Hi Hazel
Just worked out how to do it!
I hope you received my previous reply. I am not sure if I am responding correctly! New to all this but very happy to tell what I have been told.
My great grandmother, Emma Symes, lived in Chudleigh, Devon. She worked, at some stage, at a hospital, we thought as a laundry maid but more recent evidence suggests as a nurse. She met a young man, a doctor, Dr Mackenzie, and fell pregnant. As the story goes, someone from his family, someone who held high office in the church in Inverness, travelled to Devon to tell Emma and her parents that there could, of course, be no marriage but that they would pay thirty shillings a year and provide a winter coat until the child was 13 years of age. The Symes family were farm labourers at Uggbrook House in Chudleigh.
Emma named the baby Ernest. She went away to work and the child was brought up by his grandparents. Emma subsequently married, John Melhuish. Ernest Symes, stayed with his grandparents but knew his mother. The father was not named on the birth certificate. Emma did not sign the certificate but an x was in the signature spot. We thought this was because she could not write but contact with the Melhuish family indicates she was able to write but they felt it was her way of protesting. They felt that it was a condition of her receiving the stipend that she not disclose the father's name and the x was her way of refusing to lie about the child's father identity.
I thought she may have named the boy Ernest after his father - as this was a strong custom in the family. I searched for Ernest Mackenzie in medical records and found several references. I am in New York at the moment so haven't got all the info in front of me, but one reference mentioned Ernest attending the funeral of his uncle, who was lord Provost (or something like that!) of the church in Inverness. This seemed a strange coincidence.
This is when I put the note on Wikitree hoping that there may be someone who may know more and could give me any confirming information, perhaps in the way of a family story that there had been an illegitimate child spoken of, if not acknowledged.
Margaret Critchlow responded and explained her family story and, although we both felt that it was intriguing, we could not see any way of conclusively linking the stories and confirming Ernest Mackenzie as the man who sired my grandfather.
If you are able to see any way of linking all this I would be thrilled! But, I have a feeling that this mystery may never solved.
If I do not reply to emails it will be because I am unable to do so and may have to wait until Oct 30th when I am home again.
I look forward the hearing from you. If you are prepared to give me your email address I would be more confident of you receiving my emails rather than go through a third party as this seems to be doing.
Best wishes
Val Hawks
Sent from my iPad
On 3 Oct 2015, at 4:01 pm, WikiTree G2G <noreply@wikitree.com> wrote:
Symes-108,
A new comment by anonymous has been added after your comment on WikiTree G2G:
Hi Valerie. Do you think it's one and the same Ernest Mackenzie who appears in your oral history too? I'd be really interested to hear more of your family story in connection with him if you're willing to share.
kind regards
Hazel
The discussion is following:
Hi, Oral history in my extended family suggests that Dr Mackenzie fathered an illegitimate son when he was in his mid 20s. Does this have any link to your family story?
You may respond by adding another comment:
http://www.wikitree.com/g2g/28928/are-there-any-relatives-ernest-mackenzie-cheadle-dob-23-1862?show=184361#c184361
Thank you,
WikiTree G2G
