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Scotland (Counties as in 1851-1901) => Scotland => Aberdeenshire => Topic started by: lakeview on Thursday 23 October 14 21:40 BST (UK)
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These were my great-great grandparents. John was born around 1822 in Mortlach, and Elizabeth was born 16Feb1821, also in Mortlach. Her parents were John Gordon and Mary MacConnachie. They married in Ruthven on 15May 1842 and my great-grandmother was born that same year.
I have been unable to find census entries for this couple either in 1841 before they married, or after, nor have I been able to find records of their deaths.
BTW, their daughter subsequently married James Finnie in 1865, but was committed to Banff Lunatic Asylum in 1888, where she died in 1931.
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a poss 1841
John Hepburn
Age 21
born in Banffshire, Scotland
Parish Keith County Banffshire
Address Keith Land Street
Jane Hepburn age 24
John Hepburn age 21
Parish Keith ED1 Page13 Line 1310
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This this could be Elizabeth in 1841
Address - Dufftown: Seracher Street or Fife St. Mortlach parish
Mary Gordon 60 b Banffshire. Independent
Elizabeth Gordon 19 b Banffshire
William Gordon 14 b Banffshire
Helen Grant 15 - servant
Parish Mortlach, Page 3, line 770
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Thanks. It looks right, since Elizabeth did have a brother William. Looks like her mother was a widow. I am surprised at the presence of a female servant, but she may just have been visiting when the enumerator came by. I can't imagine they were rich enough to have hired her.
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Interestingly enough, a John Hepburn married an Elizabeth Gordon at Rathven 12-5-1842. He was a baker, who died in Fochabers in 1859. His wife died in Portsoy in 1900. Their children were William and Margaret.
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It is interesting. I will have to look into this couple to see if there is a connection. I don't know the names of any siblings of Elizabeth Hepburn but she did have daughters named Williamina Hepburn Finnie and Margaret Hepburn Finnie.
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Doing a people search on the free Libindx site (libindx.moray.gov.uk/mainmenu.asp) threw up the following:
John Hepburn, son of Alexander Hepburn and Margaret Gordon, was a baker. He died at Fochabers 2-4-1859 (born about 1811). He married Elizabeth Gordon at Rathven, Banffshire, 12-5-1842. She was the daughter of John Gordon and Isabel Paterson. She died at Wellheads, Portsoy, Banffshire, 2-3-1900(born about 1811). Libindx will have got this from the parish register and their statutory death certificates. On Elizabeth's death certificate, the informant said her husband was a farmer, but it was so long since he had died that the informant may have made a mistake.
A look at the 1851 census shows them in Fochabers:
John Hepburn, 41, baker, b. Portessie
Elizabeth Hepburn, 30, b. Portessie
William A. Hepburn, 5, b. Morayshire
Margaret H. Hepburn, 2, b. Morayshire
two servants, Barbara Gifford and Mary Gibb
The 1861 census for Maxwell Street, Fochabers:
Elizabeth Hepburn, baker employing 3 men
John Hepburn, 16, scholar
Margaret, 12, scholar
John Davidson and Alexander Grant, journeymen bakers, and John McDonald, apprentice baker
Isabella Davidson, domestic servant
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Hi
There are useful transcripts of some Banffshire parish records on Freereg. There is a baptism for Elizabeth Gordon in Rathven 7 Aug 1820. Parents are John Gordon and Isabella Paterson. Abode Cairnfield. Notes say Illegitimate child Father esqur. Wit Ai. Coull and James Tom.
The baptism of Elizabeth Gordon in Mortlach has birth 16 Feb 1821 with baptism 20 Feb. Parents John Gordon and Mary McConnachie. Abode Priestwell. Notes say natural dau. Mother in Hardhaugh. Wit William Shepherd in Priestwell and Elizabeth Mitchell there.
The transcript of the marriage of John Hepburn and Elizabeth Gordon in Rathven 15 May 1842 names the parish of both bride and groom as Rathven.
William
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The British Newspaper Archive has the death notice of John Hepburn in the Elgin Courier 8 April 1859. At Fochabers on 2 Apr, John Hepburn, baker, aged 48 years.
There is also a marriage notice in the Elgin Courier 12 June 1861 At Fochabers on the 2nd inst, by the Rev Mr Weir, Roman Catholic clergyman, Mr John Davidson baker, to Elizabeth Gordon, relict of the late Mr John Hepburn, baker. (Presumably this is the same John Davidson that GR2 found in the 1861 census ).
William
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The 1871 census shows Elizabeth Davidson is once again a widow. She is recorded as a baker employing 4 men and 1 boy. There are 3 children with her John Hepburn 27, Margaret Hepburn 22 and George Davidson 9. Address is Main Street, Belie, Moray.
William
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Libindx will have got this from the parish register and their statutory death certificates.
No. LIBINDX doesn't go out and extract information from statutory registers, and it doesn't normally index the Church of Scotland registers.
The references at the bottom tell me that the marriage and the baptism of Margaret were indexed from MF A Rh4.
MF means it is a microfilm.
A means it is a church register, but they don't index information from the Church of Scotland registers because that is readily available in the IGI.
Rh means it is from the parish of Rathven, and 4 refers to the 4th roll of microfilm they hold.
I happen to know that MF A Rh4 is the Roman Catholic registers. (Since LIBINDX indexed the local RC, episcopal and dissenting denominations' registers that they hold, the RC records have been added to Scotland's People so the original document can now be viewed there.)
The newspapers reference tells me that the date and place of death are from a notice in the Elgin Courant and Courier.
Information from statutory registers will only be included in LIBINDX if someone researching a family submits the information to LIBINDX. In those cases the usual caveat applies - don't take it as read; make sure to check the original records. (One difference between LIBINDX and certain large and much-used online 'sources' is that incorrect information in LIBINDX will be corrected if drawn to their attention.)
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Hi
From the information you have given regarding Elizabeth Hepburn and children Williamina and Margaret Finnie, census evidence would suggest that Elizabeth(assuming I have the correct family) was born in Fordyce. Have a look at Freereg where there is a baptism of Elizabeth with parents John Hepburn and Elizabeth Gordon birth 27 Sept 1842, baptism oct 1842. Abode is York. Wit John Strachan and William Gordon in York.
The 1851 census for Elizabeth Hepburn b 1842 Fordyce has parents John b 1805 Ordiquill and Elizabeth b 1811 Marnoch with a number of siblings, two of whom George 13 and John 11 also have baptisms showing on Freereg.
There is a baptism in Marnoch 4 Feb 1810 for Elizabeth Gordon father John Gordon, abode Brae of Ardmeallie. Also a possible marriage between John Hepburn and Elizabeth Gordon in Ordiquihill 18 June 1831.
Hope this helps. I think it shows that you perhaps need to review the information you have to make sure you have the correct John Hepburn and Elizabeth Gordon.
William
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A review of my Scotlands People searches revealed a death certificate dated July 18, 1882 for one Elizabeth Hannigan or Harrigan (Illegitimate) married to James Hannigan , and daughter of John Gordon, Chelsea pensioner (deceased, reputedly) and Mary McConachie afterwards Howie. Elizabeth died at the Doctor's Surgery in Dufftown, Parish of Mortlach, Banff.
Therefore, I am assuming that Elizabeth Gordon was illegitimate, but she later married John Hepburn and on his death married James Hannigan. James was born in Limerick, Ireland in 1810 and was a gardener, according to the 1881 census. She is listed as being 52. They are also listed in the 1871 census, although she gives her age as 50, which is correct. I wish I could age only 2 years in 10!! There is no sign of them as a couple in the 1861 census or of Elizabeth as a widow. I also have been unable to find a marriage for the Hannigans.
I found an entry on Family Search for Mary McConnachie marrying a Alexander Huie on 12June1825 at Mortlach, Scotland, and the subsequent birth of a daughter, Isabel on 11Mar1828, also at Mortlach.
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Hi Lakeview
Slightly confused now (it easily happens!). One or two questions : what evidence do you have that the Elizabeth Gordon who married James Harrigan was previously married to John Hepburn? Secondly can you give details of your great grandparent to try to make sure you have the correct Elizabeth Gordon? Was this the Elizabeth Hepburn, who married James Finnie, I referred to in my previous post? There are one or two interesting public trees on A*, with attached records, for this family which might be useful for you to look at. One shows a death for Elizabeth Gordon (Hepburn) in 1900. They also have the death of Elizabeth Hepburn (Finnie) in 1931 at age 88.
William
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You may be right, Millmoor. I based my information on a source in rootsweb, which seems to have been wrong on more than one occasion. I think I need to set this all down and take a good hard look at it. I have pretty well ruled out the McConnachie connection and thus the Harrigan one too.
Will write again once I have a new working hypothesis. Thanks to all of you for your help thus far.
Jean
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Hello, Millmoor: Looks like the Fordyce Elizabeth born September 27 is the correct one. This is extraordinary because we share the same birthday, albeit more than 100 years apart. Thanks for getting me on the right track. I am currently awaiting more information about her time spent in the asylum. It can't have been fun or easy.
Jean