My Family

I created this blog to keep track of my family history research. I do most of my research online.

The Francis name is my husband's which was originally Francisco from Sao Miguel, Azores, Portugal. He also has ancestors from Sweden and England. So far, I have found that my family has come from Italy, England, French Canada, Scotland, and Ulster Ireland (Scotch Irish).

I have also taken a DNA test, which shows mostly Italian, but also England and France.

Sunday, March 22, 2009

Hutchisons and Strathmartine

David Hutchison, my 6th Great Grandfather, married Ann Anderson on June 18, 1765 in Strathmartine, Forfar, Scotland. The marriage record states he is from Strathmartine parish, while his wife was from parish of Dundee, Forfar, Scotland. I was unable to find a record of birth or death for either David or Ann, as they were not require to register such information until 1855. As mentioned in the earlier posts, their son Thomas, my 5th Great Grandfather, was born in Murroes, and perhaps a daughter Janet, but by 1841, his son Thomas is back in Strathmartine, so I am not sure how long or why the Hutchsions were in Murroes, Forfar, Scotland. I did some earlier research into the histoy of Murroes, now I plan to look into Strathmartine.

I was able to find more records for David's son Thomas in Strathmartine. I know that he was living there in 1801, as his marriage record of July 28, 1801 to Catherine Sturrock in Strathmartine states they are both of that parish. Also, in the 1841 census, Thomas' occupation is an agricultural laborer in Strathmartine, and in 1851, he is a railway station keeper at Baldragon in Stathmartine. By the time his son William marries in 1857, Thomas' occupation is now a weaver, location not listed. However, from Thomas' death record of December 14, 1859, I do know he was buried in the Strathmartine churchyard. Thomas' wife, Catherine, died only two days later, Dec. 16, also buried in the churchyard. So it seems most of their lives were spent in Strathmartine.

There is a lot of historical information I can find that relate to Thomas' life. I first looked into the Google book online,The New Statistical Account of Scotland (pub. 1834-45), for the area of Strathmartine, which starts on p. 54. According to the book, the parishes of Mains and Strathmartine were combined in 1799, which is why they are most always listed together. There still remained two school masters for the two areas, and three burying grounds. So it looks as if Thomas and his wife Catherine are probably buried in the burial ground of where the old church stood in Strathmartine. This book also states that the church registers for Strathmartine only exist from 1783 on, as the school house had a fire in that year which destroyed the older records. Thomas was probably born around 1785, but his record of birth does not seem to be recorded.

The population for both parishes in 1801 was 1442, in 1831 it was 2011, with an average family size of 4-5 children. About 25% of the population in the combined parishes worked in agriculture, as Thomas did. The others were mostly tradesmen. According to the Statistical Account book, in the 1830s, there are 10 proprietors in these combined parishes, only 2 having mansion houses. I am not sure if this means that most of the agricultural workers are tenants to these land owners, but that is my guess. The close proximity of Dundee, in order that farmers may sell their grains and other food, has allowed these tenants to succeed, where other parts of Scotland have experienced decreased price and demand for such crops. This book also lists typical food that Thomas and his family probably consumed for this time period, which are fish, pork, sugar, tea. The main food for the poorer class for at least half the year are potatoes.

Also of note for this time period of the early 1800s, is the increase of Irish and Highlanders into the area, due to the potatoe famine and clearances of tenants from landowners. They seem mostly to have worked in the bleachfields and spinning mills, not very pleasant work. This probably would have been an interesting group to Thomas' family, as the book suggests "they are not of such habits as to improve public morals."

Something which would have been of great interest to the people of the area, including Thomas, was the new railroad from Dundee to Strathmore in 1825. Thomas would later work as a railway keeper, probably for Baldragon station, as that is the area they were living by the 1851 census.

Thomas' seven children, including my 4th great grandfather, Peter, would have gone to school at the expense of 14s to read and write. If they were also to learn math it would have cost L1, and to add Latin would be at an expense of L1 10s, according to this statistical book.

In the following book on Google, Angus or Forfarshire, the land and its people, descriptive and historical‎ by Alexander Johnston Warden - 1884 , there starts a description of Strathmartine on page 282.

Friday, March 20, 2009

Ballumbie, Murroes, Scotland

I did a quick search to see if I could find more information on Ballumbie, and found from The Gazetteer of Scotland website that the castle was ruined in 1682 and later incorporated into the stable block of Ballumbie House. Another description of Ballumbie Castle is at Historic Scotland website. More information on Ballumbie House, which pertains to the time period Thomas' father David would have been there, from the Historic Scotland website , is as follows: "Ballumbie House was built for David Miller in 1810 and sold to the McGavin family in 1847. The house was extended and embellished for the merchant Alexander Gilroy." Also, from Ancestry's Gazetteer of Scotland, written in 1847, the following statement is found on page 414, vol. 2, "the remains of the castle of Ballumbie, anciently a fortified residence, now the property of Lord Panmure."

There is also a good description from a book on Google, Epitaphs & inscriptions from burial grounds & old buildings in the north-east of Scotland..., which tells more of the history of Ballumbie's owners in the 1800s, starting with David Miller in 1810. It seems that at this time, Ballumbie is more of a description of an area, rather than a description of where David Hutchison may have worked.

All this Ballumbie information prompted me to find more information on Thomas' father, David, so I looked for his marriage record on Scotlandspeople.org. I was able to find David and Ann Anderson's marriage, but it is not listed in the parish of Murroes, but Strathmartine. The record also states that David is from the parish of Strathmartine, while Ann is from the parish of Dundee. So perhaps David was not living in the Ballumbie area of Murroes for long, as he seemed to be from Strathmartine before his son Thomas and possible daughter Janet were born.

Thursday, March 19, 2009

Scottish History

I was reading an article in Family Tree Magazine on finding Scottish Ancestors. I have spent quite a bit of time on the Scotsland People Website as the article suggests, and have found many ancestors dating back to the 1700s in Scotland. I am sure I can find more information if I continued to search this website, but for now I thought I would concentrate on the history of where my ancestors came from in Scotland.

I started with Thomas Hutchison, my 5th great grandfather, on my Dad's side. He was born in Murroes, Forfar, Scotland between 1785 and 1791 - (now that county is called Angus rather than Forfar). So far I have not found too much information on Murroes, other than the top landowners and some other statistics from the following books on Google Books. The new statistical account of Scotland. (1845). Edinburgh and London: W. Blackwood and Sons. and Warden, A. J. (1880). Angus or Forfarshire, The land and people, descriptive and historical. Dundee: C. Alexander &.. Here is a brief descripton of Murroes that was written in 1803 from the following gazeteer on the Genuki website : The Gazetteer of Scotland, W Chalmers, Dundee 1803 : "Muirhouse or Murroes, a parish in Forfarshire; about 5 miles from Dundee, on the road from that place to Brechin. It is of small extent, and the greater part is arable. There are several old castles viz, Ballumbie, the property of the Hon William R Maule; Wester Pworie, the property of Colonel Fotheringham of Powrie; Easter Powrie, the property of Mr Wedderburn; and Wester Gaigie, the property of Captain Guthrie of Guthrie. On the property of Colonel Fotheringham is a valuable marl pit. The parish abounds with freestone."

While I was searching for historical information, I did come across a website which lists parishes in Scotland, ScotsFamily. For the parish of Murroes, it states records were kept as early as 1698. I have Thomas Hutchison's birth listed between 1785 and 1791, which means I should be able to find his birth record in the parish registers. I have looked on Scotland People's parish records already, but was not able to come up with his birth record. I recently did a search for any Hutchison's born in Murroes for that time period, and only came up with one, a Janet Hutchison, child of David (Thomas' father is also David according to his death record). I then searched familysearch.org for the batch number of C113132, which is for the parish of Murroes for 1698-1819 for any Hutchins or Hutchisons and came up with nothing. Looking again at Janet's birth record, it states that Janet was born "in ground of Ballumbie". As stated in the history of Murroes above, Ballumbie is one of the castles of Murroes, so perhaps Thomas and his family lived and worked on the land of the Ballumbie castle or House, as in Thomas' death record of 1859, his father David (deceased) was listed as a farm servant. Thomas is also listed as an agricultural laborer in the 1841 census, although it is for the parish of Strathmartine, not Murroes. It could also be that Ballumbie is just how they described the area they lived in of Murroes, and perhaps just where Thomas was born.