Illegitimate Ancestor? Try the Sheriff Court!

Thanks to our wonderful volunteer, Margaret Hamilton, we now have an extensive index to ‘paternity’ cases found in the Sheriff Courts of southern Scotland.

What are we indexing

We are indexing cases where the mother of a child took the father to court for aliment, to help her provide for the child. In these cases the child is almost always illegitimate. The mother had to prove who the father was: It’s genealogical gold dust!

See our help pages for more information on how the process worked.

Coverage

At the moment we have indexed the following courts for the following years:

Dumfries 1830-1914

Duns 1830-1914

Jedburgh 1831-1892

Peebles 1837-1914

Selkirk 1830-1914

Update September 2014

Hawick 1894-1914

Kirkcudbright 1748-1765, 1830-1914 (excluding the years 1877-78, 1890-91 and 1907-09 which are missing from the original register)

Stranraer 1887-1914
Wigtown 1830-1914
Edinburgh 1830-1836

Searching

Searching our online collections is absolutely free and there is no need to register. If you wish to keep up-to-date you can subscribe to my newsletter.

You can search by any one or a combination of the following search fields:

Mother’s forename

Mother’s surname

Father’s forename

Father’s surname

Year of birth

Year of case

Tip

If a child is recorded in the census with a different surname to the mother it is probably the father’s surname, use it to narrow down the search results.

Search Results

Our online index gives comprehensive results:

Pursuer's Name, Occupation and Residence

Defender's Name, Occupation and Residence

Year the Child was born

Year of the Case

Name of Court

Seeing the full record

The index should be enough to identify records relating to your family. You can then order the decree from us for just five pounds. For the research fee of five pounds we transcribe the entry and email that to you along with digital images* of the decree.

It may also be possible to find additional court material, such as witness testimonies. If it is possible in your case we will advise you of this when we send you the transcription of the decree.

*Please note that any images given to you by Scottish Indexes of National Records of Scotland documents are provided for your own personal research and may not be published [including online] without the relevant licences/permissions being granted.

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! 

Family History Fair - Free Consultations

The Scottish Association of Family History Societies' (SAFHS) 25th Annual Conference and Family History Fair will be held on Saturday the 26th of April 2014 at the Carnegie Conference Centre, Dunfermline.

As usual we will have a table and will be offering free consultations throughout the day. We can help with research all over the world but we specialise in researching families from southern Scotland and particularly enjoy the challenge of overcoming 'brick walls'.

We will have a multitude of resources on hand to help you with your family and our time will be free! You can either turn up on the day or book a slot in advance. You can even email me ahead of time to explain your 'brick wall' to us.

Here are the slots that remain:

09:30 - email to book
10:00 - email to book
10:30 - email to book
11:00 - email to book
11:30 - email to book
13:00 - email to book
13:30 - email to book
14:00 - email to book
14:30 - email to book
15:00 - email to book
15:30 - email to book

There will be something for every family at the fair, visit the SAFHS website for up-to-date information and to book!

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

Scottish local photos and postcards now on Flickr

High Stret, Innerleithen from the west, a photo by Maxwell Ancestry on Flickr.

We have begun uploading our collection of photographs and old postcards to Flickr. Most of these will be free to use as long as you attribute them to us.

We're doing this because we know how important it is to see where your ancestors lived and how they lived, I believe you need to see more than a list of names and dates. When we create our luxury books we source photographs and postcards to help you visualise the lives of your ancestors.

Our collection is Scottish and mainly the Borders and Dumfriesshire however we may stray out of our area from time to time. We are trying to geotag photos and by giving descriptive titles and appropriate tags we hope the whole world will be able to find them! We still need your help though; if you have a personal story about a place in one of our photos can you add it in a comment. We hope it will be a simple way to share a lot of history

Take a look at our collection: http://www.flickr.com/photos/maxwellancestry/collections/72157629222108089/

Hobkirk Kirkyard photos

I had an enjoyable day out in the Scottish countryside today. It was a very cold but very sunny day. As traditionally gravestones face east I made a fairly early start to ensure I could catch the morning sun hitting the front of the stones.

I was looking for a particular stone, which I found quickly, but as I was there on such a beautiful day I decided to photograph all the gravestones in the older part of Hobkirk Kirkyard. An example is shown below, but someday we will try to make them all available online. In the meantime if you are looking for a particular grave e-mail me and I’ll see if I can find it for you.

In Memory Of

James Binnie Oliver son of

George Oliver Shepherd in Gatehous-

ecott who does at Carolcroft

June 21st 1853 Aged 20 years

Also

George Oliver who dies at Burnfoot Sept. 12

1878 Aged 76 Years.

Also

Elspeth Murray wife of George Oliver

who died at Gatehousecott, March 13th, 1862,

aged 62 years.

Also Robert Barnes their son in law

who died at Hawthornside 18th July 1894.

Aged 57 years

Also Elizabeth Oliver his wife who died

at Kinninghall 17th Aug. 1917, aged 86 years.

Sir John Pringle

One of the reasons I have been so slow to produce the first volume of the Kelso Dispensary records is that I keep getting distracted. The diseases are so interesting, not to mention the people in the registers and my constant amazement that so many ordinary people were given treatment.

Today I have been looking at Sir John Pringle who is one of the “Recommenders”, a quick Google search revealed that there is actually a monument to Sir John Pringle in Westminster Abbey!

By the time the dispensary opened its doors Sir John was about 70, but that doesn’t seem to have held him back.

So you never know perhaps you are alive today because the dispensary saved your GGGGgrandfather!

Free Castleton Poor Roll Index

We have just uploaded another PDF to our website, the Index to Castleton Poor Roll 1846-1864. Although quite interesting itself the index is a key to further information.

The full record has lists of children of the recipient as well as details relating to emigration, employment and education. The columns in the original book are as follows:

1. Name of Pauper
2. Present residence
3. Married or single, widow, or widower. If child, orphan, deserted or bastard.
4. Name of each dependant living with Pauper
5. Age – Years
6. Place of birth
7. Trade or occupation
8. If wholly or partially disabled
9. Description of disablement
10. Means and resources of Pauper besides Parochial relief
11. Names and weekly earnings of Parents
12. Names, ages, and earnings of children not living with Pauper, and whether marries, and number of children.
13. Date when admitted on Roll.
14. Amount of relief in money.
15. Amount of relief in food, clothing, fuel, lodging, or of any other kind.
16. Date and cause of removal from Roll.
17. Remarks

So as you can see the form was quite detailed, sadly not all entries have every column filled in but all the entries are of interest if they are related to you!

 Castleton Poor Roll Index

Hawick has been mapped!!

Finally the mapping of Hawick has been finished. That means we have linked over 20,000 individual records to Google maps and of course the National Library of Scotland. It’s been a while since we have updated the database and we have been busy with other things too, which I will tell you about in separate blogs.

The last update not only added the Hawick map links but also some map links for Duns and varies other household links and notes that we have been collecting while we have been researching in the Borders.

So here is the link too our free census search away, I hope you all find it useful!!

Free surname lists added to Parish Records and Prison indexes

It’s not exactly an index however it is an indication. We have added lists of the surnames found in each of our parish and prison books. This will hopefully make it a little clearer as to whether or not your ancestors will be recorded in the book.

Just go to the county page and click on the title of the book to see the list. Here is the Roxburghshire county page.

I hope this will make finding those illusive Scottish ancestors easier but remember if you still have a brick wall and need some guidance please email me, we can often solve genealogy mysteries quite easily with the resources we have on hand as well as our years of experience.

  

Email me today: tell me as much as you can about your brick wall.

The Kelso Dispensary

I was looking at the records of the Kelso Dispensary (held by the National Archives of Scotland) the other day. These are fascinating records and an amazing number of people seem to have gone through their doors. The Kelso Dispensary was founded in 1777 and people from all over the Scottish Borders and Northumberland were treated there and for quite a surprising number of different diseases. There are a number of records remaining; the most interesting being the admission registers. The earliest of these (commencing in 1777) gives the name, parish, date of admission, age, disease and “event” of their cases. As time goes on more details are recorded, and a page per person allowed for more details, having said that as with many records they exact details vary from person to person. The “event” of their cases column generally tells us whether a person was cured, relieved or died, as these are pre-1855 this could be another source of death records when other records do not exist.

Accounts books also survive which could give an insight into an ancestor’s financial circumstances, however most of the funds seem to have come from a few wealthy patrons and not the individual patients.

I’m not sure whether these will be records we will transcribe or index at the moment, however we can easily look at them on an individual basis if you are interested.

Research in Edinburgh  

Parish Records available form Maxwell Ancestry

Records which are not available on Scotland’s People or the IGI

I have just realized through all my blogs about the prison and census projects I have forgotten to tell you about the parish registers that we have been publishing.

Why have we been publishing parish registers I hear you ask?

Are these not available on Scotland’s People and is not the index to many available free on the IGI? Well the answer is that most are, but not all! The IGI and Scotland’s People are mainly based on the OPR’s which should be all we need. However, how often do you search and search to no avail? The OPR’s are excellent but by no means complete and this can be a real source of frustration. There are, however, some other places to look for births, marriages and deaths before 1855!

Some (but by no means all) Kirk sessions contain birth, marriage, and death entries in various forms. The Kirk Session records are not at present on Scotland’s People and by and large this information does not appear on the IGI, therefore is inaccessible to many. The Kirk Session records for much of Scotland are kept at the National Archives of Scotland in Edinburgh, although some are held in local archives up and down the country.

Graham thought it may be useful to transcribe and index some of these records. The Castleton Parish register (Roxburghshire) has been for sale on our website for a while now and more are coming. Closeburn (Dumfriesshire) was added last week and one for Galashiels has just been completed. Here is a wee summary for you:

Castleton Parish Register 1707-10 and the Castleton Parish Hearth Tax 1695 £7.99

Parish Register of Closeburn, Dumfriesshire, 1726-1754 £8.99

And soon to be released:

Galashiels Parish Registers: Proclamation Register 1845-1854 and Relief Church Baptisms 1838-1855 £7.99

Our hope is that these will help fill in some of those missing blanks and hopefully help you locate your ancestors.

Here is and excerpt from the Closeburn book to whet your appetite:

19 April 1726

James Kirkpatrick and Agnes Mccaig in Newtown Mains a Son John.

1 June 1726

Archbald Frazer and Janet Kirkpatrick in Auchenleck a Son Daniel.

16 June 1726

James Hainen and Helen Nivison in Kirkland a Daughter Helen.

26 June 1726

Thos. Gibson & Grissel Mcmurdo in Townhead a Daughter Janet.

7 July 1726

Samuel Kirkpatrick & Janet Pagan in Crukup a Daughter Henerata presented by the Mother because of the father's ignorance.

© Kirk Session records — National Archives of Scotland reference CH2/1233/6.

© Transcription and indexes — Copyright Graham Maxwell Ancestry 2010.

Published by Graham Maxwell Ancestry

Cleughside, Kirkpatrick Fleming, Lockerbie, Dumfriesshire, DG11 3NG

info@maxwellancestry.com

www.maxwellancestry.com/publishing