13th: Caithness gets some overdue attention

The flurry of activity on the Caithness GRAY family as a result of Bobby finding and sharing his updated info on Ann SINCLAIR nee GRAY shows that several notes to myself several years ago to investigate whether or not Catherine GRAY's sisters married x and y have been proved to be valid hunches.
We've done a lot of digging and swapping our finds over the last couple of days.
Another sister also survived well into civil registration times, living to age 93, Barbara GRAY, married James McGREGOR, lived at Baderyrie, Latheron.
That leaves the fates of sisters Elizabeth and Isobel GRAY to be determined.
For some time I'd wondered if Isobel was the one who married John SUTHERLAND, but that isn't the case. However, investigation of this did lead me to correct what I had on that family on my WorldConnect database LornaPotential, which will show these updates shortly (her parents weren't Alexander GRAY and Margaret SUTHERLAND, but David GRAY and Christian BAIN);
Newly connected surnames for my GRAY family now include: GUNN, more SINCLAIRs, MUNRO, BAIKIE, McLAREN; Places are: Thurso; Mid Clyth; Stemster; Lybster; Duffus (Moray); Charlestown (Little Dunkeld, Perthshire);
Mysteries: What happened to Mary SINCLAIR and Alexander GUNN, married 1860 Lybster, appear in 1861 census at Mid Clyth, then vanish.

Also did some work on the Tongside GRAY families, whom I'm sure do connect in somehow, if only I knew how/where: Alexander & Margaret (SUTHERLAND) GRAY, who lived next to my William & Isabella (MANSON) GRAY, as did their respective descendants over the years.

Both Rootsweb WorldConnect databases are in the process of being updated, so use these links to access them until the indexing catches up over the next 2-3 days: LornaHenderson, LornaPotential.

Nov 25, 2007: Counting down from 11

6 down, 5 to find. Robert found a couple more of the 11 children of Robert TAYLOR & Isabella Armstrong McGREGOR on his last visit to NRH, along with a few of the spice and a couple of grandchildren.

Oliver JOHNSTON's death remains unfound however.

And a welcome surprise in my Guestbook posted on the 23rd. Another line of SINTONs appear to be in NZ, a grandson of Christina Mary SINTON has left me a message.

And also a message from one of the Australian McADIE relations.
No rest for the wicked, or genealogically minded anyway.

Nov 10, 2007: GRAHAMs Galore again ++

A couple of days intensive effort chasing Cumberland GRAHAMs and CARRUTHERS descendants around the records, helped by Kirklinton headstone transcriptions ex Bridget and CARRUTHERS info from Gwynneth. My end conclusion was that the Kirklinton William who died Firbank 1808 is highly likely to be the son of Edward and Dulcibella and the father of the George who married Easet CARRUTHERS (whose brother Richard was at Hornick Hill incidentally), so I've connected him up. Others may well have reached this conclusion quicker, but I've only just worked thru the headstones and done the sums etc.
Got a bit of a problem with some of George's descendants though. Two researchers who have been in contact with me both claim George and Easet's illegitimate son William as theirs. One as William GRAHAM married to Jane FERGUSON, the other as William CARRUTHERS married to Jane ARMSTRONG. More work is needed to sort that lot out.

Along the way of all this activity Bridget mentioned that one of her lot married one of the Moorhouse GRAHAM lot, a Romulus IRVING. The very next marriage I looked up was for Mary Eleanor GRAHAM, who turned out to be the one married to Romulus Graham IRVING. I guess with a father named George ROME you might just call a son Romulus (especially if he was illegitimate and he wasn't living with you).
Also a few snippets from NRH courtesy of Robert. 3 more of the children of Robert TAYLOR and Isabella Armstrong McGREGOR have been identified, only 7 to go.
Also some dates/places on the FAIRBAIRN/JARDINE line in Hawick.

Oct 30, 2007: More McGREGORs, and rabitting on..

More McGREGOR updates from the BRC clan from Noreen. It's getting close to time to do another WorldConnect Update as there have been rather a lot of updates over the last few weeks.
The search for living Michigan RUNCIMAN descendants for the DNA survey continues. Rang a likely looking candidate this morning (well he lived in the same State where I know Dr Ronald H had lived for a while), and had a lovely chat to a Sir Walter descendant who may be convinced to join in.
Contacted by a double descendant of the warreners (Nicholas WARE and Margaret King CREBER). Steve R's grandmother is a descendant from Nicholas' first marriage and his grandfather, William Monarch TURNER, from the 2nd marriage. WMT emigrated to Australia and joined the AIF only to be killed nr Gallipoli "of wounds at sea" according to an Anzacs web site.

Oct, 29, 2007: BROOKING corrections, Canadian McGREGORs ++

Daniel McGREGOR is hereby brought back to life - at least for a while. The death in the BC index of the right age turns out not to be him. Noreen checked, and also supplied several other updates to the McGREGOR pile from the films, ta muchly.
With my findmypast voyager sub about to expire I've been chasing around looking for any likely emigration candidates in my database. Don't think I've found (m)any as yet, but in doing the checking I have managed to find several other bits and bobs, eg the Archibald FAIRBAIRN that I lost in 1891 and assumed was dead because he wasn't with his wife Isabella, nee DAVIDSON, and their children. Archibald, Isabella and dtr Isabella turn up in Glasgow (were in London), with several "visitors" that looked like they might actually be relations. Sure enough, one was dtr Elizabeth now married to a Thomas CRAWFORD, the other was Isabella's niece Johan DAVIDSON now married to a Joseph Ellis MORRIS.
Also some corrections to a BROOKING/ROWE area of my database. Found Doris Phyllis BROOKING on a ship to Canada in 1920 with her brothers and either her mother or father (listed as Mr I M BROOKING, engineer, counted in the Males column, but I M are Mum's initials and Dad was Walter Rowe BROOKING, was already in Canada).
Along with the emigration data I kept digging and have corrected Walter's death information. He appears to have died in St Paul, Ramsey, Minnesota in 1947, not the May 1959 Exeter Devon I had previously.
Rest of family also updated with a few items.

Oct 22, 2007: Win some, lose some

Another DAW(E) line down to present day. Amanda, the grddtr of Richard NORRISH, son of Alice DAW(E) and William NORRISH has contacted me.
The McADIE family tree has shrunk by one. Noel's eagle eyes spotted that I had a Raymond Robert son for Jessie BROTHERTON nee McADIE that he didn't have. My source was the bad writing on Jessie's death cert, re-examination could easily convince me it was actually the Reginald Robert I already had in the family, especially as I couldn't corroborate his existance via the Pioneer Index.
And back to Margaret HENDERSON's McGREGOR brood. Linda and Noreen have had a successful hunt thru the Manitoban and British Columbian indexes after Linda found James Donaldson McGREGOR in the Canadian Expeditionary Forces papers in the Canadian Archives. It looks like Noreen's husband's mysterious (great) uncle Dan has now been found, at last.

Oct 8, 2007: More HEIGHTs scaled

Quick response to a Rootsweb posting I made on the Digby, Nova Scotia message board. We now have details about Alden HEIGHT and Christine McGREGOR's 1910 Massachusetts marriage, but aren't really any further ahead with info on the supposed 1932 marriage to Minnie Dale FRANKLIN nee WILSON that cannot have happened then (Minnie was the informant for her then husband's death in 1936, James FRANKLIN). Odd that Alden appears to be married to a Bessie F in 1943, Minnie in 1942 and still to Christine in 1941 (New Hampshire directories via Ancestory).

Curiousity got the better of me however, so I took a punt that the HEIGHTs still living at a 40 yr old address in Hartford Noreen had were the ones at the end of this chain. Spoke to a grddaughter of Alden's who confirmed he'd married firstly Christina then Minnie, but in the brief conversation, nothing was known about any Bessie F. Hope to hear from her via email to "discuss" further.

And back to the GRAHAMs of Fauld. Annemarie a descendant of a William GRAHAM has been in touch. She thinks he's the son of the Dulcibella who married Edward (both GRAHAM) but lacked anything conclusive to link them, just the circumstantial evidence of h/stone proximity. Yet to check it out, but looks like another rellie as Dulcibella left her son William 1/- in her will.

Oct 6, 2007: HEIGHTS of HENDERSONs

The HENDERSON/McGREGOR research has reached new HEIGHTs today, along with CARLIN, COUSIN, RINTOUL, LIBRIZZI, and AVEDESIAN. Today's journey has taken Noreen, Linda and I to Canada and back to New Jersey, Connecticut with a detour or two to Massachusets and added those surnames into the tree (along with several more common names, such as WRIGHT, which are much harder to trace!).
Anyone with a stray Adam McGREGOR wanting a home? Possible last sighting 1871 Dunfermline with a LOW family who may or may not be relations via his mother. Born 1858, vanished into thin air after appearing at home with his family in 1861.
HENDERSON descendant chart updated again to keep pace with the research.

Oct 5, 2007: Aliens galore

Even more HENDERSON/McGREGOR updates. Noreen in BC has been talking to the rellies and gleaning some family stories, which has give us some great leads as to what happened to the assorted families. Timescales seem to be subject to the usual vagaries of memory, and one story places Daniel McGREGOR in Ontario, but this is proving hard to validate.
She was very surprised to find that one family also lived in BC.

The HENDERSON descendant chart has been updated as a temporary measure until I've finished this rash of updates and can update World Connect again.

Immigration records have been a great help in tracking down what happened to some of them. I just love the phrase that appears on the US Alien manifests, "nearest relative or friend in country whence alien came".

Surnames added into the HENDERSON tree as a result include: COUSIN, HAMILTON, TAYLOR, CAMERON, with associated places including Ontario, and British Columbia, but also New Jersey, and of course outer space for the aliens.

Sep 28, 2007: More McGREGORs

Even more HENDERSON/McGREGOR activity last 2 days. I presume we might find them all sooner or later!
Latest main discovery was finding that Helen (aka Nellie) McGREGOR married an Andrew JACK (ta Linda). I then found that this family emigrated to the States in 1907 (Andrew) and 1908 (rest of family). This added in a BORRUP line. Main haunts seem to be New Jersey and Connecticut, with a dash of California and Florida, this latter assuming that the Margaret Elizabeth Addison BORRUP who is shown as dying in Miami in 1948 is Margaret E A JACK dtr of Andrew and Helen/Nellie.
A Rootsweb WC "tree" of the BORRUPs has the JACK family a tad mixed up, but is full of useful hints as to where to look for assorted branches, and it looks like there's a NZ connection in there too, not that I can figure out where Elsie ALLER fits. Anyone out there to help me on that one?
Brenda K, (married to a grdson of George Manson Henderson BAIN), pointed me to a searchable site for British Columbia burials.

Sep 26, 2007: Two for the price of one

More HENDERSON/McGREGOR activity today. Linda found the elusive Susan HUTTON, she'd inconsiderately moved to England and married a JONES. I found more SHEPHERDs, inlcuding two for the price of one. Acted on a hunch and ordered a likely looking marriage certificate for John SHEPHERD, one of the witnesses was a Margaret SHEPHERD of the same address, so went looking for her birth. She was a twin, Margaret McLean SHEPHERD and Christina Johnston SHEPHERD (talk about getting in all the family names with economy of effort).

Anyone with Timaru connections might be interested in the Timaru District Council web site - has a well indexed burial register for the Timaru District Cemeteries, ie not just Timaru but also Geraldine and Pleasant Point (at least), linked to photographs of headstones and plots. Which meant a brief sidetrack and several people with dates updated now. (That info came courtesy of the Canterbury Branch newsletter).

Sep 25, 2007: Fife HENDERSON descendants

HENDERSONs rule KO. Linda and I have had an intensive couple of days updating assorted McGREGORs in Fife (descendants of Archibald HENDERSON's dtr Margaret), prompted by the GenForum posting from a descendant mentioned below. Probably more updates to come, but enough changes have been checked out by now to justify an update to LornaHenderson db on WorldConnect.
The basic HENDERSON chart has also been updated.

Sep 23, 2007: Tiptoeing thru the TIPPETTS, and hunting the HENDERSONs

A day for the TIPPETTs, well an hr or two anyway. Found an entry in my Guestbook from Karen directing me to her TIPPETT/ROUNSLEY information. So much easier finding people in the US census when you know where to look, even though TIPPETT was variously transcribed on ancestry as LEFFEL and TAPPET (corrections lodged). I'd guess that the ROBERTS connected into the TIPPETTs shown on Karen's page probably connect to the other Welsh ROBERTS that married into the ROUNSLEYs but I'll not get sidetracked onto that as it's getting a bit far away from the already distant relations here.
Also several snippets from Linda H. on the HENDERSON/McGREGOR line, spurred on by the contact via the McGREGOR GenForum. Linda found George WATT in Edinburgh in 1901 and found his son, yet another William Meikle WATT, and George's marriage, irregular "by declaration". Several of the family of James HUTTON and Margaret McGREGOR continue to elude her/us though. Anyone seen a Janet HUTTON after 1886? Born Dunfermline 1856. Possible last census sighting was as a cook in Edinburgh St George in 1881.

Sep 13, 2007: Back to BAINs & no luck with LUCOCK

Hope to get Thomas SCOTT on the web soon as I've had fun chasing assorted Cumberland SCOTT families around the records the last couple of days. No great conclusion re Eleanor's relationship to them though. Someone, somewhere might hold the key to where Eleanor fits in.

Also hope to get out an update to my WorldConnect db LornaHenderson as there seems to have been a sudden rush of updates.

GenesReunited hot matches has put me in contact with another of the BAIN/SUTHERLAND/THOM descendants in Australia, so that's a few more dots on i's and t's crossed (how are you meant to write that, doesn't look right with "is" for plural of i!). Thank you Peter M., 4th cousin once removed. The BAIN chart has therefore had a few twigs added.

Received a reply from the LUCKOCK researcher, but dipped out on enough information to solve the Agnes Gair HENDERSON & Joseph LUCOCK marriage mentioned below, at least not without paying for a certificate anyway.

Linda H called my attention to the McGREGOR GenForum activity in response to one of her posts. Looks like we've been found by another HENDERSON descendant of Margaret H, sister to my James H. Not sure where as yet, but her husband is a descendant of James Addison McGREGOR.

Update: digging around from the hints on GenForum and the fact that Canada might be a good place to find James, I came up trumps as he started off in Ontario where I can access BDM data online via Ancestry, and there were a couple of dths in the British Columbia index too so the HENDERSON chart has a few extra twigs under James McGREGOR now.

Sep 6, 2007: Small world territory and updates

Found a couple more RICHARDSON relations whilst browsing Ancestry today. Noticed that a couple of trees had the same RICHARDSON and RUNCIMAN names as my tree so went investigating. Guess I'll only hear from them if their user info on ancestry is up to date. Small world territory. One of them appears to be from the Robert RICHARDSON Jane YOUNG branch of the tree but has ended up in the same Northumberland town as a RICHARDSON researcher down from the John RICHARDSON / Elizabeth SHIELL line.
The PC Robert RICHARDSON, of Northumberland, is of this RICHARDSON/YOUNG line (and still hasn't been written up).
I'm in the process of preparing a presentation for the Computer Users Group of the local genealogy society. Which means I'm looking around for suitable screen shots as illustrations. As a result I've found someone else researching the family that Margaret Alice RUNCIMAN belongs too and have sent her a message, brought the family of Duncan McGREGOR and Helen MOULTRIE up to the 1901 census and updated my LornaPotential database.

Aug 15th, 2007: BIDGOOD, BARNFATHER, SCOTT

A day for the Bs (mostly).

On library duty for the local Kapiti Genealogy Society and had time to do a bit of checking for myself.

Several of the BARNFATHER family in Victoria, AUS have had marriage years added, also some birth and dth years confirmed/updated. No surprises.

And an email from a descendant of Fred BIDGOOD of Bayonne, New Jersey has provided some updates to her line (thanks Wendy). Always good to know that a potential census match I’d found was the right one. Subsequent family events have been recorded in Ohio (Fred’s dth) and San Diego (wife Isabel’s dth).

One snippet for the SCOTT (RICHARDSON) family (1918 dth of James Richardson SCOTT, s/o David and Margaret (RICHARDSON) SCOTT). My helper hasn’t been able to find the dths of his siblings, Robert R and Thomas Alston SCOTT in Scotland. Wonder where the Alston bit of the name comes from? This James R SCOTT was a 9 yr old visitor with a Hugh & Christian ALSTON in 1861.

Was debating with myself about whether or not to continue in parallel with the WhatChanged where the data is searchable and scrollable for up to 6mths worth of data at once, compared to individual messages only able to be filtered via the label search facility. And won. Given no messages are actually stored on my servers, only the templates and indices, I think I want belts and braces and will keep both going.

Thanks to Linda, the fate of John BLAIR, husband of Helen Margaret Dewar McGREGOR, one of the HENDERSON descendants, has been brought forward from a last sighting in 1874 up to 1901, with a new wife and another family, his first wife and child having died.