Author Topic: Aberdeenshire or Banffshire  (Read 1814 times)

Offline Andrew C.

  • RootsChat Senior
  • ****
  • Posts: 264
  • Census information Crown Copyright, from www.nationalarchives.gov.uk
    • View Profile
Aberdeenshire or Banffshire
« on: Monday 10 September 18 21:27 BST (UK) »
I have a marriage of William Cowie of Round Hillock in the Parish of Peterhead and Margaret Martin in 1835. There is a Round Hillock farm just north of St. Fergus. Would this have been in Banffshire or Aberdeenshire I know St Fergus at one time came under Banffshire.

Offline crisane

  • RootsChat Marquessate
  • *******
  • Posts: 6,488
  • Census information Crown Copyright, from www.nationalarchives.gov.uk
    • View Profile
Re: Aberdeenshire or Banffshire
« Reply #1 on: Monday 10 September 18 21:31 BST (UK) »
Searching on ScotlandsPeople gives a result for the marriage in Aberdeen but St Fergus as being in Banff.

Offline Andrew C.

  • RootsChat Senior
  • ****
  • Posts: 264
  • Census information Crown Copyright, from www.nationalarchives.gov.uk
    • View Profile
Re: Aberdeenshire or Banffshire
« Reply #2 on: Monday 10 September 18 22:18 BST (UK) »
St. Fergus was strange in that it was a Banffshire enclave within Aberdeenshire, I guess because the OPR is Parish of Peterhead it must be Aberdeenshire.

Offline Forfarian

  • RootsChat Marquessate
  • *******
  • Posts: 14,972
  • http://www.rootschat.com/links/01ruz/
    • View Profile
Re: Aberdeenshire or Banffshire
« Reply #3 on: Monday 10 September 18 22:32 BST (UK) »
Have a look at http://www.genuki.org.uk/big/sct/BAN/Stfergus

Scotland's Places lists Roundhillock in the OS Name Book for the parish of Peterhead, and the Genuki Gazetteer of place names in Banffshire does not include Roundhillock, so I deduce that Roundhillock is in Aberdeenshire.

This https://maps.nls.uk/geo/explore/#zoom=16&lat=57.5340&lon=-1.8655&layers=5&b=1 is the Roundhillock which is in the parish of Peterhead. It is about two miles south-west of the village of St Fergus. It is south of the River Ugie, which is the boundary between St Fergus and Peterhead.

If the one you found north of St Fergus is on the OS map, I have failed to spot it. Where exactly is it?

According to the 'community contributed' IGI William Cowie and Margaret Martin had a son George, baptised in Peterhead in 1837, but the corresponding baptism at Scotland's People does not name the mother.

I see that William Cowie, 30; Margaret Cowie, 30; George Cowie, 4; and William Cowie, 1 are living in Queen Street, Peterhead, in 1841. In 1851 George Cowie, 14 and William Cowie, 12, both born Peterhead, are living in Fetterangus, parish of Old Deer, with their grandmother Isabella Brown.

William Cowie, son of Andrew Cowie and Isabel Brown, was baptised in Old Deer in 1810.

So far there seems to be nothing to connect the family with St Fergus or Banffshire.
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 Andrew C.

  • RootsChat Senior
  • ****
  • Posts: 264
  • Census information Crown Copyright, from www.nationalarchives.gov.uk
    • View Profile
Re: Aberdeenshire or Banffshire
« Reply #4 on: Tuesday 11 September 18 00:29 BST (UK) »
Thanks for the comprehensive reply. The Rounhillock I am seeing on Google Maps is further north just off the A90 near Keyhead. The one you point out near Inverugie is probably the one though. St. Fergus is probably a red herring, it is something My father wrote down many years ago but is not really relevant, as I don’t think the OPRs are going to give me any clues to William or Margaret’s births. Confusingly there are two families in Peterhead with sons George and William around the same age in 1841. I had discounted the pair you pointed out as my ancestor Alexander was not with them in 1851. I believe he was in the Ugie Street poor house with William after his parents his brother George and a younger sister Elizabeth had died. I believe there was a typhoid epidemic in the late 1840’s.

Offline Rosinish

  • RootsChat Marquessate
  • *******
  • Posts: 14,239
  • PASSED & PAST
    • View Profile
Re: Aberdeenshire or Banffshire
« Reply #5 on: Tuesday 11 September 18 02:06 BST (UK) »
I have a marriage of William Cowie of Round Hillock in the Parish of Peterhead and Margaret Martin in 1835.

Is this exactly how it's written?

"William Cowie of Round Hillock in the Parish of Peterhead"?

Did it state Margaret was of 'this parish' (being Peterhead)?

Quoting exactly how things are/were written makes easier interpretation to questions & I don't mean that in an offensive way but how things are written can change a whole scenario.

Although, Forfarian with her excellent knowledge has put things in perspective.

Annie

South Uist, Inverness-shire, Scotland:- Bowie, Campbell, Cumming, Currie

Ireland:- Cullen, Flannigan (Derry), Donahoe/Donaghue (variants) (Cork), McCrate (Tipperary), Mellon, Tol(l)and (Donegal & Tyrone)

Newcastle-on-Tyne/Durham (Northumberland):- Harrison, Jude, Kemp, Lunn, Mellon, Robson, Stirling

Kettering, Northampton:- MacKinnon

Canada:- Callaghan, Cumming, MacPhee

"OLD GENEALOGISTS NEVER DIE - THEY JUST LOSE THEIR CENSUS"

Offline Forfarian

  • RootsChat Marquessate
  • *******
  • Posts: 14,972
  • http://www.rootschat.com/links/01ruz/
    • View Profile
Re: Aberdeenshire or Banffshire
« Reply #6 on: Tuesday 11 September 18 08:17 BST (UK) »
Hmmmm.

I have looked on Google maps and there is indeed a pin marking Roundhillock Farm at Keyhead. This location is (now) in the parish of Crimond in Aberdeenshire.

The Post Code directory does list Roundhillock Farm, St Fergus, Peterhead AB42 3HE. This is the same post code as Keyhead Crofts and Stypleton.

However none of the Ordnance Survey maps, starting with the first edition of the six-inch and finishing with the 1:25,000 map published in 2002, names a Roundhillock at that point. There is a small unnamed farm or croft there on all the OS maps.
See https://maps.nls.uk/geo/explore/#zoom=16&lat=57.5932&lon=-1.8812&layers=5&b=1

The 1881 census (before the rationalisation of parish boundaries in 1890-ish) lists Skypleton, Keyhead, Blackhills, North Essie and sundry other places in Enumeration District No 6 in the parish of St Fergus. None of the places in this ED of this census has a name that remotely resembles Roundhillock.

Therefore the Roundhillock Farm marked on Google maps is indeed in what was the parish of St Fergus in the county of Banff.

However I am not convinced that this farm's name was Roundhillock in the 1830s. I think it could have been given that name some time in the latter part of the 20th century to distinguish it from several other farms and crofts round about that were all originally part of Blackhills.

Therefore in my opinion the Roundhillock referred to in the marriage record of William Cowie and Margaret Martin must be the one south of the River Ugie in the parish of Peterhead in the county of Aberdeen.

I see the listing of William and Alexander Cowie in Ugie Street in 1851. As they are both described as 'pauper', there must have been extensive details about them in the parochial board records, and the details would have included the places of birth of their parents. I do not know offhand how much of the Peterhead parochial board records have survived, but if they have they will be in Aberdeen Archives
https://www.aberdeencity.gov.uk/services/libraries-and-archives/aberdeen-city-and-aberdeenshire-archives





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 Andrew C.

  • RootsChat Senior
  • ****
  • Posts: 264
  • Census information Crown Copyright, from www.nationalarchives.gov.uk
    • View Profile
Re: Aberdeenshire or Banffshire
« Reply #7 on: Tuesday 11 September 18 09:00 BST (UK) »
Thanks again. Yes Annie it did say both of this Parish.

I contacted Aberdeen Archives a while back but it was when they were moving so they said it might be some time before they got back to me but never did. I will contact them again.

Andrew

Offline Flattybasher9

  • RootsChat Marquessate
  • *******
  • Posts: 3,360
  • Manners cost nothing, and are worth the effort.
    • View Profile