RootsChat.Com

Thank you both.

Scotland's places seems to be 1700's onwards for that area, but wow! I didn't know all that was there so I shall certainly be making use of it.

The Sasines and Retours I've added to my list of things to research next time I make it up to Scotland.

I have a Lochhead family who resided at High Commore farm, near Nielston in Renfrewshire. I've done a lot of digging with the available online maps and have located the spot where the farm once stood. There is still a Commore Farm, but it doesn't look like High Commore is there any more. I'm attaching the old map. If you google Commore farm neilston and look at google maps you'll see the same area. Commore is aka Cummore.

A little family backstory:

William Lochhead
b. 1693
d. 24 May 1771 High Commore, Neilston, Renfrewshire

Married 25 June 1745 to Janet Gemmell b.1717

Had a son:

John Lochhead b.1746 High Commore d.1841

John married Barbara Spreul and they had several children including a John Lochhead who's OPR reads "John Lochead & Barbara Spreul spouses at High Cummore had a son born June the twentieth & ninth and baptised July the third named John."
There are other children but I won't go into that here as we're looking backwards not forwards.

I located a poll tax record from 1695 there is a record of a John Lochhead as an apprentice.

Whole document
http://www.electricscotland.com/history/neilston/chapter23.htm

John is listed at the bottom of this page.
http://www.electricscotland.com/history/neilston/chapte61.jpg

This is obviously right around the time the aforementioned William Lochhead was born, so I think that John the apprentice might be his father.

I traced as far back as I could with OPR's when I was in Glasgow a few years ago, so I think I have to get creative from here on out  if I'm going to prove anything futher back that William. I was wondering about looking into Estate records but I have no idea how to find out who actually owned the land that the farm was on at that time.

This is where you come in. Can anyone offer advise in that regard?

Cheers!

I've been falling down a rabbit hole for the last several hours and decided it's about time I turn to you guys for some help.

I've been looking into a great uncle, James Jenkins James b. 1854 in Poplar, London.
He's listed as a Sailmaker on the majority of the census records I can find, but I cannot for the life of me locate him on an 1891 census.
His wife Mary is shown on an 1891 census with the kids, so I wondered if James was at sea, his later census records show "Sailmaker at sea" as his occupation.

So I started poking around on Find My Past and eventually located a possible record for a James James who is an apprentice on a ship called the Olive Branch in 1868. The following is part of the record.

First name(s)   James
Last name   James
Birth year   1854
Birth place   London
Birth country   England
Year   1868
Role   Apprentice
Vessel name   Olive Branch
From date   01 Jul 1868
To date   31 Dec 1868
Previous port   [Ramsgate]
Previous vessel   [Indentured At]
Indenture port   Ramsgate
Vessel official number   62244
Vessel registration port   Ramsgate
Port registry year   1868
Port registry number   26
Vessel type   Sail

Trying to delve deeper I started looking for the Lloyd's register of ships, which took a while to figure out. I finally found a site that has the 1868 one that you can page through but I'm not sure how it's indexed so I just tried the search at the top of the page. I found no Olive Branch, and no ship with the above ships number.

I also tried looking at the Mercantile Navy List, there are lots of ships called the Olive Branch but none of them appear to be the right one.

Any suggestion for my next move to figure out if this is my James Jenkins James? I will be taking a trip home in October and plan to hit Kew, so if there's anything I might find there I'd love to be able to look.

cheers!

Thankyou!

These are wonderful! Thank you everyone. It's much appreciated.