Author Topic: Kingskettle School  (Read 3143 times)

Offline Daonnachd

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Re: Kingskettle School
« Reply #27 on: Monday 30 July 18 03:47 BST (UK) »
Thank you Annie, I'm sure I'd love Fife, and I will check out the Uni website at some point.

Off to bed now!  :) :)

p.s. staff at Exeter Hospital had to walk into work it got so bad here! Even here our town was cut off for a couple of days - the main road had kids sledging on it!!! ;D

Offline Forfarian

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Re: Kingskettle School
« Reply #28 on: Saturday 11 August 18 09:43 BST (UK) »
My father and his sister were attending this school in 1911. They are on the 1911 census as boading with a Margaret Chalmers, Rumdewan, Kettle, which is I understand the same road as the school.
The attached school records show Margaret Chalmers as their guardian. Does anyone know how this might have come about? Both children were born in Leith, so I don't understand how they ended up in Fife.

Their mother Maria was in the Seafield (Edinburgh) Workhouse in 1911, their father having died in 1907, and their stepfather having died in 1910. before. She had two daughters by  her second husband, both of whom died in the same workhouse, so I understand why my father and his sister would have been sent away, but by whom and why to Fife?

I think that is the key. If their father and stepfather had both died and their mother was in the workhouse, she must have applied to a parochial board in Edinburgh for relief, which means that for some reason she was unable to support herself or her surviving children.

In such cases it was usual for the parochial board to foster children out, not necessarily within its own parish. Sometimes children were sent to board quite some distance from their home. Sometimes, but not always, they were boarded with a relative.

As far as I know the full registers of the Edinburgh parochial board(s) have not survived, but some of the records do exist, and it just might be worth asking if there might be anything about these children. Start with Edinburgh City Archives http://www.edinburgh.gov.uk/info/20249/edinburgh_city_archives and download their family history subject guide which contains a list of the surviving Poor Law (parochial board) records they have.
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 Daonnachd

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Re: Kingskettle School
« Reply #29 on: Saturday 11 August 18 14:54 BST (UK) »
My father and his sister were attending this school in 1911. They are on the 1911 census as boading with a Margaret Chalmers, Rumdewan, Kettle, which is I understand the same road as the school.
The attached school records show Margaret Chalmers as their guardian. Does anyone know how this might have come about? Both children were born in Leith, so I don't understand how they ended up in Fife.

Their mother Maria was in the Seafield (Edinburgh) Workhouse in 1911, their father having died in 1907, and their stepfather having died in 1910. before. She had two daughters by  her second husband, both of whom died in the same workhouse, so I understand why my father and his sister would have been sent away, but by whom and why to Fife?

I think that is the key. If their father and stepfather had both died and their mother was in the workhouse, she must have applied to a parochial board in Edinburgh for relief, which means that for some reason she was unable to support herself or her surviving children.

In such cases it was usual for the parochial board to foster children out, not necessarily within its own parish. Sometimes children were sent to board quite some distance from their home. Sometimes, but not always, they were boarded with a relative.

As far as I know the full registers of the Edinburgh parochial board(s) have not survived, but some of the records do exist, and it just might be worth asking if there might be anything about these children. Start with Edinburgh City Archives http://www.edinburgh.gov.uk/info/20249/edinburgh_city_archives and download their family history subject guide which contains a list of the surviving Poor Law (parochial board) records they have.

Thank you Forfarian,

This does make total sense. It is quite possible the woman they lived with was unknown to the family, but I have established that the extended family had close links to the Cults & Kettle area, so they might have known her - or at least known of her - I guess I'll never know for sure.

I will check out the link you've given me re: the Parochial Board.

Thanks again,

Offline Forfarian

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Re: Kingskettle School
« Reply #30 on: Saturday 11 August 18 17:53 BST (UK) »
For the avoidance of duplication, this is the other thread on the same family
http://www.rootschat.com/forum/index.php?topic=797649.0
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.