Hello to all readers of this Balmer entry.
Could any of your Balmers be connected to these people?
I am seeking the place where my GGrandmother Mary Jane Balmer may have been born as the information we are left from her may/may not be correct. Whether it was she or her Irish born daughter one was not telling the truth!!
I have searched on the Free BMD of England and so far not really been satisfied with possiblilites of Balmer or Ramsay/Ramsey for Mary being born or married there. Our Canadian Cousin infers that Ramsay was Mary Janes Maiden name.
Mary Jane Balmer was either the daughter of a Samuel BALMER or the wife of person of the same name.
Mary Jane may have come from Rathfriland. On the shipping list she was recorded as having originated from 'Down'
In NZ she was strict Presbyterian all of her life
Mary Jane had a daughter born to her in Ireland named Jane Estelle Balmer. This name fits with the name we have of MJ's mother's name of Ester Jane McBride. (I am unsure if that surname is correct as my reference notes are from my Aunt who was only 10yrs old when her Granny MJ died)
Jane Estelle Balmer (b13th Mar 1857 rec'd Antrim, Belfast) came to NZ in 1878 having been recorded as a Millworker from Down. A younger cousin in Canada says that on the 1921 Census of Canada that Jane recorded that MJ said she was married in England. This info was new to us here in NZ. Other information was from the Marriage Certificate of Jane Estelle In Christchurch.
Once in NZ Mary Jane Balmer (sic) married an Irishman Robert Samuel McDowell (from Armagh) and together they had 5 children. He died aged 41 (1882) and she remained a widow for the remining years of her long life.
davliz
New Zealand
