born about 1843* in New York, USA
died on 31st January 1911 in Grindelwald, Switzerland
 
Grace Duncan was a daughter of

and

. She married

(II) on 15th August 1871 and had 5 children; among them

, Robin and Katya Müller's great-grandmother, as their youngest daughter (b.1879). Their other children were a son, Duncan, who died aged 11 months (birthday unknown); Margaret Maud Isobel (b.1875, m. Robin Johnson); Anne Caroline (b.1877, died unmarried between the wars); and John Seymour (b.1882, m. 1907 Constance Bettington). (John Humphreys mentions another source that refers to Miss Bettington as Beatrix, the youngest daughter of Mr. J.B.Bettington, of Brindley park, new South Wales. The discrepancy is explained by her son's memorial, where she is named as Constance Beatrix Robertson.)

John Humphreys

writes:
"She married Thomas Robertson in Melbourne on 15/8/1871. It was a Presbyterian wedding held at the Menzies Hotel. He was 47 years old, and a prosperous member of the squattocracy; she was about 27. According to a family legend she had been looking after the children of one of his brothers, which was how they met.

So Alexander and Caroline had evidently migrated to Australia, married, had two daughters, returned to England, had a third daughter and crossed the Atlantic; Grace was their fourth daughter; then they travelled the relatively modest distance to Pennsylvania, where their first son and fifth daughter were born. It is easy to imagine Caroline as typically pregnant, at sea and constantly looking round in case small children disappeared overboard."

Until recently I had not been able to trace Grace Duncan's parents. Births, marriages and deaths in New York were not recorded at the time. However I found her in Pennsylvania in the US 1850 Census (16 Sep 1850), then 6 years old. Her parents were Alexander Duncan (then aged 37) and Caroline Duncan née Franklyn (then aged 32):

Right: Taken about 1885, this picture of "Mrs. Tom Robertson of Togganma..." (Toganmain) and one of her children (probably John Seymour, possibly Grace) comes from Mrs. Lyell Horwood's family album. We are very grateful for her contributions.

Above: this portrait of Grace Duncan is an excerpt from the photograph shown below