Janet Welsh

Role: Wife of James Telfer (1829–1913)

Born: ca 1826 — Nisbet, Scotland
Married: James Telfer — 6 November 1855, "the Manse" Wakefield Street, Adelaide (Church of Scotland rite, Rev. Robert Haining; witnesses Robert & Elizabeth Telfer)
Died: 14 January 1885 — Port Lincoln, South Australia (after a long illness)

Marriage confirmed from the civil record — 19 September 2026. The South Australian marriage registration has been read directly: Book/Page 24/165, District Adelaide, year 1855.

Field	Register reads
Groom	TELFER, James
Bride	WELSH, Janet
Marriage date	06-Nov-1855
Marriage place	Church of Scotland Manse [Adelaide]
Groom age / status	26 / N (never married)
Bride age / status	27 / S (spinster)
Groom's father	Not Recorded
Bride's father	Not Recorded
District	Adelaide
Notes	Symbol=A

The register's date and place match the family book exactly (6 November 1855; "the Manse"; Church of Scotland). The register supplies two new details the book did not: Janet's age at marriage, 27 (consistent with a birth about 1828 — and with the vault's ca 1826 within a couple of years), and James's age, 26 (consistent with his birth in 1829). Both parties are recorded as never previously married, which rules out a prior marriage for either.
⚠️ A genealogy note on a corrected false lead: this marriage was nearly written off as having happened in Scotland before emigration. A ScotlandsPeople sweep of the Church of Scotland Old Parish Registers — 109 Telfer marriages across Roxburghshire, 1790–1854 — returned no Telfer marriage in any of the Welch/Welsh/Walsh spellings, and no marriage at all for a Janet Welch. The absence was real, but the inference drawn from it was wrong: the couple married in Adelaide, and they could do so because James emigrated in 1854 (ship Oliver Lang, arriving Melbourne 25 September 1854), a full year before the wedding. An absence in one index is not evidence of absence elsewhere — check the civil register before concluding a marriage happened abroad.

Janet Welsh married James Telfer (1829–1913), son of James Telfer (1796–1863) and Elizabeth Beattie. She was the daughter of John and Margaret Welsh of Nisbet, Scotland. The couple married on 6 November 1855 at the Wakefield Street Manse in Adelaide. James was then a shepherd under contract to Alexander Borthwick Murray at Tungkillo; after his five years there he took over the management of Koppio Station near Port Lincoln. Janet and James had seven children, who grew up at Koppio Station. Two gum trees at the station entrance were named "James" and "Janet" after the twins. Janet died in 1885 after a long illness; James wrote a letter to his son describing her last hours, preserved in the family records (From the Borders to the Bush, pp. 189–192).

Family Stories

Janet Welsh, wife of James Telfer (1829–1913), died at Koppio Station near Port Lincoln in 1885 after a long illness. Not long afterwards, James wrote a letter to his son, also named James, describing her final hours. The letter survives in the family records and tells the quiet story of her passing — a personal account that has been handed down through the generations.

A second surviving letter from around the same era records the difficulty James had finding a "lying-in" nurse, or midwife, for his daughter-in-law Fannie. It is a small but very human detail — a glimpse into the everyday struggles of life on the station in those years.

Story from the family book, From the Borders to the Bush, pp. 191.

Sources

• Genealogy SA — Marriage Registrations, Book/Page 24/165: TELFER, James × WELSH, Janet, 06-Nov-1855, Church of Scotland Manse [Adelaide], District Adelaide; groom age 26 (never married), bride age 27 (spinster); neither father recorded. Read from the online index as a member (#24964), 19 Sep 2026. PRIMARY CIVIL RECORD.
• Source: Donald Telfer, From the Borders to the Bush (ISBN 0 7316 6387 X), pp. 189–192 — marriage 6 Nov 1855, Wakefield St Manse; death 1885
• Source: WikiTree — James Telfer (abt. 1829–1913) Telfer-150 — spouse Janet Welsh (1826–1885) — accessed 10 Aug 2026
• Source: A Telfer Family Tree / Supplement 2008 (swing-6 digest) — "James TELFER m. Janet WELSH (1826-1885)"; RootsWeb "WELSH, Janet ca 1826 - 14 Jan 1885"