Sheila's family history research area
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Sheila's old family history narrative is here September 2004: Sheila's full ancestor list (new version). Please contact me if you think you have a link. Click here to find out about researching Scottish family history in general. An update on my own progress (October 2005) With the assistance of my late brother Ian Morrison (1950 - 2006), I have now traced most of my family branches back to around the start of the 19th century, and have gone further back in some cases. Over the past couple of years I have spent some time visiting places where I believe my ancestors to have originated, though this isn't always as simple as I first thought. For instance, when I tracked the Morrisons back to Campsie (formerly in Stirlingshire, now in East Dunbartonshire) I thought that might be the end of the trail, but I then found that the earliest of them, Duncan Morrison, had in fact been born in Comrie, Perthshire, so a new search began. This new page is arranged by place, to illustrate where my different family branches were from. I will start with the area where my paternal grandmother's family originated, since they seem to have been the most close-knit part of the family, apparently all from an area not more than twenty square miles in size. THE ANGUS GLENS My paternal grandmother, Jessie Ann Ogilvy Annand Young, was from a farming family. She grew up at Balmyle Farm, just outside Meigle, Perthshire. Her father, John Young, had been born in Airlie, Angus, the son of James Young who in 1841 was the miller at Cardean, and Susan Hunter who in 1841 lived at Wester Cardean, her father George's farm. (source: 1841 census for Airlie, viewed on the FREECEN website) James and Susan Young married in the early 1840s and moved to Ruthven, Angus, where they farmed, and then to a farm near Leuchars, Fife, where they lived with some of their other children until James's death. Descendant list for Thomas Young of Angus Jessie's mother was Mary Ogilvy, the daughter of David Ogilvie, who farmed at Peel, Lintrathen, and Janet Annand. Both David and Janet were from families who seem to have lived in Lintrathen for many generations, indeed we suspect they may have been cousins but this is not yet proved. Certainly they had plenty of relatives living in the area at the time of the 1841 census and later censuses.   Although his farm at Peel was leased from the Airlie estates rather than being owned by him, David Ogilvie was a well-to-do farmer who left about £6,000 worth of property, possessions and money in various bank accounts on his death in 1866 (source: David Ogilvie's will) Descendant list for John Annand or Annat of Lintrathen. Another Angus researcher has recently pointed out that John Annand's wife, Martha Farquharson, was from a long and distinguished line of Farquharsons who look as if they may be traceable back to the royal standard-bearer at the Battle of Pinkie, and Beatrix Garden, once owner of the 'Mary Queen of Scots' clarsach now in the Museum of Scotland. However, this still has to be thoroughly researched. Certainly this branch of the family once farmed amongst them quite a lot of the land in Lintrathen, including the cluster of farms up at the top of Backwater (now a reservoir). It seems possible that these Ogilvies will similarly be traceable back to a junior branch of the Ogilvies of Airlie, but this needs even more research! There were Ogilvies at Peel from the time one of them married into the Durward family who had originally built a fortified tower there in the 13th century. COMRIE, PERTHSHIRE My paternal grandfather's family, the Morrisons, seem to have originated from Comrie, where there was a small group of Morrison families farming in Glen Lednock. There is still scope for more research into this line, as we cannot at the time of writing go back with certainty beyond Duncan Morrison, b. 1795 to Daniel or Donald Morrison and Elizabeth McKenzie. (source: 1851 census and IGI) It's possible that the Morrison DNA project will help with this in due course. CAMPSIE After leaving Comrie, Duncan Morrison eventually settled in Campsie, and became a master tailor. He married twice and my line is descended from his second wife, Agnes Dow. His son Thomas Morrison was a company clerk to Dalglish and Falconer (a firm of calico manufacturers in Lennoxtown), and possibly involved in the Lennoxtown Friendly Victualling Society, an early co-operative food association (this is still to be researched). He married Isabella Kincaid , from a family native to the area. In the late 19th century almost everyone in the family worked in the calico industry, with some of the Kincaids being gas engineers and one of the younger Morrisons working as a colour mixer.(source: census records) This is interesting in view of my own father's occupation of chemistry lecturer. However in the next generation (the children of Thomas Morrison and Isabella Kincaid) one (my grandfather, also Thomas) was a bank agent and another a marine engineer, though one moved to East Lothian and also became a tailor. KILMICHAEL GLASSARY, ARGYLL My maternal grandmother, Mary Ann Murray McCallum, was from a more scattered family background. She herself was born in Dunfermline, Fife, to John McCallum, a stone-mason, and Janet Hutchison. John, her father, was the son of James McCallum, also a stone-worker born in Glassary and Mary Ann Murray, daughter of a sailor from the East Neuk of Fife and his bride who was from Burnham Overy in Norfolk.(see below for both these places) Kilmichael Glassary, Argyll, the ancestral home of this McCallum family, is a rural area near Lochgilphead and the Crinan Canal. Its main claims to fame are some cup and ring marked rocks and its proximity to Dunadd Fort and the linear stone monuments and burial places of Kilmartin Glen. In the past there were numerous quarries in and around the village, but the population is fairly sparse now with a lot of abandoned and ruined houses, especially in areas away from the main road. The 1841 census for Kilmichael Glassary, now available on the FREECEN website, shows Archibald McCallum, John's grandfather, still living at (?) Nether Rhudle, just off the Lochgilphead-Oban road near the turning for Dunadd Fort, with his (second) wife Flora and a couple of grandchildren. At the age of 60 he was working as a handloom weaver. In old age (he lived to the age of 90) he moved to Inverkeithing to live with his son James in the High Street. Descendant list for Archibald McCallum of Kilmichael Glassary THE FARMLANDS OF CENTRAL FIFE My maternal grandfather, Peter Williamson, was from mining and rural farming stock. The Williamsons seem to have originated around the Falkland/Strathmiglo/Collessie area, which even today is mostly agricultural, where they moved around almost every generation. The earliest known Williamson so far from this line lived in Falkland in the 17th century. During the 19th century they migrated into the newly industrialised areas in central Fife, with James Williamson (born Collessie 1800 and something) becoming a hammerman in Lochgelly and his son, also James, working as a miner in Ballingry. James senior married Elisabeth Drummond from a rather elusive family - her father Peter may have been a wright - while the younger James married Montgomery Crystal, from a mining family. Descendant list for William Williamson of Collessie THE SOUTH-WEST FIFE COALFIELDS The exotically named Montgomery Crystal was from a close-knit network of Fife mining families. She was born in Boreland, Dysart, an area where there were several pits - the winding gear from the Frances colliery near the coast being the only present-day reminder of this - to Robert Crystal and Christian McLean.  The Crystal family were miners in Dysart from about the mid 18th century. The Fife Deaths cd produced by Fife Family History Society tells a grim story of many babies dying so young in this family that there wasn't even time to give them names. It may have been the grimness of this life that led some of the Crystals to become Mormons and undertake the trek to Utah in search of God and a better life. Before coming to Dysart they may have lived in Leven and/or Largo and worked on the land. Christian McLean, Montgomery's mother, was also from a mining family, the McLeans, who were linked by marriage to almost every other mining family in central and west Fife, including the Cooks and Muirs, miners in Dalgety at the time when miners were slaves, tied to the landowners and the mines. Even the most cursory browse through the 1851 census records for Auchterderran, at that time in the heart of the coal-mining area, will show the same names occurring again and again. Montgomery Crystal herself was a pithead worker in Lochgelly at the time of her marriage. Descendant list for Archibald Cook of west Fife DUNFERMLINE AND INVERKEITHING Janet Hutchison, one of my great-grandmothers, was from a West Fife family. Her grandfather, David Hutchison, was a builder in Dunfermline. She was the illegitimate daughter of Janet King Hutchison and possibly the daughter of Janet King Hutchison's future husband David Black, who is mentioned on her death certificate. Janet King Hutchison and David Black are buried in one of the graveyards in Dunfermline. Descendant list for William King of Dunfermline THE EAST NEUK OF FIFE My great-grandfather John McCallum's mother was Mary Anne Murray, whose father John was a merchant seaman / possibly a shipmaster. Mary Anne Murray may have been born at sea, since there is so far no sign of her birth having been registered, but according to census records she was born in or around Port William, Wigtonshire. After following the trail through census records, death certificates, asylum records, more census records and OPRs in Norfolk, I have at last established that John Murray originated from the parish of Kilconquhar, in Fife (though he almost always gave his birthplace as either Earlsferry or Elie). Initial research in the National Archives in London has failed to come up with any information about his seagoing career, but he was born in Kilconquhar in 1790 to James Murray and Jacobina Thomson, he married Mary Ann Dennis in Burnham Overy, Norfolk in 1819, they were living in Inverkeithing, Fife at the time of the 1851 census with one of their daughters, Jacobina, and he died in West Wemyss in 1867. The informant on his death certificate was a son, James (birthplace unknown but may have been near Aberdeen). They also had a son just before they were married, named John Murray, who became a sailor and has been found in records at the National Archives (see below).   This research has been so intriguing that I am now trying to find out more both the merchant navy front and on the origins of this Murray family - I have recently discovered James Murray's marriage record which shows that he was actually from Loth in Sutherland, not from Fife, and working in Elie as a servant to the villainous-sounding Captain Kyd, who I think was in fact a customs officer and not a character from 'Pirates of the Caribbean'. Descendant list for James Murray of Elie NORTH NORFOLK Burnham Overy is a very small village on the coast of North Norfolk. One of 'seven Burnhams by the sea' in an old rhyme, it was originally a port but the sea receded a mile or two and the village had to be extended into 'Burnham Overy Staithe' to catch up with it. However even this has not been entirely successful as the sea has again receded and it is no longer a major harbour as it once was (indeed, one local legend says Lord Nelson learned to sail there, originating as he did from one of the other Burnhams nearby). It is just possible, given the timing, that it was the 'Nelson connection' that brought John Murray there. I am still investigating whether he could have been in the Royal Navy before he was in the merchant navy, but it is also possible that he arrived there on a merchant ship - Overy Staithe was a trading port around this time - and for some reason decided to stay a while. One or two 'poor drowned sailors' are mentioned from time to time in the parish records, and this made me wonder if he might have been shipwrecked there. My ancestor Mary Ann Dennis was born there in 1800 to Lee Dennis, a shoemaker (source: Mary Ann's death certificate) and his wife Ann Allison. (source: Burnham Overy OPRs) It seems that Lee Dennis died young, though I have not completed my research into this. Mary Ann can not have expected to be whisked off by a sailor from Fife, but current research suggests she and the rest of the family may have lived on board ship for some years. Her son John was born in Burnham Overy but of her two daughters Mary Anne is recorded in census records as having been born in Wigtonshire, and similarly Jacobina appears in the 1851 census as having been born in Dunbar, also on the coast. I have been unable yet to locate the family in the 1841 census, which might throw more light on their movements. They do not seem to be in Inverkeithing at this point, though the microfilm I looked at was very unclear and I might have missed them. Mary Anne Murray, the daughter, married James McCallum in the mid to late 1840s so it seems likely they were all in Inverkeithing by then. Descendant list for Ann Dennis of North Norfolk On the web To start your own internet research into Scottish family history, check out the following websites: Scotlands People: you can use the searchable database of the Scottish Record Office here on payment of a fee by credit card. A much improved service including downloadable images of statutory records such as death entries and census returns. The Scottish Documents website, which specialised in wills and testaments, is now incorporated in Scotland's People. Census records from 1841 onwards, transcribed by teams of volunteers, are gradually being made available on the FREECEN website. Family Search Internet Genealogy Service: search the databases here for free. The information has been compiled by the Mormon Church as part of its policy of retrospectively baptising its own members' ancestors. Deaths are not recorded here but birth and marriage information has been taken from church and civil records and in some cases gaps filled in with census data. If you are interested in family history in Fife and Angus, as I am, the Tay Valley Family History Society and Fife Family History Society cover these areas. There are also e-mail lists for Fife, Angus, Argyll among others (SCT-FIFE-L, SCT-ANGUS-L, SCT-ARGYLL-L) which are very active. Look on Rootsweb (http://www.rootsweb.com) for details. In the real world... Census records on microfilm and microfiche are held at various places including certain Scottish libraries. You can also visit Register House in Edinburgh and view birth, death and marriage certificates for yourself (a more reliable method than searching on the internet in general). I have also visited a local archive centre in Norwich, where I was able to view microfilmed parish registers for Norfolk. I am not sure as I have few English ancestors, but I believe that visiting local archive centres etc is the only way to find some of this information, which has not been centralised as in Scotland. Although this is the source material which has been used to produce the IGI, in some cases it has not been accurately transcribed so you may be in for some surprises. It is also useful to be able to see all the information for one parish, since that can produce new insights. Incidentally, I thoroughly recommend the Norwich centre - it is well-equipped and the staff are very helpful. If you want to trace the ownership of property, then you'll need to visit the National Archives of Scotland - have a look at their website on http://www.nas.gov.uk for information about their collections. Military and maritime records for the whole of the UK and other national records are held at the Public Record Office in London, where you can search their databases, view microfilmed and original documents for free once you've obtained a reader's ticket. It's a good idea to check their website first at http://www.pro.gov.uk for preliminary information. This is particularly the case if you're looking for maritime records, since the search will probably involve looking at records from several different categories. I have tried to identify a merchant seaman ancestor there without success, though I did find his son had been 'ticketed' as a Chief Mate in 1845. Useful books include the volumes of the Statistical Accounts of Scotland, which are organised by parish within county and provide a lot of very interesting background information. NOW SCANNED IN AND PUBLISHED ON THE INTERNET! |