Advice please

[candleflame]

Hi all, I could d with a bit of advice please.
I have made my first foray into Scottish records through helping out a friend with their tree and have hit a few snags. I've used ScotlandsPeople and downloaded what I can find from there. I've used Familysearch, I've used Find My Past and I've used Ancestry. 
When I got a bit stuck on a line, I looked at Ancestry trees to see what they had come up with, but have found a series of trees where the only source is other ancestry trees and I can't prove what they say is correct or not. HOWEVER, the dates the trees have are very specific - so day month and year and I can't think that people have made these up. Can anyone point me in the right direction as to how I can prove or disprove? (I can't travel to Scotland in case anyone asks.)

I'll put a few up from St Fergus that I couldn't find (I did a search using the batch number on family search too.)
Mary Adam(s) b 26 3 1799
Elspet Adam(s) b 13 8 1800
Elizabeth Adam(s) b 4 11 1804
Janet Adam(s) b 3 6 1813

Marriage of William Adam(s) to Elizabeth Thom - tree says 1792 Longside
Marriage of the same William Adam(s) to Janet Thomson - tree says 10 6 1812 Dundee. ( Elizabeth Thom dies 5 5 1808 on SP)

Also the marriage of William Adam(s) (the younger William's dad) to Marjory Wishart - tree says 25 11 1751 St Nicholas ABD.

Many thanks for any advice.

[GR2]

You are right to be careful. People often make mistakes, especially when they are at a distance and are not really certain of Scottish geography, and when they believe that all baptisms have been recorded.

One possibility with the St Fergus area is that the dates may come from Episcopal church records. ScotlandsPeople does not show them. A fair number of folk in the Longside/Old Deer/Lonmay/ St Fergus area were Episcopalian. It is also quite common for some baptisms in the same family to be recorded in the Episcopalian registers and some in the Church of Scotland ones.

One thing about St Fergus is that it was actually a detached part of Banffshire at that period.

[candleflame]

Thanks for that.
Yes some of the next generation down were baptised at Lonmay Episcopal which were on Ancestry. Do you know if the st Fergus episcopal - or whatever the correct name is - are online?
Also please can you explain what being a detached part of Banffshire would mean for these records?
Thanks .

[Rosinish]

This is a good site which has all sorts of info;

http://scotlandsplaces.gov.uk/search/results?st=ST.%20FERGUS

Annie

[candleflame]

Thanks for this .

[Forfarian]

See http://www.rootschat.com/forum/index.php?topic=714261.0

I would want to see some fairly convincing original evidence for William Adam(s) having married twice in places so far apart.

[Rosinish]

This gives what church records are available for St. Fergus but doesn't specify denominations;

http://www.abdnet.co.uk/genuki/BAN/Stfergus/index.html#ChurchRecords

Annie

[candleflame]

See http://www.rootschat.com/forum/index.php?topic=714261.0

I would want to see some fairly convincing original evidence for William Adam(s) having married twice in places so far apart.

Thanks Forfarian - that rootschat page is one I hadn't located before - really useful.
Re the possible second marriage there was no evidence given on the tree. William's first wife died in 1808. I have tracked four children born to this first (unfound) marriage and the last of those was in 1801.
Their records were all in the St Fergus and Longside batch numbers .

[candleflame]

Thanks Annie
I'd looked at Genuki when I was trying to get a handle on an area of the country I knew very little  about. The family I have 'proven' were from around Cruden, Peterhead, Longside, Longmay.
The younger William was a farmer firstly at Crimond and then at Tillyduff St Fergus which is where one of his sons died at the farm and Williams wife died on the road near Tillyduff.