This week I am returning once again to the amazing Nicol family. The family that is a gift that keeps on giving when it comes to family history research.
First, I have to offer a recap on Peter Nicol Jnr and his life in the Transvaal.
After writing about Peter recently and discovering his connection with Modderfontein and the Nobel factory that was developed there at the end of the 19th Century, I made contact with somebody on Ancestry who also had records of Peter and his connection with South Africa. It turns out that this member is a great grandchild of Peter and he had remained in the country for the rest of his life. If it was not for this member, who has shared a lot of her research with me, and she has more to offer in the future she tells me, then I would not have discovered so much information about the generation of Nicols in South Africa during the 20th Centrury.
Peter Nicol Jnr was a Joiner by trade and then in later documents he was described as a Contractor. His parents and siblings, all connected to the Nobel Dynamite Factory in Stevenston either in person or by marriage, can now be seen as significantly important in the social and industrial history of the world at the end of the 19th Century and the early years of the 20th Century.
Peter married Mary Cambridge in Antrim, Northern Ireland. How he met Mary, and when they married is not known to me, but we (my newfound wife’s second cousin and myself) know that he married Mary. Mary may not have been Irish because on her death certificate it states that she was born in Scotland. Her birth, and their marriage, records have yet to be found. Also, why the marriage was in Antrim is also uncertain.
The Form of Information of a death of Mary Nicol in 1932. She was 52 years old and had been suffering from TB for several years.
My guess is that Peter and Mary took an opportunity that was too good to ignore. The Nobel Dynamite Company was expanding and had already expanded to other parts of the UK and the world. Industry of all sorts was booming and in South Africa mining was a major industry. Dynamite was specifically developed to aid the process of mining. The Nobel company needed the expertise of those who knew what was required to re-create the factory and its necessary buildings and accommodation that had been designed at Stevenston. Peter, the son of one of Nobel’s original employees, a Joiner by trade, and now a Contractor who was being sent out to Modderfontein to help create the new site. It was also here that they started their new family.
Sadly, their first born, died in infancy. A memorial to Wee Pete lies next to his Grandparents in New Street Cemetery in Stevenston. Peter and Mary had two other children, Alfred Hugh and Winifred May.
Winifred Nicol was born in 1913 and she married Betram Joseph Wade. When she married, we don’t know, but their may be some records available in the future. Winifred and Bertram had three children, Peter, Mary and Reginald. Winifred died in 1944, aged 31. I don’t know the circumstances.
Reginald married Carol Helena Austin, who are now both deceased, and they had two children, one of who is the cousin of my wife who has been helping me so far. Some of the documents she has shared with me are fascinating.
We know, for example, that Peter was making separate journeys to and from Scotland, either for business or for family reasons. One voyage was made by Peter in 1922 when he was returning from Stevenston to South Africa. He was passenger number 495 on the list. I wonder how many were on the ship and what the conditions were. He sailed from London direct to South Africa. How long would that journey have been…. perhaps seven days at least.
It is the address that confirms that passenger 495 is our Peter Nicol.
There other passenger lists with the name of P.Nicol and some with Mr and Mrs P Nicol. Some may be related to our Peter Nicol but it is a name that is replicated in other years and places which makes it unclear when trying to confirm that it is our subject.
Another record sent to me relates to Peter and Mary’s son, Alfred Hugh, when he married Agnes Parrish in 1932 which gives us confirmation of his family background. He was 22 years old and was born in Transvaal and was a Joiner, like his father. Agnes was a Waitress in a boarding house. This South African register is interesting in that it does not include columns or questions regarding Peter and Agnes’s parents which are so helpful in British records because it provides the accuracy of research into family history. Another point of interest is the column headed “With or Without antenuptial contract”. In Alfred’s case it is without. What was his was hers and vice versa. I had always considered this to be a recent practice in the realms of the wealthy and famous. In 1932 it is included in this marriage register that has no information about family background.
Alfred’s marriage certificate. His mother died five months later.
There was frequent travel between London, Southampton and Cape Town during the early years that the Nicols were in South Africa. Some journeys were taken by Peter alone or by Mary and her children. No phone calls, no internet, a two week voyage for the weekly mail ships.
Here is the passenger list for the Edinburgh Castle which was sailing from South Africa to Southampton in June 1920 with Mary Nicol and Alfred aged 9 and Winifred aged 6.
Mary, Alfred and Winifred are listed half way down the page, second class passengers on a two week journey to Scotland.
This was not an easy journey … taking the best part of 14 days for the voyage. From Southampton there would have been a train journey to London and another one to Glasgow and yet another one to Ayrshire, if that was their destination. I cannot imagine a more exhausting journey for the Nicol family, with suitcases. The voyage would not have been easy, the family were in a Second-Class cabin. The ship could carry over 800 passengers. I am trying to imagine what life on board would have been for a 9- and 6-year-old. The ship had been requisitioned for war service throughout the First World War. We must remember that Mary and her children also had to travel back the way they came.
The Edinburgh Castle, launched in 1910 and replaced in 1947.
This is a considerable amount of information on one member of the wider Nicol family, and it pieces together, from South African sources some of the jig saw of his life. If only someone had sat down with him and jotted all the missing information, it would have been an interesting story of one man’s contribution to the Nobel dynamite industry and whatever else he went on to do.
However, Peter was not the only member of the Nicol family to live and work in South Africa and I shall be writing about him once I have done some further research.