Using www.scottishindexes.com to the full

As well as searching www.scottishindexes.com by name you can also search by keyword alone. This means it’s good for one place studies, but also for searching for different types of people. Let’s take an example: bondagers and hinds.

There was a practice amongst agricultural communities, mainly in the south-east of Scotland and north east of England where a man employed on a farm as hind would supply a young woman to work on the fields; she was known as a bondager.

When a man was newly married, his wife might work as a bondager. Once they had children and the married woman could no longer work in the fields, another relative, perhaps her sister would fulfil this role, until eventually a daughter was old enough to provide the labour. If there was no female relative to take the job, it was common for a woman from outside the family to become the bondager.

The hind would generally be a ploughman, having the important responsibility of looking after the horses, an integral part of any farm. The bondager would work in the fields, particularly during the harvest season.

The hind would often be ‘paid in kind’, often grain and a little land to cultivate. Any surplus could be sold at the market. The bondager could be paid in cash, or her wages might be the house in which they would all live.

You  can see an example of this situation in our 1841 census record.

As the 19th century progressed, the custom gradually began to die out. If we follow the same family we saw in the 1841 census to 1851 we see John now described as an ‘Ag. Lab’. Another young woman is with the family, this time being described as a Farm Servant.

Exactly what arrangement was made is difficult to know, it could be a that Margaret was a bondager but not recorded that way in the census. We know however that the practice was dying out so perhaps the arrangements had changed.

To learn more about hinds and bondagers I would recommend www.thebondagers.com and www.foodheritage-berwick.org.uk.

Beyond the census - Woodhead lead mines, Carsphairn

It’s difficult, sometimes, to look at places today and imagine how they used to be. It’s particularly poignant to see only ruins of places where whole communities once lived and thrived. Moss grows on old stones, and people forget small histories.

In the parish of Carsphairn, up in the hills, we find the long-abandoned Woodhead lead mines. It is peaceful – no echoes remain of the heavy sounds of industry that were once heard here. Although ruinous, we can still see the foundations of the manager’s home, the terraced houses of the miners, the schoolhouse and the smelt mill. The mine shafts themselves were blocked up with rubbish when the mine was closed – unassailed by the elements they remain in good condition.

Mining in Woodhead was started in 1838 by the proprietor Colonel MacAdam Cathcart. After discovering that greywacke on the surface was rich in lead, he led an excavation 20 feet deep which confirmed his hopes. There was a great deal of money to be made in lead at the time, and the Colonel was swift to construct not only a mine but an entire village surrounding the works. An 1856 publication described the process thus:

By degrees miners were collected, cottages reared, furnaces, smelting-houses, and other necessary accommodations followed; and where not a solitary shieling appeared before, rows, or streets of cottages now adorn heights eclipsing in size the village of Lagwyne [Carsphairn] below, to say nothing of public works and their gradual extension, which, in the course of little more than three years, have drawn together a body of artisans who have raised the population of the parish from 500 in 1831, to 790 souls in 1841.

(The Topographical, Statistical,and Historical Gazetteer of Scotland, 1856) 

The construction of entire model villages around mines was not unusual at the time, with many industrialists providing housing and community amenities for their workers. The village at Woodhead included a library and a school for workers’ children. Our census records for the schoolhouse read thus:  

Name

Relationship

Condition

Age

Sex

Occupation

Birthplace

James  Irvine

Head

Married

35

M

Teacher of English

Roxburgh, Ancrum

Ann Irvine

Wife

Married

35

F

Schoolmistress

Roxburgh, Jedburgh

James and Ann Irvine would have taught the children until only about twelve years of age. Boys from the age of eight were employed in the washing and dressing of the lead ore and would have attended school only during the winter, when the conditions became too harsh to work. Girls from around the same age would have assumed a number of household duties. Childhood was short, and practically prepared children for their future roles.

Lead mining continued at Woodhead until 1873, producing at its peak around 900 tons of lead a year.  Hundreds made their homes in this remote village in Scotland. Now, only ruins and passed-down memories can recall the mining community which once brought life to these hills. 

Census Mapping

Graham has begun adding map links for Berwickshire to our census database. We already link each household in our Roxburghshire, Peeblesshire and Selkirkshire 1841, 1851 and 1861 census to both modern Google maps and historical maps (courtesy of the National Library of Scotland who have an exceptional online collection of maps).

Here's how it works:

Search our census (this time I am searching for Robert Fairbairn born around 1800).

Choose your family from the results.

You will now see a full transcription and links to Current Map/Satellite (this is Google Satellite imagery), OS (Ordnance Survey) 6 inch Map (19th C) and OS (Ordnance Survey) 25 inch Map (19th C). I would recommend looking at the modern map first.

You will now see a pointer showing where the house was/is and you can also click the little yellow man and drag him to see the house on Street View (if the area has been covered by Street View of course).

The map links open a new tab on your browser so that you can easily go back to the transcription and select another map. Then using the modern map you can locate the house on the old maps too!

We have now mapped Peeblesshire, Roxburghshire, Selkirkshire and Cockburnspath Parish, Berwickshire. Subscribe to my newsletter to keep up-to-date with the mapping project or follow Graham (the map man) on Twitter! 

Their object in coming might be prompted by mere inquisitiveness…

I am again reading files from the National Records of Scotland regarding the administration of the Old Age Pension. It seems by this time there was a bit of a backlog of cases to be searched in both the OPRs and the census. Mr William Beale, an MP in Ayrshire, was asking questions in parliament. In the minutes I am reading there is a ‘Notice of Question for Tuesday 21st February 1911’. It reads: “To ask the Lord Advocate, whether his attention has been called to applications for old age pensions at Cumnock, Ayrshire, and elsewhere, in which the applicants are unable to prove their age by reason of the absence of proper records of baptism during the disturbed period preceding the disruption of the Church of Scotland, and in which applicants desiring to supplement their available evidence by the help of Census Returns, were informed by the Local Government Board for Scotland that the Census Returns were not available for consultation by the applicants; and whether the Local Government can, and will themselves, consult the Census Returns in such cases, or procure access thereto for the applicants, or can and will otherwise facilitate proof of age where neglect in the keeping of the public records puts applicants to disadvantage.” In the somewhat lengthy reply made by the Registrar-General (James Patten McDougall) there is this paragraph that I found rather entertaining: “I should stipulate that the enquiries are to be made at the instance of the Pension Officers only, and not by the public. If the public were to be allowed access to the Census documents, I am afraid it would open a very wide door and might lead to abuses, e.g. the public would come here without having recourse to the ordinary registers, and their object in coming might be prompted by mere inquisitiveness. Further I am afraid that these old books would not last long if handled by all and sundry.”

OAP searches in the 1861 census

By 1913 searches were being made in the 1861 census (as well as the 1841 and 1851 census as discussed in a previous blog) to establish the age of claimants of the Old Age Pension. To begin with it was only used for the the most urgent cases. The reason for this is that time was needed to rebind the enumeration books, as the covers were thin. Conducting too many searches would be damaging to the books.

 Here is a letter from the Local Government Board dated 20th June 1913 to The Registrar General, New Register House.

 "Sir,

 I am directed to thank you for your Memorandum of the 27th ultimo giving the results of references made in the Census Returns of 1861.

 With reference to your letter of 10th instant on the general question of the availability of the Census Returns of 1861, the Board note that systematic reference cannot be undertaken for some time. I am, however, to append a further selected list of cases where an early search in the Returns of 1861 would prove most useful, and to say that if you can see your way to cause such a search to be made, the Board will be greatly obliged.

I am,

Sir,

Your obedient Servant

[signed] David Brown

Assistant Secretary"

A few pages on in NRS item number GRO5/779 we find the cases mentioned in the letter. I have transcribed four for you to see, there are a number more.

Click to view larger image

Interspersed with these more urgent cases are references to the need to update ‘Pensions form 16’ to include a section where the claimant can say where they were when the 1861 census was taken. An example of both the form in use until this point and the ‘new’ up-to-date form are included in these papers.

The search continues...

Decreet, Armstrong v Kirk - 2 September 1847

“Decreet, Armstrong v Kirk - 2 September 1847”, sounds innocuous enough, you may think. Not far into this particular decree, though, we find out some very useful genealogical information. The following decree is taken from a so far unindexed volume of the Jedburgh Sheriff Court Register of Decreets (or Decrees). Much of the material in these volumes concerns the resolution of financial disputes and the like. Interesting perhaps, but not as useful to the genealogist as the paternity cases interspersed amongst the courts business.

After 1855 we generally know if there was a paternity decree as it would normally be recorded on the civil registration birth certificate. Before 1855, however there may be very little information. Sometimes we can find an entry in Kirk Session minutes, but these have not always survived, and not all families were members of the Church of Scotland or one of the other leading Presbyterian churches which kept such records. Even when such minutes survive, the entries may give only very limited information regarding the parents.

Sometimes we see an illegitimate child use a father’s surname (often this is the case in the early census returns), and we may speculate as to the identity of the father. Sheriff Court decrees like the one shown in the extract below can enable us to positively identify the father of an illegitimate child and therefore overcome a brick wall in our family tree. The decree is often only the starting point, as in many cases the processes also survive. The processes are court papers which often give us much more information than the decree and help us to see the case from the perspective of both the pursuer and the defender.

I am pleased to say work has now begun on indexing these wonderful records. Watch this space!

In the margin we read:

Decreet

Armstrong

v

Kirk

2d September 1847

The body of the text reads as follows:

At Jedburgh the Twenty eighth day of July and the Sixteenth day of August Eighteen hundred and forty seven years Sitting in Judgment John Craigie Esquire Sheriff Substitute of the County of Roxburgh in an action raised before the Sheriff Court of the said County at the instance of Jemima Armstrong Daughter of and residing with William Armstrong Blacksmith in Morebattle Pursuer against William Kirk Blacksmith in Morebattle defender. The Sheriff Decerned and Ordained and herby Decerns and Ordains that the said William Kirk Defender to make payment to the said Jemima Armstrong Pursuer of the sum of One pound of inlying expenses of a male bastard child of which the pursuer was delivered on the twentieth day of March eighteen hundred and forty seven of which the said William Kirk is the father. Item of the sum of one pound ten shilling per quarter for three quarters of nursing fee. Item of Four pounds per annum of aliment thereafter payable quarterly and per advance which aliment is to continue until the said child shall arrive at the age of ten years unless the said defender shall when the child shall attain the age of seven years offer to take it to his own home and provide suitably for it reserving to the said child its relations to apply and shew cause for a continuance of the aliment after it shall arrive at the age of ten years and to the Defender his Defences as accords. Item of Interest on the several sums as they have become or may become respectively due until paid. Item of the sum of Three pounds & eight pence of Expenses of process and Item of the sum of four shillings as the dues of Extracting this Decreet and of Recording the same. And I the said Sheriff &c

Written by Geo. Henderson Collated by I Stewart Newbigging

Taken from Jedburgh Sheriff Court, Register of Decrees (NRS reference SC62/7/9, pages 4 and 5).

This record now helps us to identify the William Kirk or Anderson seen here in the census of 1851 as the child of William Kirk seen here. Hopefully unravelling a little mystery for the Armstrong family!

Do you have this type of mystery? I hope the indexes that we are going to make available soon will help. In the meantime email me with your genealogical queries and we will see what we can do.

www.maxwellancestry.com

The 1831 census of Jedburgh is now transcribed

As we all know the 1841 census is the first Scottish census which has survived throughout almost all of Scotland, however there are some pre 1841 censuses that do survive and some are very detailed. We have just published the 1831 census of Jedburgh in Roxburghshire. You can buy it directly from Maxwell Ancestry for just £8.99. Follow this link for a free list of  the surnames contained in the book: http://www.maxwellancestry.com/ancestry/publishing/names/31792.htm

Only basic statistical information was required to be submitted for each parish in the censuses prior to 1841. Very few listings containing the names of individuals, therefore, have survived.  In the case of Jedburgh parish, what has survived is simply a listing of heads of households, followed by statistics about their household. As the manner in which the data was collected in these early census years was left up to each individual schoolmaster to decide for himself, there is no standard way the information is laid out. We have followed closely the format the original material is laid out in.

The population of Jedburgh parish in 1831 was 5.647, with 1,227 households listed. The record is split into two sections, one for the burgh (population 3,617) and one for the landward part of the parish (population 2,030). The burgh section includes the houses within both the ancient Royal Burgh and the Parliamentary Burgh boundaries. The Burgh section includes frequent additional information in the ‘Remarks to enable to answer additional Queries’ column, but unfortunately this has not been filled in for the landward section of the parish. In the ‘Remarks’ column, frequent reference is made to ‘above’ and ‘below’. This refers to other individuals in the household other than the household head, above or below the age of 20 years, engaged in occupations to be recorded for the census statistics. If another occupation is listed in the remarks column, and the ‘Males above 20’ column is higher than one, the additional occupation(s) are likely to be for the other adult males in the household.

Holywood 1841 census added to the database

We have added the 1841 census for Holywood to our database and of course it’s available in our bookshop too. Here are the surnames which appear in the census:

Adamson; Ademson; Afflick; Anderson; Atchison; Auchterson; Austin; Baird; Ballantine; Ballintine; Beatie; Beattie; Bell; Bickerstaff; Bilby; Black; Blackie; Blackley; Blacklock; Blain; Borthwick; Boyes; Briggs; Broatch; Brodie; Brown; Bryden; Brydon; Burges; Burgess; Callander; Cambell; Campbell; Carid; Carr; Carruthers; Carson; Caven; Charters; Clark; Clemison; Clifford; Clune; Colvin; Conal; Conchie; Connal; Connan; Connell; Corrie; Corson; Costine; Coston; Cowan; Craig; Creighton; Creiry; Crocket; Croket; Crone; Crosbie; Cunninham; Dalrymple; Dickson; Dinwiddie; Douglas; Drummond; Duff; Dunn; Easton; Edgar; Elton; Fair; Farish; Fenton; Ferguson; Fergusson; Ferquher; Flinn; Flynn; Frazer; Gaffeny; Gass; Gedess; Gemmell; Gibbs; Gibson; Gillespie; Glencross; Glendining; Glendinning; Glover; Gordon; Gourley; Gracie; Graham; Greirson; Grerson; Grier; Gunion; Hair; Haliday; Hamilton; Hannah; Hannay; Hastings; Hawthorn; Henderson; Henry; Hepburn; Hiddelston; Hiddleston; Hill; Hodge; Hyslop; Inglis; Irvine; Irving; Jardine; Johnson; Johnston; Johnstone; Kellock; Kenedy; Kennedy; Kilpatrick; Kirk; Kirkpaterick; Kirkpatrick; Kirkwood; Kirpatrick; Landsburgh; Laurie; Lawrie; Lawson; Lennox; Lewis; Lindsay; Little; Livingstone; Lockerby; Loremer; Lorimar; Marshal; Marshall; Mason; Masterman; Mather; Maxwel; Maxwell; McAdam; Mcally; McBurney; McBurnie; McCaig; McCall; McCalley; McCloury; McCornick; McCubbing; McFeggan; McGeorge; McGill; McKaig; McKenery; McKenzie; McKinnel; McKnight; McMichael; McMichan; McMurray; McMurry; McNae; McNaught; McNeil; McQueen; Meighan; Melvin; Middelton; Millar; Miller; Milligan; Monteith; More; Moreland; Morine; Morrow; Muir; Muirhead; Mullholland; Mullins; Murdoch; Nealson; Neilson; Nelson; Newall; Nicholson; Nicol; Norval; Oliver; Pagan; Paterson; Patrick; Pearson; Peary; Piles; Porteous; Pots; Rae; Ramage; Ramge; Renewick; Richardson; Riddell; Ritchie; Robson; Roddan; Roden; Rorrison; Saffely; Sanders; Saunders; Scott; Seaton; Servace; Simson; Smith; Somerville; Souland; Spence; Stitt; Swan; Tait; Taylor; Thompson; Thomson; Thorburn; Threshie; Todd; Turner; Twineholm; Walch; Walker; Ward; Waters; Watson; Waugh; Welch; Welsh; Whitehead; Wightman; Wilson; Wright

Search for free or buy a book for your library!

1841 and 1861 Fala and Soutra census now online

Just to let you know we have uploaded the 1841 and 1861 census of Fala and Soutra to www.maxwellancestry.com. We have also added notes and household links. We have been sent research by various people which we try to verify and as soon as possible.

The website is still under review and we have received some great feedback but if you have not been in touch yet but have some suggestions please let us know as we want to make it as easy as possible to use.

Use of Maiden Surname in Scotland

I came across this question today on www.rootschat.com:

“Can someone please clarify something for me?

When a woman married in Scotland, did she always retain her m.s. name?”

I thought the answer might be of use to everybody who reads this blog so here it is:

Yes, this can be a little confusing but also helpful when you understand what’s going on.

In Scotland a married woman can legally be known by both her maiden name and her husband’s name. In fact on gravestones it is usually a woman’s maiden name that will appear and it will say something like “wife of John Smith”. This still happens to this day.

In the census it is a little more haphazard, usually she will be listed with her married name but it is not unusual to see a maiden name. The 1841 census can therefore be confusing as there are no relationships listed but then again in most families it is quite obvious.

In our own census indexing project we have indexed these women under both married and maiden name (when it is obvious) to save confusion. We have added an alternative surname column too.

So if you do come across the maiden name in the census it will make it much easier to find a marriage.

Another thing to remember is that if the woman is a widow the chances of her being listed under her maiden name increases dramatically and if you don’t know what to look for these widows can be hard to find. I usually look for her children in the hope she is living with one of them.

Carnwath 1851 census added to site

We have added the 1851 census for Carnwath to our free Scottish census search, this is a new publication which we have just produced. We are not planning to complete all of Lanarkshire by any means, however, that does bring the total of Lanarkshire parishes transcribed by us to eleven. This means that if you are looking for people in rural Lanarkshire our free census search is worth a shot although not as complete as it is for other counties.

Buy the book on-line today!

New Feature added to our fee census

We have just added an automatic maiden name search!

Try searching in the 1861 Census for "Elizabeth Grieve" located in the parish of "Roberton".

www.maxwellancestry.com/census

The only result will be Elizabeth G. Beatie, when you click to see the transcription you will see that Grieve was her maiden name. The maiden name has been automatically searched; this should help when researching female relatives especially if you don’t know whom they married! Not all married females have been entered in this way however as time goes on more and more will appear.

If you have evidence for a maiden name (or alternative surname) and you would like us to add it to the census database, please email me.

Do you have a few moments to take my survey?

I have created a survey with surveymonkey.com. Basically it’s a way for you to tell me what you think about our new census search service. (www.maxwellancestry.com/census) There are only 10 questions so if you have used our census search since it went online on September the 9^th please take a few minutes to complete my survey.

It will hep us improve the site for everybody, thank you in anticipation.

Click here to take my survey