Author Topic: George Stewart/Stuart 1815? - 1861  (Read 864 times)

Offline agray1949

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George Stewart/Stuart 1815? - 1861
« on: Thursday 23 August 18 16:29 BST (UK) »
Hello all, I would like some feedback on whether I have made an error in my 2 x g/grandfather's bio. or not.
According to my g/grandmothers Birth, Marriage & Death certificates her parents were George Stuart & Margaret Simpson (No problem here)
According to the 1851census George was born in Aberlour 1815
1861 census Aberlour 1813
His marriage certificate in 1855 shows him born & registered October 1812 at Aberlour & his parents were Thomas Stewart (deceased) & Elizabeth Bremner (deceased)
His death certificate in 1861 shows him as 45 years old (1816) his parents were (Peter?) Stewart & Elizabeth Bremner (Informant was his son in law Alexander Simpson)
I found a record in Scotland's People OPR's dated 1807 for a George Stuart, parents Thomas Stuart & Elizabeth Bremner (faint writing) born in Aberlour.
I could  see a marriage between Elizabeth Bremnar & Thomas Stewart in 1797 at Aberlour
My question is this. Was George being a bit untruthful about his age or not sure & do I have the correct parents ie. Thomas & Elizabeth

Offline Forfarian

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Re: George Stewart/Stuart 1815? - 1861
« Reply #1 on: Thursday 23 August 18 18:22 BST (UK) »
According to the 1851census George was born in Aberlour 1815
1861 census Aberlour 1813
No, it doesn't. The census never gives a year of birth. If you have seen an extract from the census that tells you the (supposed) year of birth, it is a transcription, and the year of birth has been 'calculated' by subtracting the age from the census year. The census tells you the age people said they were on the day of the census, which was usually around the end of March.

Quote
His marriage certificate in 1855 shows him born & registered October 1812 at Aberlour & his parents were Thomas Stewart (deceased) & Elizabeth Bremner (deceased)
His death certificate in 1861 shows him as 45 years old (1816) his parents were (Peter?) Stewart & Elizabeth Bremner (Informant was his son in law Alexander Simpson)
He is likely to have given the correct details on his marriage. His son-in-law probably never knew his father-in-law's parents or exact age.
Quote
I found a record in Scotland's People OPR's dated 1807 for a George Stuart, parents Thomas Stuart & Elizabeth Bremner (faint writing) born in Aberlour.
I could  see a marriage between Elizabeth Bremnar & Thomas Stewart in 1797 at Aberlour
My question is this. Was George being a bit untruthful about his age or not sure & do I have the correct parents ie. Thomas & Elizabeth
It probably wasn't deliberate untruthfulness, just a slightly hazy grasp of dates.

In my opinion Thomas Stewart/Stuart and Elizabeth Bremner are the correct parents. They had
Ann, baptised 20 July 1798
Robert, baptised 9 May 1801
Patrick, baptised 29 June 1803
William, baptised 18 October 1805
George, baptised 14 November 1807
Margaret, baptised 30 March 1810
John, baptised 16 December 1812
Thomas, baptised 29 July 1816
all in Aberlour.

I am not seeing any baptisms to Peter Stewart/Stuart and Elizabeth Bremner.

Looking at the (much more reliable but still no substitute for looking at the originals) transcriptions of the 1851 census on https://www.freecen.org.uk/cgi/search.pl, I see possible records of George and all his brothers. You'd have to follow them up by checking the certificates at www.scotlandspeople.gov.uk to be sure.
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 ColC

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Re: George Stewart/Stuart 1815? - 1861
« Reply #2 on: Thursday 23 August 18 18:35 BST (UK) »
There is no doubt that ages on some records did vary, in this particular case the record for George below is quite clear, there was one other record for the name in Aberlour, this was 1811 father William. No other George born Aberlour 1807 – 1816 on SP.

STUART   GEORGE   THOMAS STUART/ELISABETH BREMNER   14/11/1807   Aberlour

Sadly there are no deaths on SP for Aberlour after 1793 until 1855 Statutory Registration. Maybe George’s parents died when he was young and/or his son in law was not sure of his wife's grandfather’s name.

Colin
Clarke, Trickett, Orton, Lawless, Norton, Detheridge, Kirby, Goodfellow, Wagstaff, Lowe, etc.

Offline agray1949

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Re: George Stewart/Stuart 1815? - 1861
« Reply #3 on: Thursday 23 August 18 18:57 BST (UK) »
Thank you both for your replies which basically confirm what I suspected in that his son in law may not have known who George's parents were & took a guess.
As for his birth/baptism date he was probably not too sure of the year & possibly wanted to appear 5 years younger for his marriage & kept to that D.O.B. throughout the rest of his life.