Genealogy Chat

Hi,
I'm hoping that some one out there has more knowledge of Scottish Parish records and how to interpret them,then me!

I have a Grandmother Margaret Farquhar,born about 1736
Her partner/husband was Samuel Anderson who was born in Aberdour.

Other online trees has Margaret as being born in Aberdour,Aberdeenshire, as they say a likely birth has been found by them and they say that no other birth on SP looks likely.I haven't as yet looked for myself.

The transcript presented as her death by the other online trees says this



Death
1822 4 May Age: 86

Aberdour, Aberdeenshire, Scotland

May 4th 1822 Margaret Farquhar of parish of Pitsligo lately of this parish age 85 was interred in this church yard

My question is.

If the priest has stated of Pitsligo,do you think that he is referring to place of birth or just that she lived there previously?

Also it doesn't say Widow or relict of Samuel Anderson or late wife of Samuel.
Other entries made by the priest on the same page do give spouse

Is it common for the husband not to be mentioned?
On other parish records I have the partner is mentioned on burial records.

Any thoughts or advice would be very well received, as I'm not sure about including the death and presumed birth

Many thanks

Blue1

Of Pitsligo means she died there, presumably, though of course, terminology has evolved, and varies from country to country within the UK

I would have thought that if she had been married, she would be recorded in her married name...............

I doubt, though, that she was your grandmother..............there must be a few 'greats' in there!

Have you any evidence to support the idea that this particular burial refers to an ancestor of yours?

Have you worked back to her yourself.........checking every generation thoroughly

Using 'info' found by other people is often a bad idea....................

Hi Reggie,

thanks for the input. Margaret was my 5x great grandmother

I thought the same about her married name being recorded on death
.I have access to an online tree that is sort of doing a one name study with regards to the Anderson's and they have a lot of records, I've submitted all of mine to them,which were checked by me.
Also I have a copy of the book "The Andersons of Phingask And Their Descendents" which gives a tree and information about all of the people on it including sources.

But I'm not happy with this entry on the Anderson tree so will not include it until as you suggest I check it out my self first.

I just thought it strange that only the maiden name was used. I'm still confused about the " Of Pitsligo and lately of this parish" (Aberdour)

To me it sounds that this Margaret was born in Pitsligo

I shall have a go at the LDS site and see what they have.

Thanks Reggie, It's good to get feedback to problems,sometimes a fresh look helps

Blue1

Sounds to me as if she lived in Pitsligo previously - and may or may not have been born there.

I agree about the lack of spouse's name - if she'd had one it would have been given.
The tree owner may have assumed she was born in Aberdour, because she died there.
Or she might have been born there, but lived later in Pitsligo.

What does it say on her marriage cert? "Of this parish" or similar? Was the marriage in Aberdour?

I don't see the marriage on ScotlandsPeople.

Where did you get the information from?

EDIT:

There were no marriages of a Samuel Anderson to anyone in Aberdeenshire, 1740-1800.

In the same period there are these marriages for a Margaret Farquhar in Aberdour, but none to an Anderson.

23/06/1787 FARQUHAR MARGARET WILLIAM WATSON/FR407 (FR407) F ABERDOUR (ABERDEEN) /ABERDEEN 169/00 0020 0050

15/01/1789 FARQUHAR MARGARET WILLIAM MORRISON/FR443 (FR443) F ABERDOUR (ABERDEEN) /ABERDEEN 169/00 0020 0086

Name: Margaret Anderson
Gender: Female
Christening Date: 12 Jun 1781
Christening Place: ABERDOUR,ABERDEEN,SCOTLAND
Birth Date: 09 Jun 1781
Father's Name: Samuel Anderson:
Mother's Name: Margt Farquhar
Mother's Birthplace:
Mother's Age:
Indexing Project (Batch) Number: C11169-2

No other Anderson births in the Batch with father Samuel which show a mother's name

There are some with only father's name (Samuel)

A couple of people (at least) have the above person in GR trees..............as far as I can tell, you don't.

Sounds to me she was born in Pitsligo \though more recently had lived in Aberdour. Given the age that she was when she died, she may have needed relief from the parish. Although Aberdour parish would make payments they would reclaim them from Margaret's birth parish and would therefore know that her birth parish was Pitsligo.

If there is only evidence of one child, it may be that she had outlived her husband by many years and in some cases in Scotland widows reverted to their maiden surname.

I have found an ancestor on the 1841 census widowed and living with her son and his family but she is recorded in her maiden surname.

There are no Margaret Farquhar births registered in Pitsligo 1730-50 on ScotlandsPeople.

But there is one in Aberdour in the year Blue1 said:

02/05/1736 FARQUHAR MARGARET WILLIAM FARQUHAR/ F ABERDOUR (ABERDEEN) /ABERDEEN 169/00 0010 0141

So, if this is the same person as the one who died, " Of Pitsligo and lately of this parish" , presumably she had been born in Aberdour, lived in Pitsligo, and returned to Aberdour before her death.

But she could be a different Margaret, whose birth in Pitsligo wasn't registered.

I suggest you get hold of the baptism Reggie refferred to:
https://familysearch.org/pal:/MM9.1.1/XY6T-JXQ

This would clarify the relationship between Margt & Saml.

"of parish of Pitsligo lately of this parish"
To me, this reads as though she spent most of her life in Pitsligo psh, but had moved to Aberdour in the last few y and died there. This situation wsn't unusual - as folk get old or sick, they can't always look after themselves, and often move into a child's home.

This was the case with my g gran - she lived in Aberdeen with my gran for her last 6 m - her d.cert in col 2 (when and where died) gives my gran's addy, then adds (Us. Res. Middle Hill Aberdour) - she was also born in Pitsligo psh, but I've not seen an OPR entry for this - besides which, practices can change over the 90 intervening years.


I presume this is the Aberdour b referred to:
https://familysearch.org/pal:/MM9.1.1/XY6T-VRH

These look like likely sibs:
https://familysearch.org/pal:/MM9.1.1/XY6Y-XB9
https://familysearch.org/pal:/MM9.1.1/XY6T-YLB
https://familysearch.org/pal:/MM9.1.1/XY6Y-ZY5
https://familysearch.org/pal:/MM9.1.1/XY6Y-7YV
>
https://familysearch.org/pal:/MM9.1.1/XY6Y-MPP
https://familysearch.org/pal:/MM9.1.1/XY6Y-422


There is a Margaret Farquhar buried at Aberdour, but one would normally have to buy the booklet to find the text of the associated MI.

booklet: Kirkyard of Aberdour (AA102)
burial ground: Aberdour
stone: 18
Thomas Farquhar 18 Jan 1791
Isobel Murray 20 Aug 1793
Catherine Farquhar n.d.
Margaret Farquhar n.d.
http://www.anesfhs.org.uk/databank/miindex/miindex.php

There was no such thing as 'registration' before 1855.

The only records are Parish Registers of baptisms, marriages and burials

Was the transcript from headstone? as no deaths were recorded in PR registeres much before 1855.unless there is a Kirk Mort Cloth record .... the headstones of married women were in many cases under their maiden name,,,,,Maggie May but added wife of Jock McDuff,,,,,if he was deceased probally no one knew of her husband ,?

Pitsligo may have Monumental Inscrptions online or under Aberdour.

Kay - the booklet contains the actual MI. I just looked up the index of names in their booklets. Here's another example of a lookup:

booklet: Kirkyard of Turriff (AA189)
burial ground: Turriff
stone: 164
Alexander Anderson 20 Oct 1874
Elizabeth Scott 31 Jul 1875
Margaret Watson 22 Nov 1890
Alexander Anderson 19 Jun 1908

I've not seen their transcription of the MI, although they have a high reputation for accuracy - this is my transcription:

1876
Erected
by
Alexander Anderson
Hill of Ardmiddle in memory
of his son Alexander
who died 20th Oct'r 1874
aged 21 years
also his mother
Elizabeth Scott who died
31st July 1876 aged 80 years
also his wife
Margaret Watson who died
22nd Nov 1890 aged 71 years
The above Alexander Anderson
died 19th June 1908 aged 83 years

As you can see, there's quite a bit of info in the MI.
As a supplement to your point abt maiden surnames, both Elizabeth Scott and Margaret Watson were known as Mrs Anderson for most of their lives, incl up until their deaths.

The Pitsligo parish church was at what we now call Peathill. By 1902, a new church had been built and the old was was disused and falling into ruin. ANEFHS do have an MI booklet for Peathill. I should have given their homepage URL, viz:
http://www.anesfhs.org.uk/

Hi

many thanks to all who have been looking and for all the input since I last looked in.

I shall have a look at all of the links. The Mi

The post by mgnv


booklet: Kirkyard of Aberdour (AA102)
burial ground: Aberdour
stone: 18
Thomas Farquhar 18 Jan 1791
Isobel Murray 20 Aug 1793
Catherine Farquhar n.d.
Margaret Farquhar n.d.

Looks very promising as I have had a look at some baps that I have and a Thomas Farquhar was a witness to some of them.

When I've gone through every one's posts I'll get back.

Am having a moment with my back at present so I'm a bit dosed up!


Thanks to all again,will get back asap

Many thanks again
Blue1

Hi
Thanks for the link to the family history society,I'm ordering today. Actually there are a few on there that are of interest to me.

On other MI's i've come across, the married woman is under her maiden name but buried with husband? so not sure if the Margaret on the Thomas Farquhar MI is mine as no mention of her husband Samuel who died 1820 and is buried in the same church yard as Margaret "Aberdour" (parish records downloaded from SP)

Maybe the Margaret and Catherine with Thomas are his children.

I'm so looking forward to getting my booklets and hope that they can give me more information on Margaret.

I am having a devil of a job recording this family on here and my main tree on Ancestry as quite a few if the Anderson's married first cousins referred to in the book I mentioned as "German Cousins"! I never heard that saying before and wonder if it's just from that area of Scotland?

I googled the book the other day in the hope that I could buy a hard copy to read. I found that the family search site has a copy digitized,might be of help to any one else researching the same family.

I'll get back to this when I have my booklets. Also I thought that I could keep records on here,but don't seem to be able to find out how. I would like to attach what I have. Might be that my sub won't allow it?


All the best and thanks for all of your help

Blue1

ps back has improved today

I never have found a marriage for the couple,but both parents are listed on some of the children's bap records.

http://www.yourdictionary.com/cousins-german

Thanks ArgylGran,

I just wondered why German? it's strange!


Blue1

One can also have brothers-german - i.e., full brothers.

That the English should shade the meaning and modify the spelling of some French word, I don't find at all étrange

GERMANE

Middle English germain, having the same parents, closely connected; see german2.

adj.
1. closely or significantly related; relevant; pertinent: points germane to the subject.
2. Obs. closely related.
[1250–1300; < Old French germain; see german]

Blue1 -
It doesn't mean German, as in having some connection with Germany.

It's from the word germane, which in turn is from the old French word "germain" as in Reggie's post above.