Author Topic: Riach  (Read 1584 times)

Offline morgan 55

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Riach
« on: Thursday 10 March 16 11:32 GMT (UK) »
Help Does anyone know who George Riach parents are he married Elisa [Elizabeth] Proctor on the 2 Nov 1800 in Rothes.                                                                                                                                                                 
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Offline Forfarian

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Re: Riach
« Reply #1 on: Thursday 10 March 16 12:54 GMT (UK) »
No, I don't.

However two of their daughters married relatives of mine and I have made a note of their baptisms from the Rothes Parish Register.

1803, 15 May. George Riach farmer in the Haugh and his spouse Elisa Proctor had a child baptised and named Elisa Beatrix. Witnesses James Simpson Robert Simpson and Beatrix Riach in Ballindalloch.

1805, 16 May. George Riach farmer in the Haughs and his spouse Elisa Proctor had a child baptised and named Elspeth. Witnesses Elspet Bremner in the Haugh and Elspet Riach in Inveravon.


Noting that the two Riach witnesses were in the parish of Inveravon (Ballindalloch is in Inveravon) it looks as if that might be a reasonable place to look for George's family.

It may be that the baptism of James b 1801 and Margaret b 1807 might contain further clues. You can view these at modest cost at www.scotlandspeople.gov.uk.
Never trust anything you find online (especially submitted trees and transcriptions on Ancestry, MyHeritage, FindMyPast and other commercial web sites) unless it's an image of an original document - and even then be wary because errors can and do occur.

Offline J11

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Re: Riach
« Reply #2 on: Friday 11 March 16 10:32 GMT (UK) »
In 1841 Elizabeth Riach 70, head of household, is still at the Haugh, Rothes with Margaret Riach 30, Isabel Bremner 70 and a 17 year old servant Jannet Cruickshank.  This is remarkable given that the farmhouse was destroyed in the Great Moray Flood of 1829.  It is possible that there is another Riach farmhouse in the Haugh which could have been swept away although Freecen only has two dwellings under that name in the 1841 census so it is unlikely.  In his "Recollections of a Speyside Parish" James Thomson remembers the flood at Rothes:

Below us lay the fertile and once beautiful haugh of Rothes. The rich crops of corn and hay that made it a joy to look upon were buried beneath stones and gravel or swept to the sea by the raging flood. The ruins of Widow Riach's farm-house at the upper end of the haugh completed the picture of desolation. The village houses seemed deserted, and their straw thatched roofs looked like clay huts. The crops in the gardens lay beaten to the earth. A great chasm of stones and gravel marked the course of the burn that divides the village into two parts. The bridge that crossed it was entirely swept away, thus preventing communication by wheeled vehicles from either side. On the opposite side of the river the beautifully wooded banks below Arndilly were converted in many places into naked yellow crags. In whatever direction our eyes were turned nothing but ruin and desolation was seen.

There is a vivid description of the event and the rescue of the family in Thomas Dick Lauder's "The Great Floods of August 1829 in the Province of Moray and Adjoining Districts" pages 220-223 which can be read on-line.  archive.org/details/greatfloods.  I'm hopeless at posting links.  Maybe someone can add it properly for me.

Scotlands People have a George Riach dying in Rothes in 1821, possibly the husband of Elizabeth. 

Offline Forfarian

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Re: Riach
« Reply #3 on: Friday 11 March 16 10:56 GMT (UK) »
Ithe farmhouse was destroyed in the Great Moray Flood of 1829.  It is possible that there is another Riach farmhouse in the Haugh

Or perhaps it had been rebuilt in the decade since the flood? Maybe not on the same spot, of course.
Never trust anything you find online (especially submitted trees and transcriptions on Ancestry, MyHeritage, FindMyPast and other commercial web sites) unless it's an image of an original document - and even then be wary because errors can and do occur.