RootsChat.Com
Scotland (Counties as in 1851-1901) => Scotland => Roxburghshire => Topic started by: vivdunstan on Monday 24 September 12 16:00 BST (UK)
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I am running a Melrose one-place study, with a particular interest in the pre-1820 period. For a full description of the study, and the resources available so far, see
http://www.vivdunstan.co.uk/melrose-ops.html
This one-place study research comes out of my genealogy research. I have strong family connections with Melrose from the late 20th century researched solidly back to the early 1600s.
I've done extensive research on the 17th century population of Melrose, before the parish registers are much use at all. I recently put online my notes from the 1694 Melrose parish hearth tax records. To read more about these see
https://melroseoneplacesstudy.wordpress.com/2012/09/16/studying-melrose-hearth-tax-records-for-1694/
and to see the full notes from the hearth tax look at
http://www.vivdunstan.co.uk/melrose/hearthtax.html
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Hello Viv. What Melrose surnames are you interested in, if I may ask? I've done a lot of research in the Melrose records myself, including the Melrose Regality Records, where there are many entries for the surname Moffat. As far as I can see, the Moffats were one large extended family, with concentrations in the fermtouns of Threepwood, Ouplaw and Blainslie. They go back to ancestors who were "kindly tenants" of the monks of Melrose Abbey before the Reformation, i.e. farmers who were regarded as having farmed the same place time out of mind, although they had no written entitlement to their lands.
My most recent Moffat ancestor was my great-great-great-grandmother Alison Moffat (b. 1779, Ouplaw). She never married, but had an illegitimate son called Robert Stephenson, my great-great-grandfather. Robert and his wife Isabella Wight (from Maxton) are buried in Melrose Abbey churchyard, where they have a (broken) headstone. You may know already that the monumental inscriptions of that churchyard are available on CD.
Alison Moffat's brother William, farmer at Newstead, has descendants at the present day.
Harry Watson
(Edinburgh)
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Hi Harry,
Thanks for the reply. For the one-place study I'm interested in the entire population, so all surnames.
But my own genealogy research is strongest for certain families in my ancestral line. So particularly Usher (of Toftfield, near Darnick), Blaikie (of Langhaugh, near Galashiels), Grieve (at Blainslie) and Mercer.
But as I said I'm interested in all surnames. A task I'm planning to tackle quite soon is to look at what surnames were concentrated in which communities, using the regality records and the early parish registers.
Yes I have the Melrose gravestone inscriptions book, and the Weirhill cemetery CD list.
Viv
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Forgot to add my recent Melrose ancestry. I have Dodds ancestors living in Melrose from the 1840s through to the 1980s. Generally living in the Abbey Gate / Abbey Street area. And Hall ancestors living at Gattonside Mains from the 1890s through to the 1930s and later. Members of the recent family are buried at Weirhill and Wairds cemeteries.
But as I said I'm doing a one-place study for the parish, pre 1820, so am interested in all families there. So not just my own known genealogical connections.
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Well, my Melrose connection starts far back in time with the Moffats of Threepwood and thereabouts, and ends with the death from smallpox of my great-great-grandfather Robert Stephenson at Darnick on New Year's Eve, 1862, aged 57. His son Thomas Wight Stephenson, my great-grandfather, moved to Dalkeith and then into Edinburgh. Another son, William Stephenson, married Agnes Ramage and they had two daughters. William died in Melrose in 1873, aged 30. A sister, Elizabeth Stephenson, married a saw-miller called George Scott and they moved to Dalkeith. So the Stephenson connection with Melrose was short-lived. Their female line, the Moffats, always seem to have lived outside Melrose town itself, on fermtouns in the north of the parish nearer to Lauder than to Melrose itself.
Harry
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Viv We have spoken before. I transcribed the Weirhill cemetery and for your info I am nearly finished Wairds which is big. I managed to get to look at the old Melrose Grammer School admissions records still held at the Melrose Primary Schhol and managed to get a copy of the first two pages and included John Dodds son of John Dodds Abbey street joining the school Oct 1870 and his birth is shown as July 1864.
Thought you might be interested . No Moffats shown!
alan
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Thanks Alan. But I don't think that's my John Dodds. There was another Dodds family in Abbey Street, a family of blacksmiths if I remember correctly.
My lot at that time were Alexander Burnett Dodds, wife Catherine Irvine, and 9 children, born 1860s-1880s. My great-grandfather was their son John b. 1877.
I went to that school as a primary pupil for a few years before moving back to Hawick. Was a trainbearer in the Melrose festival when I was in primary one.
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I am currently researching my family in the Melrose area. One of several families I am looking is Hart. So far I have the following from your period of interest
George Hart ( no dob ) married Anne Chisholm ( dob 21/10/1733 Melrose ) 05 /09/ 1757 in Melrose. They are my 6 x great grandparents.
My 5 x gg is Robert Hart born 26th June 1763 Newsteads , died 27th Nov. 1820.
My 4 x gg is William Hart born 3rd May 1795 , married Jane Vair 23rd November 1821.
Anything you know about this family is of interest to me particularly date of birth and ancestors of George Hart.
I am also looking at the Wallace family in Melrose ( they ran a bakery business in Melrose up until the 1960's )
My brick wall is with James Wallace ( no dob ) married to Alison Phaup 6th January 1750 in Melrose . Any help there would be greatly appreciated.
Mike
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luckydog I suggest you buy the Melrose Abbey CD from Border Family History Soc. There are numerous HARTs buried there mainly in the early 1800s all from Melrose Gattonside and Newstead. and mostly Bro Masons watchmaker etc.
Wattie Hart the 1950s scottish /Melrose rugby player still lives in Melrose.
Hope this helps
alan
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Thanks Alan
I have a paper copy of the Abbey Memorial Transcriptions. My aim is to find the earliest records . Interesting to note that Wattie Hart is living in Melrose. I suspect he would not appreciate a distant relative turning up on his doorstep.
Ever onwards
Mike
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Lucky dog www. Scottish record society (publications) Melrose parish records 1642---1820
Also look at Melrose regality records
First one you can search on and both are essential for Melrose records
Alan
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But my own genealogy research is strongest for certain families in my ancestral line. So particularly Usher (of Toftfield, near Darnick), Blaikie (of Langhaugh, near Galashiels), Grieve (at Blainslie) and Mercer.
Hi Viv,
I also have Mercer's in my tree
My ancestors are from Melrose and appear in an 1831 Census that Maxwell Ancestery unearthed.
My ancestors are Alexander Mercer B1806 married 1828 to Janet Henderson C1809.
Their parents appear to be:- Michael Mercer C1775 married 1801 to Isabel Milne C1781
& John Henderson C1782 married 1805 to Isabel Linton C1780
Best Regards
Ron
NB. I noticed a John Merser, Newstead in the Hearth Tax you provided a link to.
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I am currently researching my family in the Melrose area. One of several families I am looking is Hart. So far I have the following from your period of interest
George Hart ( no dob ) married Anne Chisholm ( dob 21/10/1733 Melrose ) 05 /09/ 1757 in Melrose. They are my 6 x great grandparents.
My 5 x gg is Robert Hart born 26th June 1763 Newsteads , died 27th Nov. 1820.
My 4 x gg is William Hart born 3rd May 1795 , married Jane Vair 23rd November 1821.
Anything you know about this family is of interest to me particularly date of birth and ancestors of George Hart.
I am also looking at the Wallace family in Melrose ( they ran a bakery business in Melrose up until the 1960's )
My brick wall is with James Wallace ( no dob ) married to Alison Phaup 6th January 1750 in Melrose . Any help there would be greatly appreciated.
Hi Mike,
At the moment the 18th century part of my one-place study is still in the early stages. So I don't really have any more information available than is in the parish registers. Have you exhausted those? Baptisms can name relatives as witnesses. Likewise marriages can have relative cautioners. Have you checked the full baptism and marriage details for all these people? And have you looked for any trace of a burial? There's a mortality list from about 1770 onwards which often includes ages for the people who had died.
Also it's not 100% reliable but naming patterns can be useful clues. Scots at this time had a habit of naming children after relatives according to a pretty fixed set of rules. Have you been able to find probable all children for these families and if so do the children's names give any clues?
I'd be happy to check the parish registers if that would help, but you can probably do that easily yourself. They're online at ScotlandsPeople but I like to work with the Scottish Record Society's transcribed version which is very handy, and readily available free now in digitised form.
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I also have Mercer's in my tree
My ancestors are from Melrose and appear in an 1831 Census that Maxwell Ancestery unearthed.
My ancestors are Alexander Mercer B1806 married 1828 to Janet Henderson C1809.
Their parents appear to be:- Michael Mercer C1775 married 1801 to Isabel Milne C1781
& John Henderson C1782 married 1805 to Isabel Linton C1780
Hi Ron,
Good news and bad news.
Good news is that I've encountered this Mercer family before. Checking back in my old emails I was in touch many years ago with three people who descend from this family: Maggie Deeth in Australia, Derek Chambers in England, and Jan Quinn also in Australia. Have you been in touch with these people? If not I'd be happy to give you their email addresses (email me directly about this), though they may not work any more.
The bad news is that I researched this Mercer family at the time, and concluded that there wasn't any strong evidence of a link between Michael Mercer and the Melrose Mercers in the late 1600s and early 1700s that I descend from. Indeed I thought it quite likely that Michael was an incomer to the parish from somewhere else. There was quite a lot of inter-parish migration in southern Scotland at this time, and he could easily have originated somewhere else outside Melrose parish.
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Hello,
I'm not sure how old this post is but I may have the same Mercer relations as Jon.
I believe that Michael Mercer (Messer) may have come from the Crailing area.
I would love to compare notes. I believe there may be an older child born before Alexander for Michael and Isabel Mercer.
I have a Jane Messer born 1802 to Michael Messer and Isabel Milne.
Jane followed the naming tradition with her family which makes me think theses are of the same family.
Jane eventually married someone from the Jedburgh area though they married in Canada.
I would love to hear from anyone with information on this family.
Thanks,
Andria
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I’ve had a hand-coded HTML site for my one-place studies for years, but it has become rather unwieldy in terms of structure and organisation, and it’s not the easiest thing for people to read.
So I’ve now switched to a WordPress-based site, which will have a much more structured approach to the resources that I put online. I am also hoping it will encourage me to add more!
The new site also incorporates the accompanying blog. All the previous blog entries have been imported.
There are redirection pages in place from the old website and the old blog.
But please find the new website at
https://melroseoneplacestudy.org/
Many thanks.
Viv