Foundling Children in Glasgow

Researching at the ScotlandsPeople Centre this week I was looking for a baptism in the Old Parish Registers when I came across a list of names under the heading 'Exposed Children Continued'.

By looking at the previous page I discovered that this was actually a list of baptisms of Foundling Children in Glasgow's Town's Hospital.

According to the Old (or First) Statistical Account of Scotland (Account of 1791-99 vol.5 p.520): “The Town's hospital, or Poor's House, was founded in the year 1730. It was intended to maintain and give good education to orphans, or those who were left destitute, to afford an asylum to the old, and to promote the best interests of all, in the cheapest possible manner.”

The list appears to be at the end of one of the baptismal register books for the Parish of Glasgow (OPR 644¹/20) and there may well be similar lists in other books of the register.

These baptisms are included in the usual indexes to the OPRs (you can spot them because there are no parents' names) and at least some of them are included in the IGI. However, on the IGI ages have been rounded up or down to the nearest year rather than being given as recorded.

The full list is as follows:

List of Foundling Children, in the Towns Hospital, Baptized by D^r John Lockhart

Mess^rs Daniel Mackenzie, Preceptor, James Moffat, Chaplain & Francis Ross, Witness

Baptized 13^th. Dec^r. 1805.  -  Age as nearly as could be conjectured at the Baptism

Duncan  -  Mathew Duncan  -  2 years & 3 Months
Stewart   -  James Stewart  -  2 years
Russell   -  John Russell  -  6 Months
Largs  -  Paterson Largs  -  4 Months
Frazer  -  Campbell Rae Frazer  -  3 Months

Baptized 29^th. July 1806.
Gardner  -  John Gardner  -  9 years & 3 months
Hay  -  Margaret Hay  -  4 years & 3 months
Lindsay  -  Jean Lindsay  -  2 years & 6 months
Govan  -  James Govan  -  3 years & 3 months
Thomson  -  Richard Thomson  -  2 years & 3 months
Brown  -  Thomas Brown  -  3 years
Falconer  -  Mary Falconer  -  3 years & 9 months
Smith  -  John Smith  -  1 year & 3 months
Miller  -  Elisabeth Miller  -  8 months
Young  -  Alexander Young  -  2 months

Baptized 21^st. May 1807.
M'Arthur  -  Mary M'Arthur  -  3 years & 9 months
Graham  -  James Graham  -  6 years & 9 months
Young  -  Agnes Young  -  4 years & 3 months
Cleland  -  Martha Cleland  -  2 years & 3 months
Duncan  -  Mary Duncan  -  3 years & 3 months
Patrick  -  Elisabeth Patrick  -  1 year
Monteath  -  Robert Monteath  -  6 months
Miller  -  Joseph Miller  -  6 months
Cherry  -  Agnes Cherry  -  3 months

Baptized 16^th. Sept^r. 1808.
Paisley  -  William Paisley  -  1 year & 3 months
Martin  -  Elisabeth Martin  -  1 year & 3 months
Gillies  -  Mary Gillies  -  1 year
Fairley  -  Elisabeth Fairley  -  9 months
Paul  -  Charlotte Paul  -  9 months
Symons  -  Jean Symons  -  9 months
Smith  -  Martha Smith  -  8 months
M'Farlan  -  Mary M'Farlan  -  8 months
Wilson  -  Mary Wilson  -  8 months
M'Lachlan  -  James M'Lachlan  -  8 months
M'Grigor  -  Mary M'Grigor  -  8 months
Gordon  -  Stewart Gordon  -  6 months
Robinson  -  Ann Robinson  -  6 months
Miller  -  Agnes Miller  -  5 months
M'Kean  -  Mary M'Kean  -  5 months
Campbell  -  Sarah Campbell  -  3 months
Sinclair  -  George Sinclair  -  3 months
M'Dermid  -  Janet M'Dermid  -  6 months
Dodd  -  William Dodd  -  3 months
Brown  -  Joseph Brown  -  2 months
Ross  -  Sarah Ross  -  2 months
Paterson  -  Jean Paterson  -  1 month
Fergus  -  James Fergus  -  3 years & 3 months
Torrance  -  Maria Torrance  -  10 months

Baptized 18^th. May 1813
Ferguson  -  Ann Ferguson  -  3 years & 11 months
Stewart  -  Ann Stewart  -  3 years & 1 month
Ramsey  -  Margaret Ramsy  -  3 years & 1 month
Fotheringham  -  Peter Fotheringham  -  4 years & 3 months
Chisholm  -  James Chisholm  -  4 years & 1 month
M'Lachlan  -  James M'Lachlan  -  3 years & 4 months
Strachan  -  Nancy Strachan  -  3 years & 3 months
Nichol  -  Harriet Nichol  -  1 year & 6 months
{…...}  -  John Buntine  -  1 year & 10 months

Exposed Children Continued
Stewart  -  Helen Stuart  -  1 year & 6 months
Stewart  -  Robert Stewart  -  1 year & 2 months
M'Pherson  -  Isobel M'Pherson  -  1 year & 2 months
Stevenson  -  John Stevenson  -  1 year & 2 months
Campbell  -  Will[ia]m Campbell  -  1 year & 2 months
Berrie  -  John Berrie  -  1 year & 2 months
Stwart  -  George Stuart  -  1 year
Maxwell  -  Jean Maxwell  -  1 year
Newark  -  Jean Newark  -  1 year & 4 months
M'farlan  -  Peter M'farlan  -  1 year & 1 month
Houstoun  -  Cathrine Houstoun  -  1 year & 3 months
Rodger  -  Will[ia]m Rodger  -  5 months
Sym  -  Will[ia]m Sym  -  7 months
Stewart  -  Agnes Stuart  -  3 months
Govan  -  Mary Govan  -  1 year & 9 months
Lumsden  -  Mary Lumsden  -  9 days
Gillespie  -  Janet Gillespie  -  1 year & 6 months

It appears that some records relating to the town's hospital are held by Glasgow City Archives and the University of Glasgow.

Dead Woman Walking

This photograph shows my great-great-grandparents Albert Barker and Ellen Culpan with their children Mary Ellen, Louisa and Arnold. At first glance it's a pretty ordinary family portrait. However, there is something a little unusual about it.

It depicts a scene that never actually took place as, according to family story, it was created after Ellen's death. The surviving family posed for the photo and then Ellen was added in. Luckily for me, the story of the photo, and the original portrait of Ellen from which the image was created, were passed down through the family, as otherwise I think it would be quite easy to take it at face value.

There is a definite outline around the girl on the right which continues along her brother's shoulder but it would be easy to mistake this as being the result of movement or a fault in the process. There is a similar fault around the head of the girl on the left and along the top of the image.

Ellen died in 1892, aged 29. Presumably, there was no photograph depicting the whole family together and so it was decided to create one posthumously. I wonder if the portrait of Ellen dates from her engagement or marriage as her left hand, apparently wearing a ring, is quite prominently displayed. Albert and Ellen married in 1882 (see my previous post Marriage With Deceased Wife's Sister) and so Ellen may actually be somewhat younger than this image would first suggest.

I can't help wondering what was going through the minds of the family as they posed for this photo, leaving a gap for where Ellen should be. From the apparent ages of the children I think it must have been taken not long after Ellen's death and so they must still have been feeling her loss very keenly. To modern sensibilities the whole idea of the photo seems rather morbid but perhaps the family found it a comfort.

The image is a useful reminder that just because our ancestors didn't have Photoshop doesn't mean that every picture in the family photo album is necessarily “real”.

Registers of the RC Bishopric of the Forces

I've blogged previously about Scottish Catholic Registers, the first set of which are now available on www.scotlandspeople.gov.uk.

Also included in this set of records are registers of the Roman Catholic Bishopric of the Forces. The RC Bishopric of the Forces provides chaplains to the Armed Forces and, according to the website of the Catholic Church in England and Wales, “Differing from any other Diocese, the Bishopric of the Forces is not aligned along geographical boundaries but encompasses anywhere in the world that United Kingdom military personnel are serving or deployed”.

As may be gathered from this description, despite being made available on a Scottish genealogy website, the majority of these records are not related to events that took place in Scotland and in most cases do not concern Scottish individuals.

A list of registers included in the collection can be downloaded as a PDF from http://www.scotlandspeople.gov.uk/content/images/ScotlandsPeople%20CPR%20Missions.pdf. However, a word of warning: it appears that ScotlandsPeople is applying the same rules to these registers as to the Statutory Registers – that is images of records will only be made available on the site for baptisms of individuals born over 100 years ago, marriages that took place over 75 years ago and deaths/burials that occurred over 50 years ago. Therefore, many of the registers on this list, which cover the mid to late 20th Century, are not going to be included.

Admittedly this collection is probably going to be of interest to only a fairly small number of family historians but I hope it becomes better known because at the moment I feel it's rather hidden. After all, if your Irish ancestor had their child baptised whilst serving in Aldershot, England in the 1870s or your English ancestor converted to Catholicism whilst stationed in Cairo, Egypt in the 1930s you probably wouldn't think of looking for them on www.scotlandspeople.gov.uk but records of both events would be there!

The RC Bishopric of the Forces Registers were digitised at the National Archives of Scotland along with the Scottish Catholic Registers which is probably why both sets of records have been released on www.scotlandspeople.gov.uk as one collection. However, as indexes to Armed Forces births, marriages and deaths and British Overseas births, marriages and deaths are already available on ScotlandPeople's sister site www.findmypast.com that would seem to be a more obvious home for them.

If it is not possible to make the RC Bishopric of the Forces Registers available on www.findmypast.com how about a compromise – making an index to the records available on findmypast with a link to www.scotlandspeople.gov.uk to then view the complete record? This would surely make the collection accessible to many more researchers and benefit both websites.

Who Witnessed a Marriage?

A question I recently read in a family history magazine suggested that the fact that a man was not named as a witness on his daughter’s marriage certificate was evidence that he had died by this date, or possibly that he was unable to attend the wedding due to illness or infirmity. This seems to presuppose that it was common for parents, or at least the father of the bride, to witness a marriage.

Although I have heard this belief expressed before it is not one I necessarily agree with. There are examples in my family tree of parents witnessing the marriage of one of their children, but I believe it was more usual for the witnesses to be contemporaries of the couple, often siblings, but sometimes cousins or close friends.

More specifically, in the 20th century at least, I thought it was usually the Best Man and Chief Bridesmaid who signed the marriage register as witnesses. This belief is confirmed by my paternal grandparents marriage in 1939. The marriage certificate names as witnesses two individuals who I recognise as the groom’s brother and bride’s sister. A detailed report of the wedding in the local newspaper shows that this same brother was best man and the sister the first named of three bridesmaids.

Searching English Parish Registers in particular, I’ve noticed the same names appearing as witnesses time and time again. I suspect that these were individuals connected with the Church and this certainly seems to be the case with two marriages in my family that took place in the Parish of Gorleston, Suffolk.

A William Bristow witnessed the marriage of my ancestors there in 1809 and a William H. Bristow witnessed their grandson’s marriage in the same church in 1892. A search of census returns indicates that a William Bristow and William H. Bristow, were father and son who both followed the double occupation of ‘Tailor & Parish Clerk’, the younger man taking over the role of Parish Clerk from the older. Both men appear to be have served the function of Parish Clerk well into old age. William senior is recorded as ‘Church Clerk’ in the 1861 Census, aged 67 and William H. Bristow as ‘Parish Clerk’ in the 1891 Census aged 71. If these ages are correct William senior would only have been about 15 at the time of the 1809 marriage so I wonder if he took over the role from another William Bristow, parish clerk - his father perhaps?

So why would the parish clerk be a witness? Does this imply that there were no relatives or friends present at the wedding? I suspect this may have been the case for the 1892 marriage. The couple in question had apparently been living together for over 10 years and had at least four children. It seems likely that the wedding would be a small, private affair, so as not to draw attention to the fact that they were not already married (as they had claimed in the 1881 and 1891 censuses).

However, I am not convinced that just because no relatives are named as witnesses that this always implies they were not present, and suspect there may have been another reason why parish clerks witnessed so many marriages.

For the marriage of my ancestors in 1809 there are actually four witnesses recorded in the parish register. Two signed their names in full and two signed with an 'X'. Although it is not clear, I wonder if the two who could write their names (one of whom was William Bristow) were not so much witnessing the marriage, as witnessing the X marks of the other two.

To avoid the need for this extra step was there perhaps a preference for witnesses who could sign their names? In which case, does the fact that a parish clerk witnessed a marriage not necessarily indicate that there were no guests at the wedding but rather none who could sign their own names?

If so, this might also explain why in the early 19th century and earlier witnesses often seem to be two men, rather than one man and one woman as was common later.

I would be interested to hear from others as to who witnessed the marriages in your family. Relatives or non-relatives? Parents or siblings? Literate or illiterate?

A History of Private Life

This week whilst browsing through radio programmes on BBC iPlayer, looking for something to help me get to sleep, I came across a wonderful new series entitled ‘The History of Private Life’.

The series, which is broadcast on BBC Radio 4, consists of thirty 15-minute programmes presented by historian Amanda Vickery and, according to the press release, includes:

‘Men behaving badly, adultery on the sofa, servants running amok, witches, poltergeists, burglars, bashful bachelors, glamorous widows, wedding nights, rows in bed, bedbugs, pots and pans, the imperial bungalow and suburban love – all in their own words.’

As family historians it is perhaps with private life, the domestic, that we are most concerned. We want to know who our ancestors married, how many children they had and where they lived. This series explores how they lived and is based on research in archives across the UK.

Some of the most revealing material comes from private letters and diaries and so naturally is concerned with the middle and upper echelons of society rather than the illiterate masses, but there are also sources used that will be familiar to many genealogists including The Proceedings of the Old Bailey.

I think the strongest programme so far has been the opening episode entitled ‘The Bed’. A particular highlight was an extract from Samuel Pepys’ diary showing that married life has changed little in 350 years:

‘At night to bed, and my wife and I did fall out about the dog’s being put down into the cellar, which I had a mind to have done because of his fouling the house, and I would have my will, and so we went to bed and lay all night in a quarrel.’

The series also includes songs from the 18th and 19th centuries that have never previously been recorded.

The first five episodes are currently available on BBC iPlayer and there is also an omnibus edition and a discussion inspired by the programme. Further information, including details of the research behind the series, is given on the BBC website at http://www.bbc.co.uk/radio4/features/history-of-private-life/

An Irregular Catholic Marriage

As a continuation of my last post I thought I would include another entry from one of the Catholic Registers.

This entry is recorded in the register for Kirkconnel in the Diocese of Galloway and is interesting not only because of the parties involved but also because it refers to a marriage that had already taken place:

At Gateside 7 Jan[ua]ry 1813

Louis Marie Narcisse Dubois de Gennes, & Catharine Allan of Gateside having, by a written document which is littorally as follows -

(“We, Louis Marie Narcisse Dubois de Gennes, Agent for the Military Stores in the French service, present prisoner of War on parole at Dumfries in Scotland, & Catherine Allan McCartney, daughter of John Allan McCartney Esq[ui]re of Halketleaths, Physician in Liverpool, having, for some time past, been privately married, think it proper to acknowledge our said Marriage before witnesses, in order to render it valid by the law of Scotland: We do therefore hereby in presence of the witnesses subscribing acknowledge that we are Man & Wife, & promise to adhere to each other as such, till death shall part us: in Testimony whereof, we have subscribed this acknowledgment, written by me the said Dubois de Gennes, along with a duplicate thereof, at Dumfries, the eighteenth day of November Eighteen hundred & twelve years, before these Witnesses Pierre de Grege, Knight of the French Empire, officer of Light Artillery, & Jean Pierre Huet, paymaster in the French Service.”

Signed - Dubois de Gennes

Catherine Allan)

Pierre de Grege

J.P. Huet

satisfied me that they were legally married, according to the laws of this Country, in compliance with their earnest request, as they profess the Roman Catholic Religion, I, Thomas Bagnall, Cath[olic] Clergyman at Kirkconnell, did confirm their marriage according to the Rites of the Holy Cath[olic] Church, at Gateside in presence of Mrs Allan, Mrs & John Carmont on the 7th January. 1813

According to the online catalogue of SCAN (the Scottish Archive Network) the McCartney of Halketleaths Papers are held by Dumfries Archive Centre. The following information is recorded on the family:

The McCartney of Halketleaths family (the estate being near Castle Douglas in Buittle parish, Kirkcudbrightshire) can be found first in the 16th century. They remained in possession of the lands until 1833, the last owner apparently being Dr John Allan McCartney, who died in Liverpool on 28 July 1829. He left a widow, Alice Worswick or McCartney, but apparently had no children by her. He had, however, apparently had three daughters by Catherine Beveridge. Dr McCartney also went by the name John Allan or John McCartney Allan. The lands of Halketleaths (and others) were bought in 1833 by William Parke, of Anfield Lodge, Lancashire from Dr McCartney's trustees.

Scottish Catholic Registers – A Preview

As some of you may know, images from Scottish Catholic Sacramental Registers are due to be added to the ScotlandsPeople website in the near future. These registers, which include births and baptisms, marriages, burials and cemetery registers, confirmations and communion records, are held by the Scottish Catholic Archives and the Glasgow Roman Catholic Archdiocesan Archive. They have been digitised by a team at the National Archives of Scotland (NAS) and indexed in India.

The latest information I have is that births and baptisms are due online at the start of October with marriages, deaths, confirmations and communion records to be added later in the year, although this may change.

NAS has long had copies of the registers from pre-1855 parishes (held in RH21) but these were mostly quite poor quality photocopies and not indexed, so you either had to know fairly precisely what you were looking for or have a lot of patience. The new colour digital images will be a great improvement and the indexing and online availability will make the registers accessible to many more researchers.

There are plans to make the images and index available at the ScotlandsPeople Centre in Edinburgh, however I wonder if, like the OPR burial registers, there will be a delay in this happening due to technical issues.

Researchers in Edinburgh will, however, be able to view the images for free on ‘Virtual Volumes’ at NAS, without the name index but with year linking (that is an index added to the images to indicate where each new year in the register begins).

I’ve been looking at some of these Catholic registers recently. The most valuable for genealogists are probably those containing pre-1855 entries (Statutory Registration began in Scotland in 1855) as they may well be the only surviving record of a particular birth, marriage or death (the earliest register starts in 1703 although many do not begin until the mid-1800s). However, the post-1855 registers are certainly also worth a look even if you already have a copy of the relevant civil record as you may find additional details.

Like other Scottish church registers the amount of detail recorded varies considerably, even within the same register. What struck me particularly though were those entries, particularly marriages, which mentioned a place of origin, something I’ve rarely seen in the OPRs of the Church of Scotland.

This is particularly valuable as many Catholics in Scotland (particularly in the south-west) were of Irish origin and making the link back to a particular place in Ireland can be difficult for researchers, especially as census returns often only record a place of birth as ‘Ireland’.

The following marriage entry comes from the register for Dalbeattie, Diocese of Galloway:

June 25th 1815 at St Peter’s Dalbeattie Arthur Murphy Native of Parish of Minan, County Down, Ireland to Jane Macnight, Native of Parish of Buitle, and both presently residing in said parish. Witnesses Robert and Euphemia Macnight, James Copland & others.

Note: Minan is possibly Meenan, a townland in County Down.