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Scotland (Counties as in 1851-1901) => Scotland => Lanarkshire => Topic started by: annmck on Wednesday 22 September 10 11:44 BST (UK)
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Hi, all
George Wilson, a soldier & weaver of Airdrie b. abt 1792-94, pleaded guilty to forgery in Glasgow's High Court of Justiciary in Sep 1837 & was transported to NSW in 1838. I now have the transcripts of his precognition & trial, but it contains no reference to his family circumstances.
His convict indent description mentions 2 tattoos, one of a scotch thistle on his right arm, & a blue ring on his wedding finger, which led me to think a previous marriage may have explained why he didn't marry the mother of his Australian child.
Recently I found his transportation record in which he is described as having a wife & daughter but no names or ages are given. note, a witness at his trial, Jean Jack of the Common(?) Airdrie confirms this, stating that George and his unnamed wife and daughter lodged with her and skipped without paying. She believed they'd previously lodged with Mrs Glasgow in Airdrie.
This is now confirmed by his convict hulk record, as is his claim to have been an old soldier-( his obituary stated that he fought at Waterloo)
I'd like to find out what happened to the wife & daughter he left behind... (I've looked on familysearch, scotland's people etc without success, for a marriage to start with, and a census search seems out of the question without more to go on) and need help with discovering his military record.....Can anyone help, please?
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Grrrrrrrrrrrr!!
George's native place was Aidrie, according to his trial documents, but i can't find his birth/baptism record in any of the usual places.
Does native place always mean birthplace, or may it mean a place of residence only.
Any suggestions as to where someone so described may have been baptised....I have some maps but no local knowledge.
There's another post about George on this page which I've previously edited, but it's slipping away without any response.... :(
Cheers, Ann
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Ann.
I was raised only 2 miles from Airdrie, and still live quite near. I would like to help you but it could be difficult.
We always think things then were the same as today, but it was far from that. It was only in 1855 that registration
of Births, Deaths and marriages became compulsory and taken over by the State. Prior to that the records were
kept by the Church (not always kept well) and many people went through life without registering any Birth, Marriage or Death, Ministers were drunkards, Churches split because someone Sang Amen at the end of a prayer, Mice chewed the books, a lot is against us, but you have got this far and will probably know that.
Airdrie Library has quite a good Family History department, the population of Airdrie was not all that big in those days, perhaps they will have a record of the Weavers, they were the main Industry of the time.
James.
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Some names would be good ;) Did he have family by second wife? Thinking he may have followed Scottish naming custom.
One birth for a George Wilson caught my eye 18 May 1795 at Carnwath.
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Hi mosstrooper & fifer1947!
Thankyou both for your replies...you both raise very good points.
I like your suggestion regarding weaving records, mosstrooper....and, yes, parish records are a lucky dip...my lot were RC, Anglican, Wee Frees & heaven knows what, so I've had a range of researching experiences :-\....
Please look at the link here to the related topic about John Christie in this forum, as it gives relevant names & other details about George's situation. The child he had in Aus. with Janet Christie (whom he didn't marry) was called Maria Janet.....(Janet Christie's parents were John Christie & Janet Stewart/Stuart)...
Did the Carnwarth birth record you found show any parent names? Should I be looking for a Maria/Mary mother for George, maybe......(I wonder what his wife & child back home were called, and how they fared after his conviction...)
Cheers, Ann
http://www.rootschat.com/forum/index.php/topic,478424.0.html
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Could a moderator please enable the link in the above post...it was fine when I previewed it, but seems to have disabled itself ???
Thanks, Ann :-*
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Ann
Normally you click to got to the link, but I copied and pasted it to the URL bar and it worked fine. Trying again for you
www.rootschat.com/forum/index.php/topic,478424.0.html
Monica
Added: Working fine now to clink and go direct to the link :)
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As I am still searching for a George Wilson in Aidrie who disappears sometime in the 1850s I leapt on this thread, but my missing George is younger than yours
I did a quick look for Waterloo for you. Assuming he wasn't a Captain, and it doesn't sound like it, there are a few:
Six x George Wilson(s), Private, are listed from:
2nd Life Guards
Royal Regiment of Horse Guards
2nd Btn, 69th Regiment of Foot (2 candidates)
13th Regiment Light Dragoons
1st Btn, 19th Regiment of Foot
also:
18th Hussars (this one is a Corporal)
From the little I know I would have thought a Scot could have been part of any of these. Hopefully someone with more knowledge may be able to advise further.
Sorry it wasn't my George, but good luck with the hunt for yours.
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Thanks, Monica & Maggie,
Maggie, aren't these Wilsons tricky!!
I did an online Chelsea Pensioners search a few days ago, but ran out of credits after looking at 14 of the
30 odd George Wilsons listed.
Some were born wrong county/country/time, some had only name & reg. details, ie no age/birthplace available.
I did find a George Wilson b Lanark, Lanarkshire, attestation papers for Royal Marines Chatham in 1810, age 18. He was with the 94th at discharge [no date or reason given (Folio 506 Att. forms 157/7/506)]
The birthdate is good, but is Lanark too much of a stretch from Airdrie? What would be the best way to follow this reference up long distance?
Of course, my George may be one of those for whom there are not enough army service details to allow satisfactory identification. But, I live in hope...... ;D
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Lanark (town) is under 17 miles (about 27 k) from Airdrie.
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I did find a George Wilson b Lanark, Lanarkshire, attestation papers for Royal Marines Chatham in 1810, age 18. He was with the 94th at discharge [no date or reason given (Folio 506 Att. forms 157/7/506)
As fifer1947 says, Lanark town and Aidrie aren't that far apart, but the other possibility is that they were recording the county, Aidrie being in Lanarkshire.
One thought - your comment about the Royal Marines. If your George was a Royal Marine you won't find him in any Army records, because the Royal Marines are the fighting arm of the Navy. I don't know anything about Naval Records for that time, but I'm sure someone on the Armed Forces board would be able to point you in the right direction if you want to follow that line up.
Totally agree about the Wilsons - I know where they were born, and when, and who their parents were, but can I find George? No!
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Hi,
Great information. We have George Wilson (weaver) who married Christian Bowie and had eight children in Airdrie between 1811 and 1831. Christian and her kids appear in the 1841 Census but not George. Maybe this is the same George Wilson. See http://www.waughfamily.ca/Wilson/index.htm for more information on this family.
I just started researching this line of ours yesterday so hope to have more information soon!
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annmck, would it help to know that Airdrie is in the parish of New Monkland? Thus any records are likely to be under New Monkland rather than Airdrie.
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Hi Forfarian and Waughboy,
Thank you for your responses!
....and yes, I was uncertain about the Airdrie/New Monkland civil & ecclesiastical jurisdictions, Forfarian, so that info is helpful.
Waughboy, I hope Maggie 1895 sees your post-particularly as your George had a son, George, b. 1823- as it may be v. helpful for her.....though I don't know how old hers was......too many George Wilsons in the mix!!
My George was born in 1793 or thereabouts- he was 44 at his 1837 trial- so is unlikely to be Christian Bowie's husband...but there's always the possibility he was related to him...maybe an uncle or older cousin.
There is also no mention of my George having more than 1 child in Scotland, although there may have been others who didn't survive, I suppose.
The following thread also pertains to my George, and has a little more about his life, pre & post transportation, if you're interested....
http://www.rootschat.com/forum/index.php/topic,606115.msg4557886.html#msg4557886
Cheers,
Ann
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Thank you Forfarian, Annmck and Waughboy,
I've realised I've been remiss in not being specific about my George Wilson. George was the elder brother of my gr.gr grandmother Margaret Wilson, b c.1825 in Stonehouse in Lanarkshire. Their parents were Robert Wilson, b c 1896 and Janet Millar, b c. 1801.
Her elder brothers were George, b c. 1821 and Robert b c. 1824, and there were 3 younger sisters, Janet, Isabella and Jane.
By the mid-1840s the family had moved to Aidrie, I'm sure it was so that the men could seek work down the pits, and Margaret married my gr.gr.grandfather there in 1846. She was widowed within a few years, and when the younger of her 2 sons died in 1857 it was her brother George who registered the death for her. Both her son and her husband, and several others in the family, were bured in Wellwynd Churchyard in Aidrie, and are very likely to be amongst the pauper's graves moved within the last couple of years to Monkland to make way for a bigger car park for Aidrie Library (ironically perhaps because so many people want to research their family history?)
For a long time I wanted to find out more about George, and could find nothing - too many George Wilsons, nothing to identify which was which; just as Ann says 'too many George Wilsons in the mix'. Quite recently an old letter from a much loved and missed Great Aunt has turned up in old family papers, mentioning a cousin of hers, and giving the cousin's name in full. Tracing that cousin meant that I finally tracked down George - because it turned out that the mysterious cousin was his daughter.
I've now established that 'my' George married Mary or Maryann Leitch in 1853 in Aidrie, and like the rest of the family they were unlucky enough to lose children in Aidrie in the following years, but those burials seem to have been in Chapel Street rather than Wellwynd. By the 1861 census George and Maryann had moved back to Stonehouse with their surviving children. By 1881 they had moved to Midlothian, where George was still a miner at the age of 61.
So I finally established that he was not transported, or in the forces, but as so often it was one line in a very old letter that gave me the clue. Without that, I'd still be searching.
Thank you all for your postings, and good luck to you Ann with your own search. I hope by giving more details of 'my' George should his records turn up in anyone else's search you can now discount him.
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Maggie 1895 I know this is an old post but your G Wilson and Mary Ann Leitch were my g g grandparents . His daughter Janet married A Haddow which is my line . George and Mary are in Torryburn churchyard
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Does native place always mean birthplace, or may it mean a place of residence only.
Birthplace.
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Maggie 1895 I know this is an old post but your G Wilson and Mary Ann Leitch were my g g grandparents . His daughter Janet married A Haddow which is my line . George and Mary are in Torryburn churchyard
Wow! I’ve hardly been on here for a long time but wanted to get back to it as soon as I had time, it’s a brilliant site. This evening an email alert on this post just came up and now here’s a new cousin... but it’s far too late in the evening to work out how many times removed. Thank goodness that Scots just say ‘cousins’ and leave it at that!
I’m the gr.granddaughter of James, Margaret’s surviving son, so George’s nephew. I’d send you a personal message but I seem to remember you need to post 3 times on the board before your ability to use PMs opens. Reply to this twice!
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Maggie1895 thank you for your prompt reply I know George and Mary’s parents names but not much else
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Maggie1895 As next generation is the one we share I think that would make us fourth cousins