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In March 2004
Wendy Marshall posted the following in the Caithness.org genealogy forum.

Calder/Oman Family Wick
I am descended from Alexander Calder from Wick who married Anne Oman in 1849 and had a son William Peter Calder in 1853 in Pulteney Town. Alexander was a sailmaker at the time. Does anyone have any further information on these families ?

I would like to get in touch with Wendy about this family.
 If you are still searching Wendy will you send me a PM.

Russell

Russell

Hi Hoppity

I'm afraid that Death records in Scotland were not recorded prior to the start of Statutory Records in 1855 which makes it difficult to locate a Death record.
Some Burial and Monumental Inscription details are on-line but it is the luck of the draw if they are in the right places for you.
Where a family was poor, as most were, they would not be able to afford a permanent grave marker but if you know the graveyard they were buried in there may still be a record of their interrment.
Many parishes hired out Mortcloths (The decorative cloth used to cover the coffin when it was carried to the graveside) and some of these records have survived. They are available as part of the Old Parochial Records on microfilm and can be looked at in the Latter Day Saints Family Centres. There is probably one fairly near you.
Since you know that Mary was in the parish of Renfrew that, at least gives you a starting point to request the films for the appropriate dates from the LDS Centre. They charge a small fee for bringing in the film.
Then it is a matter of trawling optimistically through the images to see if any mention is made of Mary hiring a mortcloth. Most entries tell little more than the name of the person hiring it and the date.

I wish you luck.

Russell

Hi Elaine

Glad that you have good things to say about Scotlandspeople.
For me it has been the best source of factual info with very, very few indexing problems. (two, I think, in 3 years)
With a tree which is now over 2,200 strong we have certificates from SP for all the main ancestors running to 8 large lever arch files.

It has cost hard cash but it would have cost a great deal more to travel to Edinburgh to view the originals. Think how useful it is to researchers overseas.

Even the OPR entries have been informative. Some more than others and when an image has been too poor to read they always respond promptly, pleasantly and provide a paper copy as a replacement almost by return of post.
The only problems now are posed by the oldest (OPR) entries being in Secretary Hand.
Talk about learning a new language. My problem is learning an old one.

Russell

Hi

The name Moscrip is so unusual that when I came across it the other day when looking for my wife's family I had to take a quick note.
It was a the birth of Jane Henderson Pye in 1861 to father David Pye and mother Clement Moscrip Gardner in Edinburgh.   (IGI C116851)
Given the name of the mother there must be some link to your line.

The Pye family is a side branch from my wife's.

Russell