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Scotland (Counties as in 1851-1901) => Scotland => Ross & Cromarty => Topic started by: Sildeag on Thursday 13 January 22 19:52 GMT (UK)
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I have been investigating James Campbell McLeod (also spelt MacLeod) of Nigg, ROC. He married Elizabeth Fraser (2 May 1868, Nigg - bef 1924) on 25 Dec 1891 in Logie-Easter, ROC.
Parent names for James were James McLeod and Jessie Campbell. Parent names for Elizabeth were Alexander Fraser and Jessie Macandy.
In 1881 census Jessie Campbell appears to have married twice once with Donald McLeod on 6 Dec 1861 in Nigg, ROC and the second seems like a relationship. Five children from the marriage Catherine, Elizabeth, David, Janet, and Flora and then James Campbell McLeod. Donald McLeod died 15 May 1867. Donald's mother was Janet or Jennet Fraser, the mother-in-law on 1881 census.
They lived in Cromarty Ferry, Nigg, ROC. I cannot find James McLeod's parents. There is a James McLeod of Cromarty Ferry, Nigg with parents Andrew McLeod and Isabella Skinner. However, his wife Ann Ross (1822-1895) would still have been alive when James Campbell McLeod was born in 1871.
I would like to definitively sort this out but am not sure what to make of this. Can anyone help?
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So, this is the 1871 birth of James Campbell McLeod www.familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:FQ2M-DBG
Father not named on his birth reg it seems. What info do you have on reputed father James? Was he named in James's marriage or death reg? What details show for him?
Monica
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If James jnr was born 20.2.1871 - are Jessie & James snr on the 1871 census?
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Hi Carole
For 1871 Jessie and son look to be staying with her parents. Two daughters from marriage to Donald McLeod are staying with paternal grandmother.
Jessie and son James both listed as Campbell in the 1871 Campbell household.
Added:
William Campbell 65
Elizabeth Campbell 60
Donald Campbell 36 son
Jessie Campbell 28 Daughter
Barbara Campbell 19 Daughter
Margaret Campbell 1 grandchild
James Campbell 4 months grandchild
Address: Fearn, R & C
For 1881:
Jessie Campbell 38
Jessie McLeod 14
James McLeod 10
Janet Fraser 80 Mother-in-law
Address: Cromarty Ferry, Nigg
Monica
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James Jnr lived with this mother right up to the 1901 census at least. No sign in the censuses of the reputed father for James Jnr...
Monica
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Wonder did he make him up to appear "respectable" when he married?
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Thank you all. Carole for finding the 1871 census. I did not have that entry.
The FamilySearch.org entry was guessed at from the 1881 census. When I started looking in earnest for definitive proof. I downloaded the 1891 marriage cert from Scotland's People. It named James McLeod snr and Jessie Campbell as parents. Then I ran into difficulty finding James McLeod snr. I had James McLeod in 1819 living in Cromarty Ferry, Nigg and he died in 1879. I have this James and wife Ann in 1871 census. Thought of looking for another James' death cert. but no suitable candidates.
The 1881 census fits with Jessie Campbell being married to Donald McLeod. The actual birth cert. of James Campbell McLeod shows the mother's name as Jessie Campbell McLeod. I did not find Jessie's children Catherine McLeod 24 Dec 1851 Nigg, ROC, Elizabeth 29 Dec 1863 - 17 Aug 1864, David 1 Aug 1865 - 4 Jan 1866, Janet 23 Dec 1866 all Nigg, ROC, and Flora 1 Nov 1867 Denny, Stirling, Scotland. Flora seems wrong.
I take this all to mean an illegitimate child James Campbell McLeod was born to Jessie McLeod (nee Campbell) widow in 1871 and the father James McLeod is really unknown. James McLeod 1819-1879 who also lived in Cromarty Ferry may not have been the father. The other James McLeod in the area would have been younger men eg. born in 1847(2), 1856, 1857. The one born in 1840 was married.
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Hi
I can't claim credit for the 1871 entry - it was Monica who found it 👏👏
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Thank you Monica for finding the 1871 census entry.
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;D Doesn't matter who found it, it is found (...but thank you for the thank you ;)).
Monica
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Flora 1 Nov 1867 Denny, Stirling, Scotland. Flora seems wrong.
She is.
Another couple named Donald McLeod and Janet/Jessie Campbell had a family in Glasgow/Govan/Denny who overlap with the family in Nigg, ROC:
John 15 Jan 1858
Christina 7 June 1861
Janet and Malcolm 16 April 1863
James 3 April 1865
Flora 1 November 1867
Elizabeth 23 April 1870
Flora McLeod, 3, born Denny, is in the 1871 census in Glasgow with Donald, 40; Janet, 36; John, 13; Mary, 11; Janet, 7; James, 5.
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Thank you Forfarian.
Donald McLeod was Jessie Campbell's first and perhaps only husband.
It is the first family. They appear to have gone back to Nigg, ROC and died there as I couldn't find them elsewhere.
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Donald McLeod was Jessie Campbell's first and perhaps only husband.
The point is that there were two completely different Donald M(a)cLeods married to two diferent Janet/Jessie Campbells, and that Flora b 1867 in Denny was not a child of the couple in Nigg, ROC.
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Forfarian thanks. Yes, I realized that because Donald McLeod died in Nigg in 1867 aged 25. A little hard for him to be alive in 1871.
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Donald Macleod and Jessie Campbell are my 3x great grandparents. Their daughter, Catherine, is my line. She married Peter Gilmour in Cromarty. I have a photo of the two of them sitting outside their cottage.
Not much help, as I don't know much more than what you've already found on James.
Alasdair
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After seeing your later thread https://www.rootschat.com/forum/index.php?topic=860741.0 and coming back to this one, I wonder if James Campbell McLeod's father was in fact a McLeod at all?
Donald McLeod died in Nigg in 1867 aged 25
mother's maiden surname Fraser.
His widow then gives birth to James Campbell McLeod in 1871.
Twenty years later, James Campbell McLeod gets married, and tells the registrar that his father was James McLeod.
There are various possibilities
(1) He is genuinely the illegitimate son of a James McLeod
(2) He knows that his mother's husband was a McLeod but makes a mistake about his mother's husband's given name
(3) He invents a father to hide the fact that he is illegitimate
(4) Some other explanation I haven't thought of
There is a possibility that Jessie's illegitimate pregnancy might have come to the attention of the Kirk Session of eiither Nigg or Fearn, and if so that that their minutes might provide a clue to the identity of James Campbell McLeod's father. Unfortunately the Kirk Session minutes for 1870 onwards have not yet been made available on Scotland's People, though they do exist, according to the catalogue of the National Records of Scotland
CH2/555/5 Nigg Kirk Session - Minutes (register of doctrine and discipline) 1862-1884
CH2/995/3 Fearn Kirk Session - Minutes and communion rolls and baptisms 1870-1907
(Why, I wonder, was Jessie living with her parents in 1871, using her maiden surname, having left her daughters Catherine and Jessie with their grandmother Janet Fraser or McLeod? I see that her daughter Elizabeth and son David had both died in infancy.)