Help with my Hutchison family

[SamuelF992]

According to his census records he was born in Montrose in 1791.

The UK census never gives a date of birth, and 'calculating' a date of birth by subtracting the person's age from the census year gives a wrong answer more often than not.

I assume that he is the one listed as a tailor, aged 50, in the 1841 census in Tiverton. In 1841 adults' ages were supposed to be rounded down to the nearest 5 years, which means that someone listed as 50 in that year could have been any age from 50 to 54, and therefore could have been born as early as June 1786 or as late as June 1791.

In 1851 he was listed as aged 60, which does imply that he was born in 1790 or 1791. In 1861 he is listed as 71, which implies a birth in 1789 or 1790.

He is at least consistent in giving his birthplace, so that seems to be reasonably certain.

Hi, thanks. Yeah, I know it can be quite dodgy. He was indeed the tailor. It does, I've tried looking in other places in Forfarshire but that's been similarly fruitless.

[SamuelF992]

Could he have been born to a family where they were already serving abroad? Napoleon etc? One of our lot was born in Minorca, think it was a garrison, and so very hard to discover his parentage until finally he popped up in England

Hi, thank you. That's an interesting prospect. I'll try and find some more Hutchison military records.

[hdw]

Interesting that you're looking for a Hutchison in Angus who was a tailor, for I know of a David Hutchison born in Arbroath in 1845 who became a draper. His parents were William B. Hutchison, flax dresser turned schoolteacher, and Isabella Smith, who were married in 1839 in Arbroath.

In 1872 David Hutchison married Grace Reid Gellatly of Cellardyke, Fife, in the Schoolhouse at Colliston, St. Vigeans. They had a large family and I have a photo of them, all looking very neat and well turned-out as you'd expect from a draper's children.

Harry

[ThrelfallYorky]

Have you tried a request, stating what you know, on a site called "Talking Scot"? It's free, and the people there are .... pretty much like the researchers on here, skilled, and really good at ferreting things out.