Research reveals that my 3x great-grandparents, William Ritchie and his wife Mary Ritchie nee Joss, had an adopted son. His name was William Ritchie Caie Black. So, who was he, and how did he come to live with the Ritchie family? Did his name have any significance?

William’s adoptive family

William and Mary Ritchie had five biological children. There were two boys and three girls – David, James, Jean, Helen and Margaret – all born in Scotland between 1879 and 1887. The eldest was my 2x great-grandfather, David Ritchie.

William was a master joiner and the 1901 census records him and wife Mary living at the Thornton Joiner Shop in the Parish of Marykirk, Kincardineshire. I think it’s likely this means he was working for the Thornton Castle Estate. Living with them were two daughters, a joiner’s apprentice, and a foster son. The foster son is one-year-old William R. C. Black.

By 1911 William and Mary had moved and were living at one of the Loanhead Cottages, in the village of Hillside, about halfway between Montrose and Marykirk. Their daughter Helen Turiff, two-year-old grandson William Turiff, and William R. C. Black there at the time of the census. William Black was eleven and recorded as their adopted son.

The birth of William Ritchie Caie Black

William Ritchie Caie Black’s July 1899 birth was registered in Marykirk, just south of Laurencekirk. There’s no father listed, and William is recorded as illegitimate. His mother is given as Helen Patterson Black, spinster. She was 26.

Curiously, the register entry records the assistant registrar as William Ritchie. This probably isn’t my 3x great-grandfather William Ritchie, but I’ve not traced other men by that name in the vicinity, so it’s possible.

What about the child’s name? Could the registrar’s name be why he was given the names William and Ritchie? Or was it just coincidence? I’ve traced three generations of his maternal ancestors, but found no link between William Black and the Ritchie family.

It’s possible William Ritchie Caie Black’s biological father was a member of the Ritchie family. Certainly my 3x great-grandfather and his two eldest sons were of an age that makes it possible, although perhaps unlikely. Or could his father have been from the extended Ritchie family. There is no other evidence I’ve found related to William Black’s birth. It’s impossible to know who his father was.

William’s mother

Helen Black was 26 when her son William was born. She’d been born in St Andrews, where she’s listed as living with her family at the time of the census in 1891 and 1901. Helen was working as a seventeen-year-old dressmaker in 1891. She married merchant seaman John Marr there in 1904, five years after William’s birth. How did she end up in Marykirk for his birth? Perhaps she’d been sent to Marykirk while pregnant.

In the 1911 census, Mary is aboard the Dolbadarn Castle, located at Sharpness Dock in Gloucestershire. She was listed as the first mate’s wife and appears to be the only woman aboard.

A decade later Helen was a passenger aboard the Ceramic, on the White Star steamship line, departing Liverpool on 22 April 1921. Her entry on the passenger list says she is 47, and a widow because John Marr died a couple of years earlier. It also says she intends to disembark in Adelaide and live in Australia.

It seems quite a step to take by herself, but a newspaper report of her second marriage shortly after her arrival in Adelaide says she was given away by her aunt, who appears to have been related by marriage to Helen’s new husband. He was a fellow Scot named Edward Drummond, a tea merchant for Drummond Brothers.

It sounds like she may have emigrated specifically to marry Edward Drummond. Edward died just five years later, and Helen was only 55 when she died in Auckland in 1928 while travelling through New Zealand.

Helen had no other children, and it’s unknown what contact there may have been between Helen and her son after he was taken in by the Ritchie family. However, there must have been some knowledge shared, because the registration of William’s marriage in the 1930s includes reference to his mother’s first marriage and her husband’s name and occupation.

William’s adoption

Adoptions in Scotland before 1930 were private and there are no official records. So it’s census references to William being a foster son, and later adopted son, along with vital records that provide the main clues to his relationship to the Ritchie family.

I also found a notice in a newspaper dated 10 July 1923, the day of William’s 23rd birthday. It was placed by William himself and states his intention to “use the name of and be known as William Ritchie, Junior”. It gives his occupation as blacksmith, and residence as Loanhead, Hillside, Montrose.

This is a formalising of his relationship with the Ritchie family in the only way possible at the time. His adoptive father’s obituary referred to three sons and three daughters, one of them, being William, which is further proof of his being one of the family.

William’s later life

William appears to have lived in Hillside for the rest of his life. He worked as a blacksmith for his adoptive father, and was 34 when he married Isabella Reid Currie, a mental nurse working at Sunnyside. They didn’t have any children together.

William died on 3 January 1966, at the Joiner’s Yard, Hillside. His death registration, which his wife was the informant for, confirms his mother’s name as Helen Black, and doesn’t list a father. It also confirms his current name as William Ritchie, and former name as William Ritchie Caie Black.

Selected references

Birth register entry of William Ritchie Caie Black, born 10 July1899, registered 31 July 1899, Marykirk registration district, General Register House, Scotland, vol. 265, p. 7, no. 20.

Marriage register entry of William Ritchie and Isabella Reid Currie, married 1 June 1934, registered 1 January 1934, Montrose registration district, General Register House, Scotland, vol. 312, no. 20.

Death register entry of William Ritchie, died 3 January 1966, registered 4 January 1966, Montrose registration district, General Register House, Scotland, vol. 312, no. 3.

Census record for William R C Black, age 1, Thornton Joiner’s Shop, Marykirk, Kincardineshire, 1901 Census 265/6/6, National Records of Scotland.

Census record for William R C Black, age 11, Loanhead Cottages, Hillside, Montrose Landward, 1911 Census 312/32/5, National Records of Scotland.

Census record for William R Black, age 21, Loanhead, Hillside, Montrose Landward, 1921 Census 312/28/1, National Records of Scotland.

‘Notice’, Dundee Courier, 10 July 1923, p. 1.

Passenger list entry for Mrs Helen P. Marr, Ceramic, departing Liverpool, 22 April 1921, Board of Trade: Commercial and Statistical Department and successors: Outwards Passenger Lists, The National Archives, BT 27, UK and Ireland, Outward Passenger Lists, 1890–1960, Ancestry.com, accessed 17 March 2021.

‘Marriage of a St Andrews Lady in South Australia’, The Citizen, 15 October 1921, p. 4.