in March 1939, in North Vancouver. Annie seems to have been a woman of intelligence, determination and courage. She had three children.

Frank SS (1899-1961) was a truck driver in the 1920s but by 1930 had joined the Long Beach Fire Department. On retirement,

he was the Fire Chief. His draft record in 1942 reports he had a ruddy complexion, blue eyes, brown hair and stood 6’2” tall. His first marriage was in North Vancouver in 1922 to Lillian Johanna Olson (1896-1996), a circumstance that meant US-born Lillian had to reapply for the US citizenship she had forfeited when she married in Canada. Frank applied for US citizenship in 1924. The couple had two children before their divorce. Frank married Lillian Alta Mae Mills (1903-98) in 1938.

Douglas SS (1923- ). According to his draft information, Douglas was physically a chip off the old block albeit one inch

taller. Things were looking a bit grim for Douglas, his mother and sister in 1940. That year’s US census reports they were “roomers” (boarders). It looks as though he was supporting his mother and sister because he was the only one of the three with an occupation, he was a carrier for a newspaper. In 1946, he married Margaret (Peggy) Louise Winn, at least I think this was the name of his bride. ancestry.com offers records for Peggy L Sandeman, and this was the name beside Douglas’s in the US Directories but it reverts to Margaret in the Voter Lists. Douglas had also been a fireman in the 1950s but his occupation was engineer in the 1960s. In 1970, he is alone then in 1982 he married Deanna W Veitia (1946- ). The final record offered is him living alone again in 2001-02, in San Diego, California.

Eleanor Gertrude SS (1925- ). All I have found for Eleanor is that she married Robert D Sanders, a Chevrolet salesman,

in 1944. The couple divorced in 1970.

Stanley Gordon SS (1904-1968) was a clerk when he moved to the US from Canada in 1927. When he petitioned for US

citizenship in March 1932, he was assistant manager at a refrigeration company; his naturalisation was formalised in 1933. He and saleswoman Kathrine (Kay) Reid (1905-51) married in 1930. The Stewart Sandeman boys kept getting taller, Gordon was 6’4” when he registered for the draft in 1942. At demob, he was a Lieutenant in the US Navy. Gordon married Eunice Martin Stout (1914-2000) in 1962. He was a registered Democrat voter but, curiously, I have found no voter or directory record for him post-WWII.

Nance Vera SS (1907- ). Other than several travel records, I have found no more information about Nance Vera SS than in 1937

she was a stenographer/typist.

James Carnegie W (1880-1937) arrived in Quebec in 1908, his nominated destination Tacoma. His occupation was ‘clerk’. According to his

naturalisation application, he was 6’3” with dark brown hair and grey eyes. He became a naturalised citizen in 1916. In 1913, he married Nina Rosalie Ashmann (ca1888- ) and the 1915 City Directory has them in Seattle where James was clerking at shipping merchants Balfour, Guthrie & Co. By 1930, James was a self-employed insurance agent. He died seven years later, aged 56. It looks as though Nina continued James’ client list after he died because her occupation in 1940 was insurance agent. I have found no record of children.

 

George Murray W (1882-1954) emigrated in 1902 and was a stenographer at Balfour, Guthrie & Co in 1903, making him possibly the

Willison family advance guard to the United States. By 1912 George had married Emily Durs Holz (1878-1940) who already had a son. The Directories do not give George’s occupation before retirement but a passport application in 1924 has him living in Vancouver, a US citizen, whose occupation was Manager, American Trading Co. Emily died in 1940 and George was living alone when he died 14 years later, aged 72 in Pierce County, Washington. George and Emily were parents of a daughter.

Margaret M W (1917-94): It looks as though the “M” was “Murray”. Margaret married John Fowler Kirner (1904-2007) in

1937.
Donald Murray Kirner (1942-93) married twice before dying comparatively young of a heart attack, aged 51. He had

married Deborah A McLarren with whom he had a daughter, Sharon.
 

Louis Bain W (1884-1970): while his name suggests it commemorates a relative, I have found no Louis Bain in Scottish records.

Louis first crossed into the US from Canada, heading for Tacoma, in 1905. It looks as though he may have been a seaman prior to his marriage to Mabel Inez Nolan (1889-1952) sometime in the 1910s because there are several travel records including a Louis B Willison, 4th engineer on the Craighall, arriving in Sydney in 1908. In Tacoma, he was a machinist at Todd Drydock & Construction, a shipworker (1920) and later a watchman then an electrical engineer. In 1935, his occupation was chief engineer at the Department of Public Utilities. After Mabel’s death, Louis married a second time, aged 74 in 1958, to 67-year-old Florence Ferris (1891-1970) who had been widowed twice before. Louis and Mabel had two children.

Virginia Nell W (1917-2002) was a clerk before she married George W Thorpe in 1940. The only other information I have is

that she married a second time, to James T Ericksen (1911-2004), in 1986. Surprisingly, or perhaps not, US records are not as freely available as other countries. Very few seem to have been digitised so that clicking through a trail to confirm I’m on the right one has not been possible. As well, documentation such as marriage records do not carry as much information as those of other countries so that not even the ages of the couple are recorded, never mind details about parents, country of birth, occupation, etc.

Robert (Bob) Louis W (1919-78) was a mill worker in 1939 and married Eleanor W Stillwell (1920- ) in 1940. He was a private in

the US Navy Wing Service Squadron Four but while there are copious war records they tell us no more than this. He may have been in the Lions because a Robert L Willison was president of the Hyndman-Londonderry (Maryland) branch in 1972 but, given he otherwise seems to have spent his life in Washington state, it is unlikely. I have found no mention of children. He died in Snohomish, Washington.

Andrew W (1888-1966) arrived in New York in 1907. He, too, was a clerk, and at the time of the 1910 census was a bookkeeper

at the Tacoma branch of the Bank of California. Between publication of the 1914 and 1915 Directories, he married Olive Sargent Derrickson (1889-1958) and, by the time of the 1930 census, they were parents of four daughters and a son. Whether he knew of the link to his great-grandfather David, Andrew also was a banker. He and Olive were living in Petaluma, California, by the 1950s and this was where Andrew died in May 1966. Olive had died in Vincenza, Italy, while on holiday.

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Helen Marion Willison/Baker (1916-2001). In 1936, Helen was a cashier, in 1939 a clerk at what looks like the Karlen-Davis

Library. That same year, she married Arthur Winton Baker (1915-98) who in later years was in real estate. He may have used his second name, in 1977 his entry in the Petaluma city directory was A Winton Baker. I have found no record of their having had children.

Jessie Olive Willison/Swift (1918-91) was a stenographer before her marriage to Kenneth Anderson Swift (1912-2004) in

1944. The couple had four children, the only one named in ancestry.com is Norman (1953-54) who died in infancy. None of the links offered information about Kenneth’s occupation.

Betty Jean W/Garrison/Lewandowski (1920- ). An obituary for her sister, Louisa, refers to Betty and brother-in-law Wally

Lewandowski of Sun City, Arizona where there are phone directory records for Walter J and Betty Lewandowski. Then I noticed in her mother’s death report that she had been Mrs Betty Garrison in 1958 and found marriage records for a Betty Jean Willison and Lloyd Norman Garrison (1917-2007). The couple divorced, he remarried in the 1970s.

Louisa May Willison/Blackwell (1925-2006). Louisa’s husband was William Henry Blackwell (ca1922 - ), about whom I know

no more. From Louisa’s obituary “Mrs Blackwell was loved by all who knew her. She was a world traveler, serving her country for 33 years with the Department of State”. Her parents had been visiting Louisa in Vicenza, Italy, when her mother died, presumably Louisa was on a posting at the time. Her obituary goes on to list her descendants. Other than her children, she had four grandchildren and two great-grandchildren.
Ronald S B (1953- ). I have found nothing about Ronald S B. Several men of this name are in the US marriage records

but there are no identifying details to guess whether one might be ours. In Louisa’s obituary, Ronald is mentioned without reference to a spouse.

Brenda L B (1956- ) married Danny F Webb (1955- ) and that is the sum total of my knowledge about the couple.
Donna Susan B (1959- ) married Timothy (Tim) Wray, ditto.  


Andrew Willison VI (1931-83) served with the US navy in the Korean war. He married Helen Elizabeth Simrell ( -1999) in

1958, the couple divorced in 1969. ancestry.com hints they had two children. In 1978, his occupation was an engineer technician for the Santa Rosa, Ca., council. His US Veterans’ gravestone is in the San Francisco National cemetery.
 

Marion Vida Oldfield/Stone (1858-1935)

 

 

Marion (CR) married William Gregrach (Loch) Stone in Leeds in April 1886. Loch was an accountant at their marriage, an engineer on Marion’s death registration in 1935, and an accountant on their daughter’s (Bessie) death certificate in 1968. Marion and Loch had twin daughters in August 1888. In records thereafter, she is widowed. I assumed that Loch had died - he may have done - but at that time ‘widow’ was used by women whose marriages had ended. Marion’s niece, Annie Willison, had titled herself ‘widow’ after her divorce until remarrying. With this in mind, I have kept a record of a Mr LG Stone, a married man travelling alone, on the City of New York arriving in New York on 7 May 1891 although there is absolutely nothing to say this is our Loch Stone, or that, if it is our Loch Stone, that the couple had separated. However, to muddy the waters, he may have been going ‘home’ because a William Gregrach Stone (how many people of that name could there be?) had applied for US citizenship in Montana in October 1884, vowing to renounce his UK citizenship. As always with US records, there is no information about the applicant’s age, place of birth, or other vital details.
    Marion and her daughters were living with her mother, Maria, in Louisa Terrace in 1901 before her address was Grove Road, Broughty Ferry, in 1911. (It could well be the same house because her daughter’s testimony gives her address as Louisa Terrace, Grove Road.) She was still there when she died, over two decades later. She had remained a widow and was a woman of independent means her whole life, as were her daughters. The Dundee Courier reported her estate, at probate, to be £1,428/16/3. Josephine and I found her name on the family headstone in Barnhill Cemetery. Her epitaph, under that of her mother, reads “ and their daughter Marion Oldfield/Died 8th November 1935/wife of the late William Stone/Interred at Buenos Ayres”, so clearing up the loose end of his final whereabouts if not his absence from the official record after the birth of his daughters.

 

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