Hi all,
Having continually hit brickwalls when tracing family back in time prior to 1855 I am encouraged to see so many people have not hit the same problem. The statutory records in Scotland do make genealogy quite a joy, mostly, but further back it is obviously alot more difficult.
Out of interest I am hoping the people who have broken through that barrier could share their experiences here. As well as a good read it might give some of us new roads to explore. Quite a few people in the How far back thread? appear to have smashed that brickwall down.
Thanks
Rab.
Pre-SR breakthroughs.....
Moderator: Global Moderators
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DavidWW
- Posts: 5057
- Joined: Sat Dec 11, 2004 9:47 pm
Rab
1855 often is not the statutory limit, in the sense that the death register entry of someone dying in, say, 1865, aged 75, immediately takes you back to a birth ca. 1790, and a marriage 1775 +/- 15 years. Unless the surnames are very common, then there's most likely to be an unambigous record for that marriage, if, of course, the record is extant.
Again, depending on the given names, surnames and locations involved then it may be straightforward to find matching births for the parents, or probable births. If you are fortunate, other records such as MIs or testamants may allow firm links to be established. (My "record" so far is the death in 1855 of a 108 year old, with all the info on the register entry!).
Without corroborative infomation, however, anything much further back is most likely to be speculation.
The drawback pf post 1854 death register entries is that you are totally in the hands of the informant in relation to the information on the death register entry.
The lesson
, ignore Scottish death register entries at your peril 
Just recently I was involved in an ancestral tourism project seminar in Stornoway, and while I'd heard something about the recording of oral genealogies, I hadn't previously realised the extent to which these have been recorded in the Outer Hebrides, and are slowly but surely being collated, digitised, and computerised and coming on the www at http://www.hebrideanconnections.com/ jsp in the near future. Any Lewisman (sorry! - person) worth their salt can recite the names of their tree back to their gggrandparents, and it wasn't uncommon when much of this information was written down many decades ago for there to some, the equivalant of the former seannachies, who were able to go back up to 10 generations. The drawback is that it's all oral, but based on an extremely strong centuries-long tradition of this information being correctly recorded. Hebridean Connection's database will be searchable on many different fields. A major advantage of the current project is the extent to which infomation can be cross-checked.
BTW the furthest back I've ever been is the 12th century. I worked with someone who could reliably trace their tree, via American, Australian, English and Scottish records back to an ancestor who had risen to the rank of General in the Honourable East India Company. There happens to be a very informative book on the service of CAMPBELLs in the HEIC, with an 8 page entry for this gentleman. Through his application for a grant of arms to the Lord Lyon, and that of his ggrandfather, it was possible to prove that he is a distant cousin of the 6th Earl of Argyll which then takes the tree back into the well defined tree of the Earls of Argyll and their ancestors ...........
David
1855 often is not the statutory limit, in the sense that the death register entry of someone dying in, say, 1865, aged 75, immediately takes you back to a birth ca. 1790, and a marriage 1775 +/- 15 years. Unless the surnames are very common, then there's most likely to be an unambigous record for that marriage, if, of course, the record is extant.
Again, depending on the given names, surnames and locations involved then it may be straightforward to find matching births for the parents, or probable births. If you are fortunate, other records such as MIs or testamants may allow firm links to be established. (My "record" so far is the death in 1855 of a 108 year old, with all the info on the register entry!).
Without corroborative infomation, however, anything much further back is most likely to be speculation.
The drawback pf post 1854 death register entries is that you are totally in the hands of the informant in relation to the information on the death register entry.
The lesson
, ignore Scottish death register entries at your peril Just recently I was involved in an ancestral tourism project seminar in Stornoway, and while I'd heard something about the recording of oral genealogies, I hadn't previously realised the extent to which these have been recorded in the Outer Hebrides, and are slowly but surely being collated, digitised, and computerised and coming on the www at http://www.hebrideanconnections.com/ jsp in the near future. Any Lewisman (sorry! - person) worth their salt can recite the names of their tree back to their gggrandparents, and it wasn't uncommon when much of this information was written down many decades ago for there to some, the equivalant of the former seannachies, who were able to go back up to 10 generations. The drawback is that it's all oral, but based on an extremely strong centuries-long tradition of this information being correctly recorded. Hebridean Connection's database will be searchable on many different fields. A major advantage of the current project is the extent to which infomation can be cross-checked.
BTW the furthest back I've ever been is the 12th century. I worked with someone who could reliably trace their tree, via American, Australian, English and Scottish records back to an ancestor who had risen to the rank of General in the Honourable East India Company. There happens to be a very informative book on the service of CAMPBELLs in the HEIC, with an 8 page entry for this gentleman. Through his application for a grant of arms to the Lord Lyon, and that of his ggrandfather, it was possible to prove that he is a distant cousin of the 6th Earl of Argyll which then takes the tree back into the well defined tree of the Earls of Argyll and their ancestors ...........
David
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fmackay
- Posts: 364
- Joined: Sat Dec 31, 2005 11:40 pm
- Location: East Lothian
My ggg grandmother is mentioned in the "Book of Mackay" by Angus Mackay. This book traces the history of the Mackay's. My ggg grandmother was a descendant of Ian "Aberach" Mackay. Because of this book I was able to go quite far back with my tree.
Looking for
Mackay Morrison Manson - Sutherland
Bain Sinclair Gunn Henderson Levack Dunnet Lyall More Corner Miller-Caithness
Wylie Brown Louttit Banks Hourston Spence Drever Bews Irvine Whitelaw/Whitelay Linklater - Orkney
Mackay Morrison Manson - Sutherland
Bain Sinclair Gunn Henderson Levack Dunnet Lyall More Corner Miller-Caithness
Wylie Brown Louttit Banks Hourston Spence Drever Bews Irvine Whitelaw/Whitelay Linklater - Orkney
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Rab
- Posts: 359
- Joined: Wed Jul 20, 2005 1:24 am
Thanks to you both for the info. 
@DavidWW- Yes as you say the limit is not 1855 when people die after that period. I was just using that as the fartherest point back that you could be 99% sure about, informant dependant. I've actually had a few deaths now from people born around 1800 who's parents were not recorded which was a real pain- especially for common surnames.
Imagine finding a man of 108 years old in that time. That is quite incredible and I would imagine rare too. Of all the years to die though that must have made the find all the better. I wouldn't mind a couple of those.
@fmackay- What a good find. That must have been a real golden nugget to discover.
@DavidWW- Yes as you say the limit is not 1855 when people die after that period. I was just using that as the fartherest point back that you could be 99% sure about, informant dependant. I've actually had a few deaths now from people born around 1800 who's parents were not recorded which was a real pain- especially for common surnames.
Imagine finding a man of 108 years old in that time. That is quite incredible and I would imagine rare too. Of all the years to die though that must have made the find all the better. I wouldn't mind a couple of those.
@fmackay- What a good find. That must have been a real golden nugget to discover.