Help locating Byerhills

[Mark Smith Australia]

Harry and Judy,
Sorry to "bump" this thread but I have just discovered that Janet Gosman may be my 4G-grandmother. William Erskine and Janet Gosman's son Thomas Erskine (born 1816) migrated to New Zealand in the early 1860s.   One of Thomas's daughters, Jessie Erskine (born 1839) married my G-G grandfather John Smith and then moved to Victoria, Australia about 1867/8.
Do you have any further information on Janet Gosman or William Erskine?   I can provide some information on what became of Thomas Erskine and his descendants.
Kind regards,
Mark Smith
Canberra, Australia

[hdw]

Hello. I actually have loads of information about Wm. Erskine and Janet Gosman and their descendants. Wm. and Janet ended up in St. Andrews where Wm. died in 1873, aged 82. He was a market gardener. His parents were Thomas Erskine, "naval seaman (formerly Butler)" & Cecilia Bowman. I haven't got their marriage.

Wm. Erskine and Janet Gosman's children were Thomas(1816, Cambo, Kingsbarns), David(1818, Carnbee), Catherine(1819, Carnbee), Cecilia(1821, Carnbee), John Anderson(1823, Carnbee), Ann(1825, St.Andrews), Janet(1828, St. Andrews), Peter(1830, St. Andrews), Margaret Philp(1831, St. Andrews).

The eldest son Thomas Erskine married Lavinia Guthrie in 1835. Thomas was a gardener at Ravelston, which is a well-heeled area of Edinburgh, to the west of the city centre.

Cecilia Erskine married John McGregor, a soldier.

Margaret Philp Erskine married James Louden or Lothian.

I have lots of birth, marriage and death certificates downloaded from Scotlandspeople. Several of the male Erskines became gardeners like their ancestor William.

I also have a little doc. drawn up by a Gosman descendant which I'll pass on to you if you like. She mentions the old story about a supposed ancestor who was a sailor in the Spanish Armada. I think that can be discounted! There are lots of fairy-tales about the Spanish Armada all over the coast of the UK, but not a single shred of evidence that any Spanish sailor ever stayed on here. Some think that Gosman derives from the Spanish surname Guzmán, but Gosman is an old surname all over Britain.

Harry

[Jeffrey]

Do either of you know much about the Ancestors of Janet Gosman? Would be interested to know. I will look and see if I have any documents related to them if I know more about her ancestors.
I am sure they must all be related in that area somewhere back along the line!

I agree about the story of the origin of the name 'Gosman' Harry. But it is  quite a nice little tale.



Judy

[hdw]

Hello Judy. I've just been re-reading our private correspondence back in 2012, which luckily I have saved, and I see that we gave the Gosmans a good going-over then, so I won't repeat all that stuff here. Maybe you and Mark could contact each other by private message and you could pass on your findings to him. I haven't done much research on the Gosmans themselves as they weren't my ancestors.

Mark - I've mentioned this in a previous post, but I wrote a book about Cellardyke village and Kilrenny parish back in 1986 and the Gosman/Tarvit story is covered on p.75 -

http://www.birlinn.co.uk/Kilrenny-and-Cellardyke-9781904607083.html

The Tarvits were and are an old Cellardyke family. Catherine was the daughter of Robert Tarvit and Janet Hodge, and the granddaughter of Robert Tarvit and Christian Pryde. Catherine Tarvit later married David Gellatly, who I think was a native of Perthshire, and their daughter Ann Rankin Gellatly (called after the Kilrenny minister's wife) was my 2 x great-grandmother. Ann is sometimes mentioned as a witness at the baptisms of her half-sister Janet Gosman's children in St. Andrews. Incidentally, one of the children of Wm. Erskine and Janet Gosman - Cecilia Erskine (Mrs. John McGregor) was born in 1821 and survived to the age of 101, dying in Strathkinness in 1922. I hope some of her genes have been passed on.

I said that William Erskine was the son of Thomas Erskine and Cecilia Bowman. I think she may be the "Cicel" Bowman born in 1749 at Crail to David Bowman and Cicel Murray. When her son Wm. Erskine was baptised in 1791 at Crail, the witnesses were a John Bowman and - Murray (can't read the first name).

Harry

[Jeffrey]

Hi Harry,
Was looking for all our correspondence in 2012 and that of other Gosman researchers - shock horror I thought it had been lost  - but somehow it had got into my Archive file - thank goodness I never delete much!!!
Any attachments I always save.

I don't think I have done much on the Gosmans since then but just opening one attachment - the marriage of Agnes Gosman & Thomas Hay - I see that confirms her father  occupation was a Smith. That explains some of the documents I photo'd when I was in Fife a few years ago! I think it said something about selling nails!

Just shows you should occasionally go back to look at things after you have collected more information.

If Mark posts another message then I think we can 'private message'. If you don't mind then maybe I could send on some of the e-mails you sent me in 2012 rather than write it all out again.

Judy

[hdw]

Yes indeed, share and share alike. That's how we learn. I've enjoyed boning up on the Gosmans and related families again. In the East Neuk of Fife they are most prevalent in the neighbouring parishes of Kilrenny and Crail.

Harry

[Jeffrey]

Must say I didn't realise what a great place the East Neuk of Fife was until I visited it a few years back. Well worth a visit especially if you have ancestors from around there.

Judy

[Mark Smith Australia]

Hi Judy and Harry,

Well I must say that I am amazed by the quick response to a four year old thread.   Unfortunately I know nothing of Janet Gosman's ancestors apart from the wealth of information that you both have in this thread.   Whilst I have been researching my family history for 20 odd years, starting back in the pre-internet days, it has only been the last 6 months or so since I retired that I have picked it up again and started seriously using the resources now available on the net.

I found the name Janet Gosman in a family tree posted at  http://suandrod.com/_gsdata_/_saved_/Family/ppl/e/9/d110876454b3365204bbb45e59e.html  while searching for Thomas Erskine (1816-1870).   So far I have mainly concentrated on the family in Australia and a little in New Zealand but now having a few more names I have been searching through the IGI on-line (it took a while to determine the best way to search this resource!)

I think that I may need to make three posts before I can access the PM functions of this forum so I will put a few details about Thomas Erskine and Lavinia Guthrie in another post shortly.

Regards,
Mark

[Mark Smith Australia]

Looks like I only needed two posts to be able to PM.   Rather than just enter the very basic info about Thomas Erskine, I can leave it a week or two while I delve into the NZ Shipping records.   Just let me know if there is anything particular you would like to know.   I do have Lavinia Guthrie's DC if you are interested.

Mark