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Lanarkshire Family History Society's annual Local & Family History Show will be taking place in Motherwell Concert Hall on Saturday 27th October.  The Show has become a regular event on the genealogy calendar, appealing to everyone with an interest in family history and local heritage.

Talks will include The Scottish Poor Law, DNA for Your Family Tree and Maps for Family History.
 
Among the exhibitors will be family history societies from many parts of Scotland, national and local heritage organisations, archives and museums, publishers of history-themed books, genealogy supplies companies and major names from the world of genealogy.

There’ll be free family history advice from professional genealogists who are part of the Scottish Genealogy Network and members of Lanarkshire FHS (including military and Irish specialists) to help you with your research.

Information about tickets and an up-to-date list of exhibitors can be found on the Show website http://lfhsshow.weebly.com/  Entry costs £2 per person, with talks priced at £3 each or £10 for all four.  Children under 12 are admitted free with a paying adult.  There's good public transport; free parking; disabled access and facilities.

Lizci

Glespin was in Douglas parish, so people who lived there are most likely to have been buried in one of the graveyards at Douglas.  There is the old graveyard at the historic St Bride's church http://www.douglashistory.co.uk/history/Places/Churches&Abbeys/stbride%27s_church.htm#.WwMZgriTsyk and a newer cemetery in Ayr Road https://www.southlanarkshire.gov.uk/directory_record/141001/douglas_cemetery

The other possibility would be Muirkirk if they had Ayrshire connections.  It isn't far from Glespin, and many mining families moved from parish to parish for work.

(They're unlikely to have been buried at Stonehouse as that is many miles away.)

There's a lovely little cafe/farm shop in Douglas called The Scrib Tree http://thescribtree.co.uk/

Lizci

Thanks Skoosh, they were certainly hard times - no wonder people took the chance to emigrate.

Hi Bitzar

I’ve had a look at the various records and indexes I have, but unfortunately haven’t found anything conclusive about your Ninianson ladies.  The ages of Elizabeth and Issabella in the 1841 census (with parents William and Isabella) do match the women who went to Australia.  They appear in the 1851 census as Elizabeth Ninionson, 16, and Isabella Ninionson, 12, living in Sandsting and Aithsting parish – the same parish as the family in 1841.  Neither girl is with her parents, so it isn’t possible to say if they are the same ones, but I think it is likely.  It may be that they later went to Australia – to rule them out would require searching forward to see if there were marriage or death records for them in Scotland.  The 15-year old Gean Ninianson in the 1841 Census could certainly be Jean or Jane.  (Adult ages were "rounded down" to the nearest 5 years in 1841 so Gean may have been a little older than 15.)

I haven’t found baptisms that match any of the women.  The only possible is an Elizabeth Ninian baptised on the island of Yell in 1832, but her father was Gilbert, not William.  Of course not all baptisms were recorded, many church registers have been lost or destroyed, and families could have belonged to other denominations of the church whose records may not be online.

Don’t get hung up on different spellings of the surname.  At that time there was no “correct” spelling and people wrote names as they heard them (accents made a difference).  If you’re looking at modern transcriptions, remember that people often have difficulty reading old handwriting, especially if it’s a name they’ve never come across before.

I’ll keep a look out for the Niniansons in future research and let you know if I find anything relevant.

Lizci