An anonymous request on the Blantyre Project “Requests Page” says, “I’m looking to find a Mary Halliday, married to a John Dardis. They had a daughter, Jean Dardis who emigrated to the US (NY) in 1923. Jean was born in Blantyre in 1899 (or 1900), and on her marriage certificate her parents are listed as John Dardis and Mary Haliday. Jean came to the US as a maid to a Mary Don of ComeleyBank, Kerr St, with her 2 children (Robt, Martha) and a clerkess (Eliz. Paton).”
The best way to find some details about parents, it to go to a birth certificate. However, despite searching there was no child (male or female) named Dardis in Blantyre anytime between 1890 and 1910. So that was the first mystery. With nobody in birth, marriage, census or valuation records in those decades called Dardis, this doesn’t feel like a Blantyre story. However, I do know however, from the end of this post that the baby was born in 1899.
So widening the search the ONLY female child born in 1899 or 1900 in all of Scotland…..of name Dardis was JANE DARDIS, who was born on 16th August 1899 at 9 Lyall Street, Glasgow. Jane, as a name could often interchange with Jean in name, and this birth is interesting as the father is indeed John Dardis and Mother is Mary. However, Mary is noted as being Mary Flanagan, becoming Mary Dardis when she married a little earlier on 22nd July 1898 in Dublin, Ireland.
So it would appear that John and Mary came to Scotland from Ireland after marrying and a daughter was born the following year. However, this couple’s married life was to be short lived, for on 4th August 1904 at just 27 years old, Mary died from a heart attack at 49 Queenshill Street, Glasgow, when little Jean was almost 5 years old.
Jean Dardis left the Scottish port town of Greenock on 23rd October 1923 at the age of 24 arriving in Boston, USA on 1st November. An interesting lead would be to see if John Dardis went with her across the Atlantic. She married not long after to Samuel Fox in May 1925 and lived a long life passing in 1981 at the age of 82. She is buried in Gloversvill, Fulton County, New York, USA PLOT Sec 105.
I cannot find a link to the name Haliday, nor records in Scotland that are relevant to this story. There’s a lot to unravel here and with the story crossing Irish, Scottish and American borders in such a short time, it may be difficult to piece together. It’s clear the assumptions people have made on the Ancestry website cannot be wholly relied upon and as with details in this particular story, should be used with caution.
