Mary Lindsay Ellis

My Granny, Mary Lindsay Ellis, was my Dad, George Reid Ellis’s Mum. She died of [peritonitis-6days], 10 days after Dad was born, in 1904. She was only 32.

Consequently, Dad’s, female siblings, Mary and Merrin, looked after this new baby, causing him, to be, generally pampered, according to GFE’s, Maw, Eliza Ellis, ms Forrest.

GFE, was lucky that his Maw, migrated to Sydney, where arrived at Circular Quay [Opera House side], Sydney Harbour, AUS 19 Dec 1971, on the MV Australis via Los Palmas and Capetown [due to Suez being closed].

By this time, we Ellis’s, my wife, Eleanor, our two daughters, Lisa Maree, and Dianne Lynn, and myself were settled in 21 Queen St., Beaconsfield.

Maw arriving, courtesy of our great Labor leader, Gough Whitlam’s, ‘Family Reunion’, policy, which recognised that migrants were returning to their birthplace countries, mainly due to lack of ‘family cohesion’, caused by homesickness, for family.

Maw came out on that FAMILY REUNION foundation, after my Dad, George Reid Ellis died.

Maw absolutely blossomed because of her freedom from old ties that tended to bind people from escaping the ‘drudgery’ of being reminded of all that led up to the massive change in circumstances like death.  

She was not known in Sydney and could tell her stories of life in Scotland, to suit her needs, missing out, or telling all of the petty nonsense of having to ‘regurgitate’ the many years of sickness of her husband due to his smoking and drinking, like most families endured due to social, religious and stickybeaking customs.

Australia was like a breath of fresh air to Maw. BUT, what helped most of all was the love and kindness of our small family unit in Sydney. My wife, Eleanor, and our two lovely daughters, Lisa Maree and Dianne Lynn, who, like most migrants and their Aussie wains, could break new ground in establishing their ‘story’, unembellished by old ties to the old country.

Maw was, like many migrants, the recipient of starting afresh, where nobody knew anything about you, only what you wanted known. 

Consequently, she became enamored with being an ‘International Jetsetter’. Saving her pensions, Scottish and Australian, and later her housekeeping ‘pay’ for looking after the house, at Wangi Wangi, of two retired religious men, allowed Maw to have that degree of freedom, never before enjoyed prior to and after marriage to my Dad, George Reid Ellis, and their four children, Billy, myself, John and oor wee sister, Eliza Linda Forrest Ellis.

I asked Maw some years after she had been here in Australia with us, why did you give oor sister, Linda, such a long name? ‘Because I liked it.’

The truth was that simple. The Scottish naming custom was that you named the first-born boy after that father’s father [i.e., William], which, lucky enough was the first name of both the father’s father but also Maw’s father. So, my elder brother was named William

Then the next brother, me George Forrest Ellis, covered the father, using ‘George’ and ‘Forrest’ also gave Maw’s dad’s surname. A bonus indeed!

Then our youngest brother, John then covered Dad’s elder brother, ‘John’. Or, so Mum and Dad thought. However dad’s brother was not happy, when he asked my dad  ‘What did you call the Wain, Geordie.' Dad said we called him after you John. Uncle John’s retort was simple. ‘Yeve no called him efter me; ‘John Kerr Ellis’.

Dad just had forgotten the ‘Kerr’ part. According to Maw, dad had to pay an extra pound of 10 shillings to get the name changed at the Bonnybridge registry. However, on GFE’s many visit’s to Edinburgh’s Scottish Register House when researching the family history, there is no JOHN ‘KERR’ ELLIS, on the official register. Only John Ellis. The thinking is that the Bonnybridge Registrar pocketed the money and signed out a new birth certificate, but did not addend that correction on the Bonnybridge registers.

That’s the only plausible reason that one can draw.

Maw, in her gentle manner was highly dubious of the ‘official’ change when I told her that it was not on the official Bonnybridge books now residing in Edinburgh.

Drama indeed??

The official death record of Mary Lindsay Ellis[GFE’S GRANNY ON THE ELLIS SIDE]

1904 ELLIS, MARY LINDSAY [STATUATORY REGISTERS DEATHS 663/1 22] PAGE 8 OF 46 CROWN COPYRIGHT. NATIONAL RECORDS OF SCOTLAND-IMAGE GENERATED AT 19JUNE 2018 15:18

1904-DEATHS IN THE PARISH OF BO’NESS IN THE COUNTY OF LINLITHGOW

NO. 22-MARY LINDSAY ELLIS-ILLEGITIMATE – MARRIED TO WILLIAM ARNOT ELLIS-PLUMBER

WHENAND EHERE  DIED-1904-FEBRUARY TWENTYFIRST-5HR 15 MIN. PM-STEWART AVENUE BO’NESS

SEX-F

AGE -22YEARS

NAME-SURNAME & RANK OR PROFESSION OF FATHER-

NIL ENTRY

NAME-AND MAIDEN SURNAME OF MOTHER-

MARGARET DUNS REID –DOMESTIC SERVANT.

CAUSE OF DEATH, DURATION OF DISEASE, AND MEDICAL ATTENDANT BY WHOM CERTIFIED

SIGNATURE AND QUALIFICTAION OF INFORMANT, AND RESIDENCE, IF OUT OF THE HOUSE WHICH THE DEATH OCCURRED-WILLIAM ELLIS-WIDOWER-PRESENT

WHEN AND WHERE REGISTERED AND SIGNATURE OF RIGISTRAR-1904-FEBRAURY 22^ND AT BO’NESS-JAMES DODDS-REGISTRAR