Author Topic: James Mackison - Stirling  (Read 26137 times)

Offline jimmax

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Re: James Mackison - Stirling
« Reply #27 on: Sunday 19 September 10 20:22 BST (UK) »
Hi Kevin, I used to think that James/Thomas Mackison (m.1813 Bannockburn) and his brother John (also lived in Bannockburn) werent originally from St.Ninians.  When I first did some research many years ago I couldnt find a record of their baptisms in the St.Ninian parish register.  Nor could I find any other references to Mackisons so I assumed that they came from another parish, possibly from Doune or Dunblane. 

I might be wrong.  With the wonders of the ScotlandsPeople database I discover that there were quite a few Mackisons born and married in St.Ninians in the 18th century.  Some of them might be James and John's ancestors.  Unfortunately there arent any obvious links as yet but it is possible that the Mackison/St.Ninians connection goes much further back than I first thought.  I have attached a list of baptisms & marriages recorded in St.Ninians (& Airth) along with some notes.  I have also attached an incomplete transcript of the 1743 testament for John Mackison, tenant at Newhouse, St.Ninians.
Jim
Mackison, MacKessan, alias Maxwell, Forfar, McGeorge, Wallace.

Bowker, Pitpladdy, Barrow, Starkey.

Offline Kevin Malley

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Re: James Mackison - Stirling
« Reply #28 on: Tuesday 21 September 10 20:49 BST (UK) »
Hi Jim,
Thanks alot for that info. My missus will be happy the St Ninians Line is back alive. Pity there is no definate link however. May check out the old cemetary in St Ninians may be a Mackison somewhere.
Thanks again,
Kevin
Malley, McCloskey, O'Donnell, Bresland, Dermidy, MacDonald, Lacey, Thornton, Quinn, Barret, Brogan, McCahill, Dempsey, Gallagher

Offline jimmax

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Re: James Mackison - Stirling
« Reply #29 on: Wednesday 23 July 14 22:59 BST (UK) »
Hi Kevin, it is a while since my last post but I think I have stumbled upon a connection to the next generation in this branch of the Mackison family tree.  It strengthens the link with St.Ninians.

I now believe that we have persuasive evidence, albeit indirect and not conclusive, that James Mackison (who married Janet Forfar in Bannockburn, St.Ninians in 1813) was the son of James Mackison who married Margaret Sharp in St.Ninians in 1781.  Also that as well as his brother John he had two sisters –Catherine and Ann.

In May I was contacted by Amanda from Ontario, Canada who is tracing her Eadie family history.  This is the information that she provided about an Eadie-Mackison connection and our line of enquiry thereafter in respect of the Mackison family in Bannockburn.

1.   John Eadie (Grieve at Whitestoun Farm) married Ann Mackison (at Kippenross) in 1807 in Dunblane.

2.   Helen Thomson Cairns nee Eadie, the daughter of John Eadie (farmer, deceased) and Ann Eadie (ms Mackeison, deceased) died in 1869.

3.   Helen’s death certificate was witnessed by Hugh Forsyth, 'uncle', of Bannockburn.

4.   The 1861 Census describes Hugh Forsyth of Bannockburn as a Woollen Manufacturer (employing 20 females), age 47.  His wife is named as Catherine Forsyth, aged 62, born in Bannockburn (ergo born circa 1799).  The couple also appear in the 1841, 1871 and 1881 Censuses.  No children are recorded.

5.   In the 1851 Census Hugh Forsyth's wife is listed as Catherine McKison (age 51, born in St.Ninians, Stirlingshire).  This seems to be Catherine Forsyth recorded under her maiden name.

6.   Hugh Forsyth married Catherine Mackieson in St.Ninians in 1837.

(Note that this entry did not appear in a general search of the ScotlandsPeople database for Mackison marriages in St.Ninians because ‘Mackison’ had been incorrectly transcribed as ‘Mackiesow’).

7.   It follows that Hugh Forsyth was the uncle of Helen Thomson Cairns nee Eadie through marriage i.e. his wife Catherine Forsyth nee Mackison was a sister of Ann Eadie nee Mackison.

8.   Catherine Forsyth nee Mackison died in 1888 age 91 (ergo born circa 1797).  Her death certificate gives her parent's names as James Mackison (Distillery Labourer, deceased) and Margaret Mackison (ms Sharp, deceased).

9.   The marriage of James Mackison and Margaret Sharp in 1781 is recorded in the parish register for St.Ninians.

10.   Hugh Forsyth died in 1891.  He left a will (dated 1892).  One of his bequests was to the widow of John Eadie in Gartness (Killearn, Stirlingshire), who we know was the son of John and Ann Eadie, and therefore the nephew of Hugh Forsyth.

11.   Hugh Forsyth also left a bequest to Robert Mackison in Gartness.  We know from the Census records (1861, 1871 and 1881 when Robert was in Gartness) that he was born in Bannockburn circa 1835.  From the 1841 and 1851 Census, when Robert was in Bannockburn, we know that his mother was Janet Mackison and his elder siblings were James, Thomas, Margaret, Janet, Ann, John and Walter Mackison.  This is the family of James Mackison married in Bannockburn in 1813.

12.   Hugh Forsyth also left a bequest to Ann Mackison in Bannockburn, St.Ninians.  Presumably this was the same Ann Mackison noted above, sister of Robert.

13.   It seems a reasonable inference that Robert Mackison and Ann Mackison were related to James Forsyth through his wife Catherine Forsyth nee Mackison.  Unfortunately the relationship is not explicitly stated in the will but given their ages Catherine would appear to be their aunt.

14.   Therefore it follows that Robert and Ann’s father -James Mackison (husband of Janet Forfar) was related to Ann Eadie nee Mackison and Catherine Forsyth nee Mackison.  Presumably they were siblings.  In other words James’ parents were James Mackison and Margaret Sharp married in St.Ninians in 1781.

This is of course not conclusive evidence of the relationships between James Mackison senior & Margaret Sharp and Catherine, Ann, John and James Mackison junior.  It is a somewhat tortuous connection but I am convinced of its veracity.  Like most family history breakthroughs it raises more questions than it answers.

a)   We might assume that James Mackison senior was in his 20-30s when he married in 1781 but no baptism for a James Mackison is recorded in the St.Ninians parish register in the period 1740-60s.

b)   James Mackison senior was described as a ‘Distillery Labourer’ in his daughter Catherine’s death certificate.  The writing is faint so I can’t be absolutely sure that I have made this out correctly but if it is it would be interesting to speculate which distillery he worked at.  There was one I believe in Cowie, near Bannockburn that closed in the 1860s.  On the other hand it might have been one of the Alloa distilleries.

c)   Presumably Ann Eadie nee Mackison was born in Bannockburn like her sister Catherine but when she married John Eadie in 1807 she was working at Kippenross in Dunblane (as a dairymaid according to one account).  Several generations of a Mackison family lived in Kilbryde in Dunblane, which made me wonder if there was a connection.

d)   Before cousins John Eadie and Robert Mackison arrived in Gartness, Killearn two of Robert’s older brothers, James Mackison (later of Alloa) and John (later of Galashiels), also lived there briefly.  I wonder what drew them all to Killearn.

Jim
Mackison, MacKessan, alias Maxwell, Forfar, McGeorge, Wallace.

Bowker, Pitpladdy, Barrow, Starkey.

Offline Kevin Malley

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Re: James Mackison - Stirling
« Reply #30 on: Saturday 22 November 14 23:11 GMT (UK) »
Hi Jim,
I apologise for extremely slow response I have a 7 month old baby now and it's very hard to get any free time these days!!
Thank you very much for taking the time to send me this information which all seems to make perfect sense. Great to confirm James Mackison and Margaret Sharp (had them penciled in on my notes) they will be my son's 6x Great Grandparents.
Confirms the strong local links of the family which is even more special to me now as it's my baby sons heritage. Also knew they must of had links to the Mackisons in Killlearn as it is such a rare name, so thanks for confirming this. Killearn is near Balfron which was known for it's cotton production? could have been a draw.
Thanks again for info it means alot
Regards Kevin
Malley, McCloskey, O'Donnell, Bresland, Dermidy, MacDonald, Lacey, Thornton, Quinn, Barret, Brogan, McCahill, Dempsey, Gallagher


Offline Kevin Malley

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Re: James Mackison - Stirling
« Reply #31 on: Saturday 06 August 16 23:59 BST (UK) »
Hello Jim,
Hope you are doing fine. Have recently been getting back into my research and was putting together all the Mackison information the other day.Ps Must thank you again for all the info you gave me!  I came across the Cowie Distillery on a website called "Scotlands Lost Distilleries" think that would have been the most likely place of work for James as it was walking distance from Bannockburn. However (forgive me if you have already noticed this) the marriage records for James Mackison and Margaret Sharp have been recorded twice? Once in St Ninians in Feb 1781 and again in Alloa in Jan 1781. Any ideas what the reason for this could be?
Malley, McCloskey, O'Donnell, Bresland, Dermidy, MacDonald, Lacey, Thornton, Quinn, Barret, Brogan, McCahill, Dempsey, Gallagher

Offline Rosinish

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Re: James Mackison - Stirling
« Reply #32 on: Sunday 07 August 16 00:22 BST (UK) »
Where a marriage is recorded twice is to signify the couple were each of different parishes..nothing more.

Annie
South Uist, Inverness-shire, Scotland:- Bowie, Campbell, Cumming, Currie

Ireland:- Cullen, Flannigan (Derry), Donahoe/Donaghue (variants) (Cork), McCrate (Tipperary), Mellon, Tol(l)and (Donegal & Tyrone)

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"OLD GENEALOGISTS NEVER DIE - THEY JUST LOSE THEIR CENSUS"

Offline Kevin Malley

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Re: James Mackison - Stirling
« Reply #33 on: Sunday 07 August 16 00:42 BST (UK) »
Thanks Annie,
Thought it may be as simple as that. Could be a good clue in tracing back the brides family.
Malley, McCloskey, O'Donnell, Bresland, Dermidy, MacDonald, Lacey, Thornton, Quinn, Barret, Brogan, McCahill, Dempsey, Gallagher

Offline jimmax

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Re: James Mackison - Stirling
« Reply #34 on: Sunday 07 August 16 14:28 BST (UK) »
Hi Kevin.  Good to hear from you.  I go along with Annie’s view.  I have seen this double recording of a marriage in the bride and bridegroom’s home parishes quite a few times in my English research but this is the first Scottish instance I have come across.

It is a good clue and some background on the Sharp family might shed some light on the Mackisons but I haven’t followed up on my initial searches for Margaret Sharp’s family in ALLOA, which didn’t get me anywhere.  It does seem a strong possibility that James & Margaret’s grandson James Mackison located to Alloa because of family connections.

The DISTILLERY clue is intriguing.  I suspect the Cowie distillery was little more than a still on a farm but did James Mackison senior learn his craft there and then later work in a distillery in Clackmannanshire where he met Margaret Sharp?  Or was it the Cowie distillery that brought him to Bannockburn in the first place (assuming he wasn’t related to the Mackisons already living here)?  The absence of baptismal records for James & Margaret’s children (and grandchildren) allows for a variety of scenarios.

Jim
Mackison, MacKessan, alias Maxwell, Forfar, McGeorge, Wallace.

Bowker, Pitpladdy, Barrow, Starkey.

Offline jimmax

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Re: James Mackison - Stirling
« Reply #35 on: Sunday 07 August 16 14:32 BST (UK) »
Hi Kevin,

my Canadian genealogy friend Amanda is keen on the DUNBLANE connection, presumably because her ancestor, Ann Mackison, was working in and then married in Dunblane.  Amanda prompted me to have another look at this possibility.

Were James Mackison of Bannockburn & his spouse Margaret Sharp of Alloa (who married in 1781) the James Mackison and unnamed spouse of Kilbryde, Dunblane, whose children were baptised in Dunblane in the period 1781-1794?

In the list below I have interposed the births of the Bannockburn siblings with the baptisms recorded in Dunblane of the children of James Mackison and unnamed spouse in Kilbryde, Dunblane.

•   Bapt. 1781 Dunblane      Beatrice Mackison
•   Bapt. 1783 Dunblane      William Mackison
•   Born 1784-90         Ann Mackison (also referred to once as Elizabeth)
                working in Kippenross, Dunblane before
                marriage to John Eadie of Dunblane, in Dunblane in 1807
•   Bapt. 1787 Dunblane      Helen Mackison
•   Bapt. 1789 Dunblane      James Mackison
                possibly the James Mackison (Ann’s brother) (unknown YOB)
                who married Janet Forfar in Bannockburn in 1812
•   Bapt. 1792 Dunblane      Colin Mackison
•   Bapt. 1794 Dunblane      George Mackison
                married Mary Jack in Dunblane in 1814
•   Born 1790s         John Mackison (Ann’s brother) (unknown YOB)
                who lived in Bannockburn
•   Born circa 1797/8      Catherine Mackison (Ann’s sister)
                who married Hugh Forsyth in Bannockburn in 1837
                and died in Bannockburn in 1888, aged 91

The Dunblane scenario has some strengths: -

1.   The date of the 1781 marriage of James Mackison & Margaret Sharp fits (just) with the baptism of James Mackison of Dunblane’s first child Beatrice in 1781.

(Pity that Beatrice’s mother is not recorded in the baptismal record.  Pity that the records of marriages in Dunblane during this period have not survived so we can’t discount the possibility that James Mackison in Dunblane married someone other than Margaret Sharp).

2.   The baptism of James Mackison in 1789 in Dunblane is the only (known, extant) record that would fit with the approximate birth of James Mackison married in Bannockburn in 1812.

3.   Ann Mackison was working in Dunblane before she married a Dunblane man.

The Dunblane scenario has some weaknesses: -

1.   Of the four Bannockburn siblings (Ann, James, John and Catherine) only a baptism for James is possibly recorded in Dunblane.  One has to wonder why Ann, John and Catherine are not recorded in the register there, if indeed they are the children of James Mackison in Dunblane.

2.   It would be a little strange if James Mackison & Margaret Sharp married in Bannockburn and then moved immediately to Dunblane to have their family there.  Some of the children then moving back to Bannockburn when they were adults -James, Catherine and John while George and Ann stayed in Dunblane.  Another interpretation was that James left Kilbryde in search of work and ended up in Bannockburn, but moved back home to Dunblane when he married.

3.   The postulated link between the Bannockburn family and the Dunblane family is all based on circumstantial evidence so far.  There isn’t a firm connection.

Other notes about the Dunblane scenario

•   The surviving records for Dunblane are not good quality -for example the non-recording of mother’s names.  They are also patchy with gaps in the marriage records.  Both of which make our research more difficult -either to confirm hypotheses or to discount them.

•   The parish church in Dunblane is a (small) cathedral.  Kilbryde, where the Mackison family lived, is on the edge of the parish.  I believe Kilbryde had its own chapel at one time.  It might be that because of the distance between their home and the kirk in the town, the Mackison family prayed at the local chapel and had less of a connection with the main kirk.

•   This might explain why several of the Mackison baptisms were recorded in the register retrospectively.  This leaves open the possibility that not all baptisms were recorded -explaining the absence of Ann, John and Catherine in the records.

Jim
Mackison, MacKessan, alias Maxwell, Forfar, McGeorge, Wallace.

Bowker, Pitpladdy, Barrow, Starkey.