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Author Topic: Look up MIs Bo'Ness - Stephens  (Read 175 times)
Lizw
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Posts: 180
Look up MIs Bo'Ness - Stephens
« on: Saturday 03 October 09 06:57 UTC (UK) »
Hi
I wonder if anyone would be kind enough to try to find the MI for John Stephens ("tombstone erected by his family in 1847  Bo'ness lower").
He was the Parish Schoolmaster there his wife was Jane/Jean Clarke Brunton & they had 8 children there some may be buried there too although I think most of them dispersed after his death including his wife these that possibly stayed in the area:
John b 1822
William b 1823 d 1826
William Brown Brunton b. 1831
many thanks
Liz
« Last Edit: Monday 05 October 09 00:00 UTC (UK) by Lizw » Logged
Stephens Brunton Thomson Taylor Graham Alves Ferrie Helmore Pember Reeves Mills Prestney Bundy Young Stewart Knipe Wright Libeau Coopey Blogg Keith
Cauther Lassie
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Posts: 23


Census information Crown Copyright, from www.nationalarchives.gov.uk
Re: Look up MIs Bo'Ness - Stephens
« Reply #1 on: Saturday 10 October 09 10:35 UTC (UK) »
Hello Liz,

From West Lothian Memorial Inscriptions Vol 1 page76, Entry No 51, Bo'ness Lower Church Wynd

Mr John Stephens, schoolmaster here for 47 years, died 13/12/1844 wife Catherine Gourlay died 28/12/1849, children Catherine and William died in infancy, John Jnr died 30/12/1864 aged 43, wife Isabella E McNiell died 6/12/1863.

Hope this helps ...........  cheers...  Meg
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Lizw
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Posts: 180
Re: Look up MIs Bo'Ness - Stephens
« Reply #2 on: Saturday 10 October 09 21:23 UTC (UK) »
Hi Meg

Not just a help... a break through - thank you so much!

I really did think I'd reached my "brick wall" with the Stephens family.

MANY thanks
Liz
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Stephens Brunton Thomson Taylor Graham Alves Ferrie Helmore Pember Reeves Mills Prestney Bundy Young Stewart Knipe Wright Libeau Coopey Blogg Keith
coonwarra
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Posts: 658
Re: Look up MIs Bo'Ness - Stephens
« Reply #3 on: Saturday 21 November 09 12:08 UTC (UK) »
If John Stephens snr married Jane/Jean Clarke Brunton then why does the MI state that his wife was Catherine Gourlay - are they different generations or did John snr marry twice?

Huh
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Lizw
RootsChat Member
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Posts: 180
Re: Look up MIs Bo'Ness - Stephens
« Reply #4 on: Saturday 21 November 09 21:53 UTC (UK) »
Hi
Yes it turned out that Catherine Gourlay was his first wife and the first marriage produced 3 or 4 children but at least 2 died in infancy.

That MI has led me to a mass of information & I was so grateful for the look up.

John Stephens & Catherine married in Falkirk Stirling 9 Jan 1801 Falkirk was where Catherine came from but the marriage was also recorded in Bo'Ness (John was the Session Clerk there at the time).
Catherine was the daughter of Katherine (nee Russell) &  John Gourlay (John Gourlay was a Merchant in Falkirk). Catherine died in 1818 & John remarried the much younger Jane Clarke Brunton in 1820.
After getting this MI I was able to find a book about John's son James Brunton Stephens & it confirmed his father's first marriage but I still don't know where John came from or where Jane Clarke Brunton's family came from but it did say that Jane's family were related to George Buchanan an Elizabethan scholar & poet.
I last find Jane in Greenock in the 1871 census living with her grandson, Neill MacNeill Stephens child of her eldest son John who was in the MI in Bo'ness d. 1864 & his wife Isabella d. 1863.
This John was also the Parochial Schoolmaster in Bo'ness & his wife was an American.

Still some loose threads but then there always are aren't there....

Amazing what a look up can acheive - thank you again Meg!
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Stephens Brunton Thomson Taylor Graham Alves Ferrie Helmore Pember Reeves Mills Prestney Bundy Young Stewart Knipe Wright Libeau Coopey Blogg Keith
Cauther Lassie
RootsChat Extra
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Posts: 23


Census information Crown Copyright, from www.nationalarchives.gov.uk
Re: Look up MIs Bo'Ness - Stephens
« Reply #5 on: Yesterday at 11:39:00 »
Hello Liz,

Glad the MI helped, though it seems that there's a transcription error in that it states that Catherine died in 1849 - when in fact it ws 1819 - I know from experience how difficult some headstones are to read, so find that is a common problem.

Keep weilding that hammer at your brick walls ...  cheers ...  Meg

PS - I can't find any of them in the 1841 census
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Lizw
RootsChat Member
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Posts: 180
Re: Look up MIs Bo'Ness - Stephens Completed
« Reply #6 on: Yesterday at 20:36:52 »
Many thanks Meg
Will do!
Liz
P.S. I have them in the 1841 census as  "Stevphey"
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Stephens Brunton Thomson Taylor Graham Alves Ferrie Helmore Pember Reeves Mills Prestney Bundy Young Stewart Knipe Wright Libeau Coopey Blogg Keith
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