James Findlay b.1804, New Machar, Aberdeenshire

[Peter M. Smith]

Looking for parents or siblings of my great great grandfather James FINDLAY, who, according to his death certificate (he died in Mar 1874 at Pilkington township, Ontario), was born on 5 Oct 1804 at New Machar.
Unfortunately neither the OPRs for New Machar nor available transcriptions have any record of my gggf's baptism. The OPRs however do show the baptisms, between 1788 and 1802, of seven children of James FINDLAY of Upper Rannieshill and his wife Christian MUTCH, and I could find no other obvious candidates who might have been the parents of my gggf.  He married Margaret RUXTON on 20 Aug 1826 (the Foveran OPR refers to him as James FINDLAY of Newmachar). Their only daughter, my great grandmother Agnes, was baptised at Old Machar, Aberdeen on 16 Aug 1827 (James was said to be a labourer living at Causewayend), and between the years 1830 and 1835 four sons (Gordon, William, John and David) were born at Foveran, where James appears to have been working as a tenant farmer. In 1836 the family left for Canada and settled near Fergus, Ontario. Four more sons (James, Alexander, Robert and Charles) were born in Canada.

[WatsonStein]

I have been trying to contact you regarding James Findlay married to Margaret Ruxton because I am a descendant and would love to communicate further, altho I'm having a bit of trouble using this website!  I hope you are seeing this message and can contact me directly, my e-mail is (*).  However, don't get your hopes up since I think we both came to the same impass on gathering earlier information. Nevertheless, I would love to hear from you. My name is Leslie Ann Watson, and my dad's mother was named Findlay before her marriage.  Hope to hear from you!
Thanks

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[Peter M. Smith]

Hi Leslie
It is nice to hear from you, even if we are both stuck at the same place in our research. From which branch are you descended? I may have something new for you, as I have gathered quite a bit of information over the last 10 years, but it is only on descendants, not on ancestors, I'm afraid.
Peter Smith

[flst]

How nice that you've made contact with each other. Welcome to rootschat Leslie! Please modify your message in order to remove your personal email address. Once you've made a couple more posts you will be able to communicate with p.m.'s (personal messages).
Kind regards,
flst

[Teresa365]

Hello Peter & Lesile, I'm Teresa and I'm not sure how much information you have found out since your last posts, but I'm Christain & James' are my 5th great grandparents and This is the information Ive obtained, hopefully some of it can be useful to you both.

Christian Mutch (1761 New Machar, Aberdeen) married James Findlay (1757 New Machar) on Sep 9 1784 in New Machar

They had 8 children that I could find

Elspet (1785 new Machar - 1862 old Machar) married Adam Bothwell on Aug 23 1850

Christain (1790 New Machar.- 1868 Old Machar) She married twice firstly to George Essels on Sep 13 1818 then to Mangus Swanson May 21 1835

Robert Findlay (Oct or Nov 1792 New Machar (Christened 11 Nov 1792) died 1855) married Helen Marshall on Jul 8 1820 In Old Machar
Robert and Helen had 9 children John (1821-1892) James (1822-1904) Robert (1824-? But before 1834) Helen (1825-1857) Alexander (1827-1900) Christain (1829-?) Catherine 1834-1892) Robert (1834-1898) & Thomas (1836-1876) - Robert and Helen are my 4th great grandparents

Isabel (1795 New Marchar - ?)

Alexander 1798 New Machar - ?) Married Elspet Guthie Nov 22 1828

Ann (1800-?)

John (1804 New Machar - 1882 Keith, Banffshire) married Margaret Burness on May 28 1834

James (Oct 5 1804 New Machar - Mar 1 1874 Ontario, Canada) married Margaret Ruxton Aug 28 1826

Like I said before I hope so of this can be helpful and thank you Peter for the information on James as I was unable to obtain a lot about him

Teresa

[WatsonStein]

Hello Teresa. Leslie here. Very pleasant to hear from you and also to marvel that we may -- or should I say yes we are! -- distant cousins! Peter Smith is really the expert with most of this information; and he and I just found each other a few years ago and he provided me with lots of additional details about the Findlays and all the other relations. I would love to talk to you on e-mail directly so here is my e-mail address (*)  Please write and I hope to hear from you soon.

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[Peter M. Smith]

Hi Teresa,
Great to hear from you. I will update my database with your new family info.
I have learned something (from a Genes Reunited member) which helps me be more confident in adding my James as the last child of James and Christian Findlay, even though I could find no evidence such as a christening, to confirm it.

Isobel, their 4th child (1795-) married James Sangster of Old Machar on 30 Oct 1819.
If you look at Freecen you can see James and Isobel Sangster and six children living at Old Machar in 1841:
    SANGSTER   James   M   55   Farmer    Aberdeenshire        
    SANGSTER   Isobel   F   35       Aberdeenshire        
...

Ann, their 6th child (1800-1843) married Robert Connon (1795 Udny, Aberdeenshire to 1873 Fetteresso, Kincardineshire) on 12 Dec 1824.
They lived at Udny and as far as I can tell 9 had children.
If you look at Freecen you can see Robert and Ann Connon and a large family living at Udny, Tillyeve in 1841:
  CONNON Robert M 45 Farmer  Aberdeenshire     
  CONNON Ann F 40   Aberdeenshire
...
What however was most interesting is that their fourth child, Thomas Connon b.1832, came to Canada at some point after 1841, where he settled at Elora, Ontario, the very same village where James and Margaret Findlay settled in 1836. He married Jane Keith on 4 Nov 1854 at Elora. Her father John was originally a close neighbour of James and family when they lived at concession 11, lot 17, just outside of Elora. He was a photographer. As well, their eldest son, John Robert Connon, wrote a book in 1930 about the town of Elora - The early History of Elora and Vicinity. In the book (as well as a passage about my own gggf James Smith of Aberdeen) he talks in some detail about James Findlay:

In this, the fifth party there was, besides Mr. and Mrs. Watt, James Findlay, who was born in the Parish of New Machar Oct 5th, 1804, and his wife, Margaret Ruxton, from the Parish of Foveran. Their four eldest children were born in Scotland, their family being : Agnes, Mrs. George Smith, living in Brantford ; William is the well known auctioneer and resident of Salem ; John is in Victoria, B. C. ; David, lived for many years in Salem, died in Windsor ; James is in Shoal Lake, Manitoba ; Alexander died in Toronto ; Robert is in Sudbury, and Charles in Shoal Lake Manitoba.  

This level of detail does not prove that John Robert Connon was related to James and family, but I think adds to the odds that he was.

Peter

PS "Agnes, Mrs. George Smith" is my great grandmother.
 

[flst]

Leslie, as per my reply (no.3) please remove your email address from your message! Thanks,
flst

Moderator's removed it!

[Peter M. Smith]

Also new for this family, learned from the same source as the information about the family of Ann Findlay, was the burial of her father James Findlay from 1824:

1824 New Machar Deaths & Burials
June 10th, James Findlay, Farmer Upper Rannieshill, an elder of this parish, aged sixty-seven years, was interred in the Chappel of Moniekebbuck-Burying ground.