Travel from Dumfries

[Gren]

This is the first time I have posted. Can anyone help me with this query. My gt gt grandfather, James McKenzie was born in Dumfries in 1839 (Troqueer Parish). By 1866 he had married in Swansea and then settled in Taibach (Port Talbot South Wales). He was a cooper in a copper works, so presumably he was a cooper before he left Dumfries. My queries are 1. Why did he leave Dumfries? Wouldn't there have been enough work for a cooper in the area at that time? 2. How would he have travelled to South Wales - by boat? road? or......? Were there any regular sailings from Dumfries to S Wales or did he just land there purely by accident? He had no apparent ties with S Wales i.e. no members of the family were already living there as far as I know. Any help would be greatly appreciated. Gren

[AnneM]

Hi Gren

A warm welcome to Talking Scot

I wonder if your James did in fact travel directly between Dumfries and Wales, a journey which I would suspect would at that stage be most likely to be accomplished by sea.

The clue may be in the 1861 census but the problem is that I can't find him in Wales or Scotland. There is no obvious candidate in England either. Have you located him or can anyone else find him?

I can see him on all the other censuses, in 1851 at home with parents George and Elizabeth, who are still there in 1861 without children, and from 1871 in Wales with wife Margaret. However, in 1861 no sign.

I wondered if he had joined the army or gone to sea as a young man which would account for his meeting a Welsh girl and settling in Wales. There is a 25 year old James with the Royal Engineers in London but the age is a bit out and I'm sure there were a large number of James Mc/MacKenzies in the army.

If he was a sailor he could have been at sea or if a soldier his regiment could have been posted abroad. He appears nowhere as an army pensioner as far as I can see so maybe he went to sea.

Does any of this seem likely to you?

Anne

[Currie]

Hello Gren,

Up to 1900 about the only time Taibach made the Scottish newspapers was when a colliery exploded. For Port Talbot it was more of the above plus railway accidents, shipwrecks and highway robberies. I couldn’t see anything that would particularly attract someone to the area.

Railways were developing rapidly at that time but I don’t know how the convenience of travel by rail over that route would compare to other means.

Anne’s suggestion that he may have ended up in Wales because he was in the Army, or a seafarer, or something like that, makes a lot of sense to me.

There’s a photo of the Taibach Copper Works here http://www.ourwales.org.uk/index.php?op ... lang=en-GB

All the best,
Alan

[Gren]

Thanks for your help. The picture of the copper works in Taibach shows a row of cottages called Cotton Row. That's where he lived at one time. Many thanks for that photo. Gren

[Gren]

Very many thanks for your reply, which was most helpful. I will look into what you have suggested. Gren