Road to Morocco

Dennis · Post by **Dennis** » Tue Apr 29, 2008 9:18 pm

Hi,

I may have kin that married in Mar(r)akesh, Morocco but don't know where to search for any records.

dennis

Currie · Post by **Currie** » Wed Apr 30, 2008 3:20 am

Hello Dennis,

That sounds like a difficult question. It may depend on the time period, who married them and where, the religion of the parties, their national origin and what they were doing in Morocco and so on.

Morocco was a French Protectorate before 1956, there’s a very brief history here http://www.arab.de/arabinfo/marochis.htm

There’s a Morocco Genealogy Forum here http://genforum.genealogy.com/morocco/ If you search the forum for Married or Marriage you may find something.

Alan

LesleyB · Post by **LesleyB** » Wed Apr 30, 2008 8:52 am

Hi Dennis
Another source of info may be the local newspaper or perhaps the Scotsman if they were reasonably well off. I've certainly see a few "abroad" marriages in the Scotsman columns from the late 1800s and early 1900s.

Best wishes
Lesley

Dennis · Post by **Dennis** » Wed Apr 30, 2008 9:47 pm

Hi Alan & Lesley,

The marriage apparently took place in Marrakesh Morocco on Aug 2, 1895 between an Allan Lennox and Berthia (Bethia) Lockie.

From what I've heard, Allan & his wife's 1st child Albert Mitchell. Born on 5 Jul 1899 in Marrakesh Morocco. Albert Mitchell died in England on 27 Dec 1979, he was 80.

On 29 Dec 1927 when Albert Mitchell was 28, he married Ida Kathleen Russell, in Bexhill on Sea England.1 Born on 15 Jan 1906 in Bexhill on Sea England. Ida Kathleen died in England on 7 Apr 1977, she was 71.

I have no documentation to support any of the above.

dennis

Currie · Post by **Currie** » Fri May 02, 2008 12:53 pm

Back again Dennis,

Just scratching around and not getting too far. I couldn’t find much in the newspapers and it’s a wonder there isn’t more. It looks like his name was Alan rather than Allan. There’s another spelling for the place also – Marrakech.

Some information in this International Vital Records Handbook (limited preview)
http://books.google.com.au/books?id=oHR ... C&pg=PA485

If you search in the box further down the page for MOROCCO and click on page 485 in the results you’ll see that registration for French and foreigners started only in 1915. There may be an Embassy record of the events and there are some Marrakesh Consul records in National Archives but couldn’t see anything specific. There may be some Church Records if you knew the church he was involved with, that’s if it’s still around.
http://www.iol.co.za/index.php?set_id=1 ... 540817M622

There’s a book “Murder in Marrakesh” by Emile Mauchamp (limited preview)
http://books.google.com.au/books?id=ZPy ... C&pg=PA306
If you search in that book for LENNOX you’ll find around 30 references to him. One describes him as being “a Protestant missionary who doubled as the British vice-consul.”

He may have been an unofficial vice-consul as I couldn’t find him in the London Gazette in that capacity however this looks like him on the following Gazette pages in connection with the winding up of a Company, LENNOX & FERNAU.

http://www.gazettes-online.co.uk/ViewPD ... n&gpn=7078
http://www.gazettes-online.co.uk/ViewPD ... n&gpn=6791
http://www.gazettes-online.co.uk/ViewPD ... n&gpn=2564

He wrote a letter to the London Times in 1901 and its substance was reported in the New York Times http://query.nytimes.com/mem/archive-fr ... ref=slogin

Births Mar 1906
Russell Ida Kathleen --- Battle 2b43
http://freebmd.rootsweb.com/cgi/search.pl

Hope there’s something useful there,
Alan