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.

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.

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.

Back to Ann; searching in the Scottish Death Index

A couple of posts back, I went into detail about Ann Hutchison, born around 1833 probably in Tealing, Forfarshire, Scotland. My 3rd great-grandmother. I could not find her death record in the Statutory Death Index on Scotlandspeople, but I knew she should be there. My next step was to not restrict my search parameters with a date. As I mentioned before, I suspected she died between 1895 and 1901, but after searching without dates, I found that she actually died in 1905! I am not sure why I was limiting the death years as I had enough specifics on Ann to limit my search in other ways so as not to get too many hits. I really thought however, that she died before 1901 as her husband is not living with her in 1901. This to me is very interesting, now that I know she was still living. Then I thought, maybe she was sick, and living in a hospital, not able to take care of herself. I searched for Ann in the 1901 census and found she was living "on her own means" with son James and daughter Susan. She seems to be living in the house she and her husband raised their family in. It was John Cox, her husband, that moved away. She was living at 40 Perth Street, district of St. Peter, Dundee, Forfarshire, Scotland. John was living in Blythswood area of Glasgow, Scotland. According to google maps, these two places are about 82 miles apart. Not sure why they lived separately, but very interesting.

OK, back to the reason I was looking for Ann's death record in the first place, to find my 4th great grandparents. Yay, they are listed on her death record, and it does show they are Peter Hutchison and Christian Hill. Finding Ann's death record inspired me to do some more searches in the death index, which for some reason I had ignored before. Now I have gone back even further, which means I have even more to write about in future blog entries. My next step; however, will be to find some more interesting information on the locations and history of where my Scottish ancestors lived.

Scotland Research - finding Ann's parents

Familysearch.org recently listed a new research guide on Scotland, so I thought I would read it to see if I could find some new research tips for my Scottish ancestors. They did not add much new information for me, but I did find their map with county information useful. Also, they stated naming traditions in Scotland of naming first son after the father's father, and second son after the mother's father. This goes for the girls too, with the first daughter named after the mother's mother, etc. Basically, after reading this guide, it spurred my interest in my Scottish ancestry again.

With renewed energy, I took a look at my ancestors to see if there were some gaps in my tree. Most of my Scottish heritage arises from my father's grandmother, Ann Hutchison Ferguson, who came to the US in 1920 after World War I, where; according to my father, she served as a nurse and met her future husband, Alfred Labrecque, also fighting in the War (see earlier blog entry). Ann was born 1895 in Glasgow, Scotland to James Fitchie Ferguson and Grace Stewart Cox. I have basic information on both James and Grace's parents, and even further back to the early 1800s to my 4th great grandparents for James family. Grace's line was not as easy to find, but I did get back to my 4th great grandparents on her paternal side. When I researched her maternal line, I could only find Grace Cox's mother, which is my 3rd Great Grandmother, Ann Hutchison.

The place to look for Scottish records is Scotlandspeople, which has parish registers from 1553 and census records for 1841-1901. When I searched here in the past, I could not locate Ann Hutchison's (Grace's mother) birth record; which would have given me her parents' names. I have an estimated birth date of 1833 for Ann, from her 1871 census record with her husband, John Cox and children. I decided to look in the "Old Parish Registers", from Scotlandspeople one more time for her birth record. Unfortunately; I could not find an Ann Hutchison that matched these parameters in the Old Parish Registers. The Scottish were not required to register births or other vital information until 1855, so I am not that surprised I did not find her. Next, I tried searching for any Hutchisons who had children around that time living in Tealing, Forfarshire in the 1851 census; which is where her marriage in 1852 took place (the county of Forfarshire later changed to the county of Angus). Since Ann was married in 1852, I was hoping she would be listed with her parents in the 1851 census, still in this location. I was also looking closely for any William Hutchison's, as according to naming traditions; may be her father's name as that is what John and she named their second son. I could not find a William with a daughter Ann in Tealing. My next step was to search the 1841 census in Tealing with the last name of Hutchison. Finally, I found an Ann who is 8 years old. The age seems to match my ancestor, making her born around 1833. The father's name; however, is not William as I suspected, but Peter. There is a William listed on the same census page though, which could be Peter's brother. Maybe Peter's father's name is William. Peter Hutchison is married to Christian with a son David, and two other daughters besides Ann, a Jean and an Elizabeth.

I went back to the Old Parish Registers to look for birth records of the children of Peter and Christian. I found Christian's last name is Hill. The registers account for David, Elizabeth and a Jane Hutchison as children to Peter and Christian, but still no Ann. I am fairly confident that this is her family; as I know she is from Tealing, born around 1833, and there are no other Ann Hutchisons in the 1841 census. However, I still need some more evidence to prove this family line.

My next step was to look for Ann's death record, which would also list her parents. I know Ann is still living when her daughter Grace (my 2nd Great Grandmother) marries in 1895. I also know that she has died by the 1901 census, as her husband is listed without her and living with his two sisters. I was very hopeful I would find this information, as at this point in Scottish history, her death would have to be recorded by law and should be listed in the "Statutory Death Index" at Scotlandspeople. I searched in the Death Records database between these time periods for Ann Cox, but did not find her. I will not give up searching for her death record, as I know she is in there somewhere. Soon I will have proof her parents are Peter and Christian.

To Do:
1. Find Peter Hutchison's family in the 1851 Scotland Census
2. Find Ann (Hutchison) Cox's death record. UPDATE: found death record - read entry here
3. Look for information on Tealing and other areas of Scotland where my ancestors live to get a feel for their lives. A good place to start is the FHL Research Guidance; spefically, Scotland, How to Find Information About the Place Where Your Ancestor Lived