I've hit a wall in researching the fate of my 2x ggrandfather, James Simpson Mackie. I'm hoping that the fine and knowledgable folks here can offer some insight.
James Mackie was born in New Pitsligo on July 17 1869 and emigrated to Vermont with his parents and siblings in 1884. He eventually worked in the granite manufacturing business with his father.
In February 1900, he abrubptly left Vermont, never to return. According to family lore, he ran away to fight in the Boer War. At the time, he was married with two small daughters, one of whom was my great grandmother. This was a terrible shock to the family because James didn't leave on his own. He was accompanied by a local young lady, a schoolteacher named Grace Page. Grace eventually returned to Vermont from London in 1905, assisted by the Salvation Army. She seems to have had a rather rough time of it overseas and was quickly married off to a biscuit salesman who was passing through Vermont.
Understandably, the family rarely spoke of this episode and everyone who would have knowledge of James' fate has long passed. Census records and family obituatries go back and forth--sometimes he's enumerated among the living and other times ignored. The local papers were strangely silent about James' vanishing in 1900--perhaps out of respect for his father, who was quite well regarded. The story of Grace, however, somehow made its way into family legend and I was able to document it via Geneaologybank.
I've had no luck in the National Archives--there was a J. Mackie who registered at Dundee in 1898 but that's too early to be mine. I'm not even positive which side he fought on--James was a naturalized American Citizen of Scottish descent but there was a lot of pro-Boer sentiment in New England. And there was that group of fifty volunteers who were recruited into the Irish Brigade that very same month of February, 1900. On the other hand, James abandoned Grace in London, which may mean that he joined the London Scottish as a volunteer. He had no previous military experience.
An interesting possible clue--James' nephew, who was his namesake, visited Bermuda in January, 1942. I know that there were POW camps there. Online searches of the island cemeteries and newspapers hasn't yielded anything. An email to the library there didn't get a response.
I'm stuck! Perhaps someone could point me in a direction that I've overlooked. Thanks so much.
Amanda
