BLACK, Alexander James

1876 - 1943  (67 years)

• Name	BLACK, Alexander James  [1]
  Born	24 Jun 1876  [1]
  Gender	Male
  Died	21 Dec 1943	Kogarah, New South Wales   [1]
  Buried	New South Wales, Australia   [1]
  Person ID	I21957	My Genealogy
  Last Modified	16 Sep 2023

  
  

  Father	BLACK, James,   b. 20 Jan 1839, Kirkwell Ireland ,   d. 29 Dec 1908, Boulder, Victoria, Australia  (Age 69 years)
  Relationship	natural
  Mother	MCCONNON, Marion,   b. 14 Aug 1843, Hobart, Tasmania, Australia ,   d. 4 May 1913, West Melbourne, Victoria  (Age 69 years)
  Relationship	natural
  Married	Jan 1870	Hokitika, West Coast, New Zealand   [1]
  Family ID	F5906	Group Sheet  |  Family Chart

  
  

  Family	POTTER, Ruth Millicent,   b. 2 Dec 1881, Glengower, Victoria, Australia ,   d. 29 May 1966, Geelong, Victoria, Australia  (Age 84 years)
  Married	Jan 1904	Geelong, Victoria, Australia   [1, 2]
  Children	1. BLACK, Ruth Marion,   b. 25 Nov 1904, Geelong, Victoria, Australia ,   d. 24 Oct 1983, Melbourne, Victoria, Australia  (Age 78 years)  [natural]   2. BLACK, Living  [natural]   3. BLACK, Tui Barbara,   b. 28 Dec 1908, Auckland, New Zealand ,   d. 15 Mar 1975, Perth, Western Australia, Australia  (Age 66 years)  [natural]
  Last Modified	16 Sep 2023
  Family ID	F5907	Group Sheet  |  Family Chart

  
  

• Notes

  Extract from “A Thinking Reed” by Barry Jones NANA BLACK Ruth Millicent Black, my maternal grandmother Nana Black, was my greatest encourager in the family. I adored her. She had been born in Glengower, Victoria, on 25 November 1881, became a pupil-teacher, developed her singing voice (mezzo-soprano) and performed at church concerts and evangelistic campaigns. In one of these she had the great misfortune to meet Alec Black, was swept off her feet and lost her chance for a singing career. He persuaded her to break her engagement to Walter Ramsay McNicoll,* a teacher and musician. Ruth and Alec were married in Geelong in January 1904. She was 22, he was 27.They sailed to New Zealand for the honeymoon and, according to her affidavit in the divorce petition, he committed adultery during the short voyage to Auckland.They then returned to Australia.There were three daughters to the marriage, my mother Ruth Marion (born in Geelong in 1904), Iris Willerton (born in Geelong in 1906) and Tui Barbara (born in Auckland in 1908), named for the New Zealand night bird.They had moved to New Zealand in 1905 but Nana Black returned to Geelong in 1906 with two daughters, determined to end the marriage. Alec pursued her and persuaded her to try again. According to family legend, Alec had a mistress in Auckland who also gave birth to a daughter in or around 1908, and she too was called Tui. Alec must have had a keen interest in ornithology. In 1910 Alec, Ruth and daughters returned to Victoria, then Alec deserted. Divorce was uncommon in that period and it took some time to find Alec and serve the papers, but the decree was granted in 1915. His fate was a mystery, except that in the 1920s he worked for a cement company in Kandos, New South Wales, and had written one letter to his daughter Iris. … In 1944, almost twenty-five years after Alec’s last contact, his sister Vida and her husband Benjamin Orames, Commissioner for the Salvation Army in Canada, came looking for him, without success. After Nana died in 1966, I began checking the New South Wales Births, Deaths and Marriages Register. I found that an Alexander James Black, born in Karamea, New Zealand, in 1876, the son of James and Marion Black, had died in St George’s Hospital, Kogarah, a Sydney suburb, in December 1943. His death certificate listed three marriages, to Sarah Maslen, Iris Macey (the Christian name must have appealed) and Alice Irving. Marriage to my grandmother was not recorded.

  
  

• Sources

  [S320] Ancestry Family Trees, (Name: Online publication - Provo, UT, USA: Ancestry.com. Original data: Family Tree files submitted by Ancestry members.;), Ancestry Family Tree. [S309] Public Member Trees, Ancestry.com, (Name: Name: Ancestry.com Operations, Inc.;;). Record for Ruth Millicent Potter http://search.ancestry.com.au/cgi-bin/sse.dll?db=1030&h=360076710914&indiv=try