This represents the second attempt to find Mary and her family. The first attempt made little sense as the purported arrival and marriage dates did not match up. However, new data has come to the fore, namely her arrival at Dunedin at an earlier time with her parents and siblings. This data is still under scrutiny and her arrival in the colonies is unclear.
Mary Rae Gillespie is shown arriving on the ‘Silistria’. The ‘Silistria’ departed Glasgow on the 30 December 1862 and arrived at Port Chalmers/Dunedin on the 17 April 1863. The following family is recorded on the manifest:-
John Gillespie (Age 42) – Head of Household / Listed as a Ploughman & Agricultural Labourer
Marion Gillespie (née Rae) (Age 40) – Wife / Domestic Duties
Mary Rae Gillespie (Age 17) – Daughter (My great-great-grandmother, who later married John Brown)
John Gillespie Jr. (Age 15) – Son
Marion Gillespie (Age 13) – Daughter
James Gillespie (Age 9) – Son
Jane Gillespie (Age 6) – Daughter
Agnes Gillespie (Age 2) – Daughter
I do suspect though, that Mary Rae’s parents and perhaps some of her siblings, might have subsequently moved to Australia. This needs confirmation.
The first attempt at a family lineage found a record on the ‘Robert Henderson’, 1870, given on the link below.
https://gazette.howison.co.nz/otago/1870/issue/706/page/531
But the timing is not there. They were married weeks after she arrived and the first child was already born. This indicates this Mary Rae is possibly our Mary Rae.