searching for John Watt Cupar of Fife

[carola]

Hi everyone,
I just found this website and i hope there is someone out there that can help me.
I am from Holland and i recently found out that one of my anchestors is John Watt,born in Cupar of Fife.
I have his marriagecertificate and i know he married Lilias Thomson in Rotterdam (Holland) in 1716.
This document also tells me that his father was called David.
Is there anyone who can help me to find out the birthdate of John, and maybe what the reason was that he came to Rotterdam?
Any other information about him , his father or other relatives would also be very welcome.
I tried to find information at a lot of other geneologysites, but with no succes so far.
I am very proud that i am part Scottish and i want to come over to find out more about my family, but without a birthdate or something i dont know where to go.

[paddyscar]

Hi Carola, and a warm welcome to TalkingScot

There are only 3 hits for John Watt with a father named David between 1538 and 1702, however none are from Cupar, Fife http://www.scotlandspeople.gov.uk/search/

There are many, however that do not specify the father as being David.

You might also like to check free searches at http://www.familysearch.org/Eng/Search which also lists many John Watts, some born to David Watt, but, didn't see one for pre 1700 in Cupar, but there are many others from Cupar.

Frances

[LesleyB]

Hi Carola

Is there anyone who can help me to find out the birthdate of John, and maybe what the reason was that he came to Rotterdam?

I'm maybe off on the wrong trail here, but there was a well known seedsman business in Cupar until quite recently in a building that used to be the jail a long time before that called "Wm Watt". Rotterdam would have perhaps have been where one might go to get good deals on tulips and the like? Image here of the building as it was when I was wee. You can now have coffee and a bar lunch there....
http://www.scotlandsplaces.gov.uk/searc ... d=SC595596
There may be no connection, but the Rotterdam connection made me think there might be.

Best wishes
Lelsey

[LesleyB]

Hi Carola

i recently found out that one of my anchestors is John Watt,born in Cupar of Fife

Where have you found the information that he was born in Cupar?
Does the marriage document you mention give an occupation for John?
Historically, there was trading between Fife, Belgium and the Netherlands*, so it would be interesting to know what your John did for a living.

Best wishes
Lesley
*e.g. the pantiles on the roofs of villages in the East Neuk of Fife came from the Netherlands.

[carola]

hi,
Thank you all very much for reacting on my post so fast! I am really surprised and happy about that.
I like the picture and i hope i can link it to the John Watt in am looking for.
I tried to search in the archives of Scotlands People, but i cant view the files i found because you have to pay for it by creditcard(and i dont have one)
About John Watt,i dont know for sure that he was actualy born in Cupar, his marriage certificate says that he was FROM Cupar of Fife, and usually they mention the place of birth in the dutch records.
So, it could be that he was born somewhere else.
I dont know his occupation, at first i thought he was a soldier, but because he came to Rotterdam earlier than 1716, i think its more logical that he was in the trading buisiness.

groetjes,
Carola

[LesleyB]

Hi Carola
I have someone born in Cupar in 1708, and the Cupar OPRs at that time only give the father's name, with no mother mentioned, which makes it quite difficult to cross check or prove a connection sometimes - I've not seen the OPRs from around 1680s so they may be different then. I'm not sure how we would know your John Watt even if we did come across a possible candidate because we know so little about him - without something like a trade it may be difficult to make much progress with pinning him down.

Did he remain in Holland for the rest of his life? Did he have children with Lilias? Do you have names for all the children? Do you know where Lilias Thomson was from? Do you know why she was in Holland? Anything about her family - place of origin/trades?

If it is any consolation, a many times great grandfather born about 1680ish in the Cupar area is where my own research grinds to a halt despite a good number of years research under my belt; it becomes far more difficult the further back you go, partly depending on where your people were from, because the records, if they survived or ever existed, may just not be informative enough to give a definate "hit".

groetjes
Lesley

[carola]

hi Lesley,

I know John and Lilias had a daughter called Helena, she was born 30-06-1716 in Rotterdam.
I have visited the Rotterdam archives, and i can't find any more information about John or Lilias.
Nothing about moving back to Scotland, and nothing about moving to another city in Holland.
I can't find any death register of John or Lilias, so they just vanished!
Next time i am there the archivist who works there is going to show me the original Scottish church registers,so I am really looking forworth to that!
I am planning a visit to the National Dutch archives, to try and find John in the Scottish regiments militairy registers.
I hope I will find some more information.
If i do, i wll post a reply again.

groetjes,
Carola

[Montrose Budie]

......snipped............. I am planning a visit to the National Dutch archives, to try and find John in the Scottish regiments militairy registers.
I hope I will find some more information.
If i do, i wll post a reply again.

groetjes,
Carola

Hi Carola

Does this mean that you know for certain that he was a soldier in The Netherlands, possibly in The Scotch Brigade?

See viewtopic.php?f=32&t=5973 for a long post on this site about The Scotch Brigade.

Note that there were other Scottish regiments in Dutch service, as well as other regular British regiments in The Netherlands at various periods, in which a Scot might have served.

Note that it looks like Wil Hermsen’s Dutch web site http:(insert double slash)members.lycos.nl/WilHermsen/repdex.htm (http://www.dutchregiments.org) no longer exists as clicking on this web address now leads to a porn website !

mb

Edited to avoid inadvertant link to porn site Note to mb: just in case someone gets over-enthused and hits the link before reading the rest of the sentence. Frances

[carola]

hi,
No , I still don't know what his occupation was,but I found a John Watt in militairy records online, don't know if he is the right person,so its worth to investigate this
Maybe there is more about my John Watt in the original records, i found out that there is a lot more information in the original records than there is written in the digital ones.
So maybe the records of the Scottish church in Rotterdam and the national archives can help me with my surch.I sure hope so!

groetjes,
Carola

[Pia]

Hi there,
I am looking for the same people as they are my ancestors too! Lilias was married to James Adams before she married John Watt and she had two daughters prior to Helena.

Pia