Anderson family / Johnston family in Glasgow mid 19th C?

[SarahND]

You're very welcome We all help each other out according to our means, opportunities and experience-- I'm sure it won't be long before someone asks a question that you will find you can help with.

Sarah

[Andersonic]

Update ( just in case anyone is interested):
I finally sorted James Anderson the elder, James Henry's Dad, out, but it took a great deal of persevering!
He was born in/ near DEARHAM near Maryport in Cumberland in about 1842 ( on that 1871 census that was transcribed as "Durham, Cumberland", but it's fairly plainly Dearham. He seems to have been the child of a Sarah Anderson, who later was with a John Fletcher, and he appeared on one census as "Fletcher" but reverted to Anderson.
His mother seems to have died somewhere between 1861 and 1871, and he moved down to Wales. Oddly enough, an Ann Anderson seemed to have moved in in place of his mother, looking after John Fletcher and the son he had with Sarah.
Scots Presbyterian records in Cumberland helped me find Sarah's father - yes, you've guessed, another James Anderson, but this one respectably married to an Elizabeth Brown in 1840s, in the Workington area. No real idea where this James Anderson b October 1793 originated, probably Scotland or Ireland, but the trail went cold then. Sarah had quite a few siblings.
So that got itself sorted out.
Young James Henry was born exactly where and when I said, but as I've still not, despite haunting all the records in Hawarden area, found any marriage, I suspect the "formerly Johnson" on the birth certificate to have been a polite fiction.
Name-changing must've been in the blood, for in 1871 when Dad James was a miner in Flint, living on Feather Street lodging with the Matthews family, Mary was with a JOHN SMITH, as Mary Smith, wife in that census, and servant / housekeeper in the next! It just gets worse, doesn't it?
Mary, Mr Smith and young James Henry are together in the next few censuses - including the first one after he married Winifred, he seemed to have been with his mum at the time of the census.
And as you know, I'd got him pinned from then until his death.
Just thought those who were so very helpful with my original misguided enquiry might like the update, and another vote of thanks for their helpfulness.

[SarahND]

=D> Glad you finally got somewhere with that family-- they were a confusing lot! It's always nice to hear back and know how the story ended (or usually how one brick wall was knocked down and another took its place!)

Best wishes,
Sarah

[Andersonic]

Yes, Sarah, it was someone on another site who spurred me on again when I was seeking information about inhabitants of a grave, and what the relationship to the family members there, by providing a tid-bit of information that, when I explored it, was correct, and that set me off on the hunt again.
AND I've recently had another breakthrough on another branch ( in Derbyshire, England) completely, so I'm full of enthusiasm again.
Mind you, there are always brick walls being built, as you say, as fast as we chip one down into hardcore.
It is all thanks to wonderfully unselfish and helpful people like you here that research advances.
Interestingly I've found that I have been able to help a few others a little, and that makes me feel a little less guilty about accepting help and guidance from others - there's something in my soul that feels I should be slogging up each mountain, and through every set of parish records, unaided, myself - but that way I'd never get there.
At least I do try to check out personally every kind hint I'm given rather than gleefully accepting them, without checking, so I hope that I've made somewhat fewer big clanger errors than I see on some trees!

[SarahND]

Yes, it's a good idea to always check up on other people's information. It is often just wishful thinking on their part!

I was just in Derbyshire last week, following up a newly discovered branch in my own family They were actually near the border, spilling over into Nottinghamshire and also Yorkshire every now and again. My ancestors liked to make sure their records were not all in one county archives, so their descendants could make a good and varied holiday of it

Cheers,
Sarah

[Andersonic]

Is there anything in Yorkshire, especially west Yorkshire, that I could help you check out?

[SarahND]

Is there anything in Yorkshire, especially west Yorkshire, that I could help you check out?

Have you ever looked into Quaker records? My lot were all Quakers from the mid-17th century on. By the mid-18th they had all left for America.

[Andersonic]

Only into a few in the Heptonstall, near Halifax, West Yorks area. Do you want me to see if I can dig anything out?

[SarahND]

Thanks for the offer. I'll let you know if there are any questions remaining after I sort out the last bunch of information I just found!

Best,
Sarah