We have a serious problem here .................
All the family histories list two of John 'Craggan' Fergusson's children by his first marriage to Elspeth (Elizabeth) McLaughlin as James (b 25 Feb 1788) and Katharine (b 17 Apr 1792). The Blair Atholl OPR shows that both children were born at Cnappaig.
The problem is that the OPR also records their brother Alexander, born at Cnappaig, 7 April 1790 and baptised 4 days later.
After the death of his first wife, John remarried and moved to Craggan, where .....
The Blair Atholl OPR shows that Alexander Fergusson (presumably John's son) in Craggan married Jean McLaughlin, 4 Dec 1803, which accords with the family histories - but he is only 13 years old!
Possibilities -
We don't think that John had two sons named 'Alexander'. This would only occur if the older one had died, and this would be of no help here.
Maybe the OPR registrar wrote down the wrong first name. Should it really be Peter / Patrick who we cannot trace?
Another oddity is that John Fergusson married Elspeth McLaughlin in 1776, but we have no record of any births for over 7 years. Perhaps he enlisted, or perhaps he was working in the plantations. Yet the family histories do not suggest this nor mention something which would have been quite memorable.
Another possibility is that the Cnappaig births are not the same couple. This is not helped by there being no marriage entries in the Blair Atholl OPR from 14th December 1781 until 26th August 1784. The 1776 marriage of John Fergusson (Moulin OPR) states that he was from Moulin parish and his wife was from Blair Atholl parish, but provides no further information.
We are slightly puzzled,
Throth (
www.borenich.co.uk)