James Calder (Tarves & Methlick) - more deciphering please

[unklee]

Hello again. I hope no-one is getting tired of my asking questions, but I have another problem deciphering old and faded text. Since the previous two requests were resolved well by people here (thanks) I thought I'd see if it was third time also lucky!

One of the ancestors I am chasing is James Calder, who married Elizabeth Steven in Methlick in Aberdeenshire in 1783. You would expect he would have been around 20-30 years old when married, so his expected birth date might be around 1750-1765. There are many James Calder's born in Aberdeenshire in that period, and as you all know the Register entries for birth and marriage give very little information to guide me. But most of the births are in locations some distance from Methlick, and I think that is a good guide, so I have come down to two most likely candidates:

James, son of Robert Calder in Brainjohn crofts near Methlick, born 1755, or
James, son of John Calder, born in nearby Tarves in 1759.

My first thought was to favour the Methlick birth, but there is a Tarves connection (Elizabeth Steven apparently grew up in Tarves), so I am trying to check them both out.



So here is the baptism entry for the Tarves birth which says: "April 22 1759. John Calder in xxxxx had a child baptized before the congregation named James." My question is, can anyone read the location please? It could simply be Tarves, but I'm hoping to get something more definitive than that.

It is also curious to wonder who the crossed out entry was (looks like George, but I can't read the location) and to wonder when and how they realised they had written the wrong person down, but of course that isn't important, just a curiosity.

As in the past, any ideas will be welcomed. Thanks.

[SarahND]

Good morning unklee,

Looking at the GENUKI page for place names in Tarves: http://www.genuki.org.uk/big/sct/ABD/Ta ... eteer.html

I can convince myself that the crossed out place is Tulloford, although I would be happier if there were a Th at the beginning, since that's what it looks like to me. Maybe someone spelled it Thulloford.

Could the one written on top of it be Schivas, possibly with the 'c' left out?

Those are my guesses, anyway, using the places listed on GENUKI. Someone may have a better idea looking at an old map.

Best wishes,
Sarah

[Currie]

Hello unklee,

It may be worth checking if you've downloaded the OCR jpg image at the highest possible quality setting. Possibly a higher quality image would improve readability.

You'll find the quality settings on the "My details" page at SP.

It could be useful to include a couple of other entries from that page so that there will be something to compare.

All the best,
Alan

[unklee]

Hi Alan, thanks for that suggestion about image quality. I didn't know that before. I checked and my setting was at "low quality" - presumably a default. But even setting it at "Highest" made no discernible difference to the quality of this document. I think that is because image quality has to do with JPG compression, whereas the problems here are not due to compression but to deterioration of the ext or light and darkness in the original. So it made no difference in this case, but I'm pleased to learn something useful about the site. Thanks.

I am posting the full page, though you will see that parts are not very helpful, but down the bottom is readable.

[unklee]

Hi Sarah, you are a genius!! I don't say that lightly.

After I posted my question here, I continue searching for information that might help. Essentially James' father was either Robert Calder, who lived in Methlick and brought James up in Methlick, where he was also married or his father was John Calder who lived in Tarves and James grew up in Tarves, but married in nearby Methlick.

Now you have identified the two place names - Schivas (the one where John lived) and Tulloford (where someone else lived who was wrongly written in). The interesting thing is that I decided to check where Calders had ended up 80 years later in the 1841 census, and it turned out one family of 3 women (aged 70, 35 and 7) were shown as living at Schivas! I could never have made that identification, but it suggests you are likely correct. People in that time didn't always stay long in one location, but it looks like this family may have.

This then leads to another conclusion. The parish of Tarves has a very odd shape, with a finger of land up to the north. Schivas is in this little finger, so it is actually closer to Methlick than Tarves. This might explain why James' wife Elizabeth Stevens was named as living in Tarves but was baptised at Methlick - because it was closer.

All this is suggesting to me that John from Schivas may be more likely to be the father - but I still have work to do! Thanks!

[SarahND]

Glad to hear that at least one person on this earth thinks I haven't lost my mind
Hope he turns out to be your man! I think you're right that sometimes the closest church would be used rather than the one associated with the geographical parish.

All the best,
Sarah

[unklee]

Hi Sarah,

I think I have gone as far as I can for now, and I haven't been able to definitively identify which John was the father. I lean towards the one from Schivas, but that is as close as I seem to be able to get now. Just thought I'd report back to tidy up any loose ends. Thanks again for your help.

Eric

[SarahND]

Thanks for reporting back, Eric. It's always nice to see how things work out. Perhaps if you forget about John for a bit and work on another line, then it will miraculously become clear when you look at it again. Well, that's sometimes how it works for me, anyway.

All the best,
Sarah