RootsChat.Com
Scotland (Counties as in 1851-1901) => Scotland => Moray (Elginshire) => Topic started by: jannygg on Tuesday 14 October 14 02:58 BST (UK)
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Looking for relatives named Stewart. My Grandfather was born in Lossimouth Edward Bell Stewart
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Hi there JannyG,
Welcome to Rootschat.
I don't like to put you off, but I think you would be amazed at how many "Stewarts" there are in the North East of Scotland - I am married to a Stewart from Aberdeen, and there are just so many of them!!! - and another thing is that names like William and Donald would be about two of the most popular names!!
What info do you already have about your grandfather apart from the fact that he was born in Lossiemouth? Do you have his death records, (which would give his parents names)? Or even do you have any idea when he was born/died? What was his occupation? if you can let us know maybe people will be able to help with some comments? Cheers - and good luck with your research!
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A bit more information on this post:
http://www.rootschat.com/forum/index.php?topic=702257.0;topicseen
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There are other threads with similar titles
http://www.rootschat.com/forum/index.php?topic=670484.0
http://www.rootschat.com/forum/index.php?topic=658889.0
which may or may not be related, Stewart/Stuart being such a common name.
Try also http://libindx.moray.gov.uk/mainmenu.asp
Older records were always organised by parish, so unless you know which parish your people came from you will never get anywhere. You might therefore find it useful to know that Lossiemouth is in the parish of Drainie which is in the county of Moray, also known as Morayshire and for a time as Elginshire.
Having said that, your first move needs to be to get a copy of your grandfather's birth certificate. Without that you will struggle because you will always risk following the wrong family (we have all done that when we started out!)
Go to www.scotlandspeople.gov.uk and invest in 30 credits for £7 (about AUS$13). Use one credit to find and five to download your grandfather's birth certificate. This will tell you exactly where and when he was born, the full name (including maiden surname) of his mother and when and where his parents were married. Bear in mind that his middle name may not be on his birth certificate - some middle names were 'acquired' later in life.
Remember also that people sometimes got their own ages wrong, and search a year or two either side of 1907, just in case!
Use this information to find and download that marriage certificate. This will tell you how old his parents were when they got married, where they lived, their occupations and, most useful of all, the full names of both sets of parents (including mothers' maiden names) and whether the parents were deceased at the time of the marriage. This should take you back into the 1870s or 1880s, and you should then have enough information to find your great-grandparents in the 1881 or 1891 census with their parents, your great-great-grandparents. And if you get it right, you will still have six credits left.
Happy hunting! If you get stuck, post another message in this thread - don't start a new one, because that just leads to people duplicating one another's efforts.