Fishermen in Wemyss Fife

Fisherman, Merchant vessels, Emigrant ships etc.

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MarionRobertson
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Fishermen in Wemyss Fife

Post by MarionRobertson » Sun Oct 03, 2010 11:03 pm

I wonder if anyone can help me, I have found out that my great-great grandfather and his father before him were fishermen in Wemyss fife. I am assuming that means that they went out in fishing boats? how would I go about finding which boats they were on? My great-great grandfathers name was Walter Robertson born1822 Wemyss Fife his father was Andrew Robertson born 1788 Wemyss Fife.
When I was searching for Walters birth I could not find it in 1822 but i found it in 1825 as he wasnt registered until they were registering his sister Margaret who was born in 1825 ( is that usual). I also found a sister Margaret born in 1812 and the one in 1825 so I am assuming the one born in 1812 died was it normal in those days to call children the same name as children who had died.
I would appreciate all the help I can get as I am relatively new to al this
bye for now Marion Robertson

Montrose Budie
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Re: Fishermen in Wemyss Fife

Post by Montrose Budie » Sun Oct 03, 2010 11:15 pm

Hi Marion

I'd recommend that you first search the Ancestry.com Scottish census indexes for the names and locations involved, plus the occupation of fisherman.

Once you locate matching census records via Ancestry, then get the matching digitised images at www.scotlandspeople.gov.uk ......


mb

MarionRobertson
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Re: Fishermen in Wemyss Fife

Post by MarionRobertson » Sun Oct 03, 2010 11:23 pm

Hello there MB
Thanks for responding so fast, I will try what you said
regards Marion x

Currie
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Re: Fishermen in Wemyss Fife

Post by Currie » Mon Oct 04, 2010 3:58 am

Hello Marion,

If Walter’s mother was a Logie, the IGI has an extracted record for him which has an 1822 Baptism date. For extracted records the IGI is usually pretty reliable. It may be worth double checking the image that you have to see where their date came from. OPR registers can be disorganised and the writing difficult to decipher. http://www.familysearch.org/Eng/Search/ ... _form=true

WALTER ROBERTSON
Birth: 14 AUG 1822
Christening: 01 SEP 1822 Wemyss, Fife, Scotland
Father: ANDREW ROBERTSON
Mother: ELISABETH LOGIE

In my experience naming a subsequent child after a deceased sibling, or at least recycling the name, is not a bit unusual.

You’ll find an 1841 census transcription for this family on FreeCen http://freecen.rootsweb.com/cgi/search.pl

All the best,
Alan

MarionRobertson
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Location: Gourock Scotland previously Govan Glasgow

Re: Fishermen in Wemyss Fife

Post by MarionRobertson » Tue Oct 05, 2010 12:45 am

Hi Alan
Thats the right Walter Robertson I also found him on the IGI that was where I found his brothers and sisters but I also found him in Scotlands People old Parish Records it told you he was born in 1822 but he wasnt registered until 1825 I have the actual extract from the Parish records.
Alan I will check out the websites you gave me,
Thanks Marion x
P.S.
Do you know if it was only men who could registered their children in those days ?

AndrewP
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Re: Fishermen in Wemyss Fife

Post by AndrewP » Tue Oct 05, 2010 2:52 am

Hi Marion,

The Parochial Register (which in time became known as the Old Parochial Register - OPR) was kept and maintained by the Parish Church - usually the responsibilty of the Session Clerk. In most cases for births it was a register of baptisms rather than the birth itself. The Session Clerk should have written the entry at the time of the baptism. Assuming the baptism took place in the Parish Church, the Session Clerk should have known about it to make the entry in the book. However if the baptism took place in another church in the Parish then it would have been up to the parents to advise him.

On looking at that OPR page, there is another entry further down the page from an earlier year - Christian Taylor, born and baptised in June 1821. It wasn't until statutory registration was introduced in Scotland in 1855 that the parents had the responsibility to register a birth within three weeks of that event.

All the best,

AndrewP

MarionRobertson
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Re: Fishermen in Wemyss Fife

Post by MarionRobertson » Tue Oct 05, 2010 11:45 pm

Hi Andrew
Thanks for getting back to me, In my ignorance I had assumed parish records and birth records where the same
so thanks for letting me know the difference.
Andrew in those days was it only the men who could register their children?

Bye for now Marion x

AndrewP
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Re: Fishermen in Wemyss Fife

Post by AndrewP » Wed Oct 06, 2010 5:55 am

MarionRobertson wrote:Andrew in those days was it only the men who could register their children?
Hi Marion,

In the OPRs I have never seen it noted who advised the Session Clerk. In the statutory births it is most commonly the father who registered the birth, but there are many registered by the mother, and occasionally some other relative; and very occasionally someone unrelated. There was certainly nothing to say that only a man could register a birth.

All the best,

AndrewP

MarionRobertson
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Re: Fishermen in Wemyss Fife

Post by MarionRobertson » Sat Oct 09, 2010 1:42 am

Hi Andrew,
I was always under the impression that in the olden days it was the men who registered their children the only reason that a woman would do it is if their husbands where at war or if they where widowed and I have heard that grandfathers registered their daughters illigitimate children so that they would have a name and they would not be classed as bastards.
Bye for now
Marion x

LesleyB
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Re: Fishermen in Wemyss Fife

Post by LesleyB » Sat Oct 09, 2010 11:25 am

Hi Marion
I have heard that grandfathers registered their daughters illigitimate children so that they would have a name and they would not be classed as bastards
.
Not sure what dates you are thinking of or where you heard this, but I've never seen that in any of the post-1855 illegitimate birth registrations that I've seen. In most of those I've seen where the child is illegitimate, the birth is registered by the mother. I've seen a grandmother register a child in a few cases - one that I remember was in the 20th century, but she did not lie about the child's status as illegitimate (children are never registered as "bastards" in Scotland - they will be registered as illegitimate in the post 1855 records)

Also see http://www.gla.ac.uk/departments/scotti ... ath/birth/
Illegitimacy
The mother was responsible for reporting the birth of an illegitimate baby, and the father's name could not be recorded unless he accompanied her to the registrar's office and declared himself willing to have his name on the register, or a court had already decided that he was the father and liable to maintain the baby.
Prior to 1855 you tend to see phrases such as "child's name, begot in formication by X and Y" or sometimes the more gentle approach of "natural child of..."

As far as I'm aware, in Scotland you can be known (legally) by any name you want; I've often seen illegitimate children who were registered with their mother's surname at the time of birth, being known by their father's surname and turning up as such in the census and other records.

Best wishes
Lesley

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