Katharine Gowans and John Robertson

[kallie50]

Hello

I'm looking for any information on my Scottish ancestors Katharine Gowans and John Robertson

Katharine and John are my 4th great grandparents and were married 13 Feb 1790 at parish church St Monance, Fife, both parishioners of the church

Their children Andrew, William Agnes and James were all born in St Monance between 1790 - 1795.
however their son Robert (my 3 x ggrandfather) was born in 1804 in Inveresk

I have found quite a bit of information since they apparently left St Monance however have been unable to find any information at all before their marriage in St Monans.

I have actually found an 'Elspeth' Gowans who was baptised 20 Aug 1792 at St Monance and wonder if this could possible be my ancestors sister.

I am unable to find any birth/parents details for Katharine or John

Any help or suggestions where to look next is very much appreciated

kind regards
Lynne

[davaar36]

Hello Lynne

Given that Katharine was married in 1790 we would expect her to have been born around 1770 +- a few years. That means the Elspeth you found would have been a very late sib. According to IGI Elspeth is the only child listed for John Gowans and Ann Baxter. On the other hand between 1776 and 1794 Robert Gowans and Elspeth Cameron have 11 children listed as born in St Monance (C114544) although no Katharine. Robert Gowans marriage to Elspeth Cameron is the only male Gowans marriage listed for the 1770s in St Monance.

Dod

[kallie50]

Hello Dod - thanks for the response - I realised later on that I was thinking 1790 was Katharines birth date when it was actually her marriage date.

Did you find the information on Family Search?  I'm not all that experienced so am not sure if I am accessing the correct websites. 

Do you have any suggestions of places I could look?

thanks for your help
Lynne

[davaar36]

Hello Lynne

Family Search has the information and is useful but is a bit limiting regarding searching. Check out
http://freepages.genealogy.rootsweb.ancestry.com/~hughwallis/IGIBatchNumbers.htm#PageTitle
for an explanation. From this page you can link to the Country then County, Parish and OPR. e.g.
http://freepages.genealogy.rootsweb.ancestry.com/~hughwallis/IGIBatchNumbers/CountyFife.htm
then click on the number of the OPR you want to search or examine. (You may have to hold down CTRL key while clicking on OPR number depending on your browser settings). As well as searching for a surname you can step through each OPR which can be useful for finding odd spelling/errors.
I've probably made it sound more difficult than it is and others will be able to give you better advice or alternatives.
ScotlandsPeople site http://www.scotlandspeople.gov.uk/ is a great source for Scottish Records with good search facilities. Search free but pay to view results.

Dod

[kallie50]

thanks very much Dod - I'll have a try and see how I go.....

[Chiad Fhear]

Hi Lynne

Come forward 100 years or so and I have a Kilconquhar, Fife, Marriage Register page from 12 July 1872 for Henry Archibald, age 21, Joiner, U/R Leslie, and Jessie Gowans, age 18, Domestic Servant, U/R Kinglassie.

Jessie was the daughter of John Gowans, Farm Servant, and Barbara Robertson (deceased).

If your interested in having a copy of the record, please PM me with your email address and I'll send it on to you.

I have St Monance 'Gowans' in my tree as well.

Regards

Chiad Fhear

[Malcolmmitchell]

First time on roots chat.
I am descendent of Jessie Gowans and Henry Archibald from Lesley Fife. My mother Jessie Gowans Archibald married my father William Mitchell. I researched my family tree 30 years ago and found a bit pre-Internet days. Happy to share info. Malcolm

[hdw]

There's a little booklet by the historian Paula Martin called "Pits, Pans and People: the social impact of coal mining and salt making in St Monans and Pittenweem, c1770-1820" (Centre for Tayside and Fife Studies, Occasional Paper Number 3) (no date). She mentions salters from west Fife being brought in to east Fife to work the salt pans, and says on page 9: "One family moved from Wemyss, one from Torryburn via Culross, and in the case of one other name, half its occurrences in Fife in the late 18th century are at places with saltworks."

The name she is talking about is Gowans, as she explains in a note at the end of the book: "Before 1770 there had been no-one called Gowans in St Monans for a hundred years. Between 1770 and 1820 20% of the Gowans in Fife were in St Monans, and another 30% in other parishes with salt pans."

Of course, having moved to a fishing village, it was on the cards that some descendants of these salters would become fishermen. I went to secondary school in Anstruther and knew some kids from St Monans called Gowans. The name has continued there to the present day but of course the salt-pans are a distant memory.

I live in Edinburgh and once a week I buy fish from a fish van that parks outside a nearby pub. The name on the van is Gowans and the first time I bought fish from the van I asked the vanman if he was one of the Gowans clan from St Monans in Fife. He laughed and said, "No, but everybody asks me that!" So the Gowans or Gowanses of St Monans are known on the south side of the Forth too.

Harry