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Hi Taalia81,
Here are some details from Familysearch.org that, if correct, may give you a start.
Janet Maxton bpt. 3 Feb 1792 to Robert Maxton and Bethia Maxton Williamston in Madderty parish.

I haven’t found a birth for John senior, or a marriage for John and Janet, but these baptisms look like they belong to their family:
John Don Birth 12 April 1815 Bpt. 23 Apr 1815 to John Don no mother recorded Dunbarney* parish.
David Don Birth 2 June 1817 Bpt. 11 June 1817 to John Don no mother recorded Dunbarney parish
Robert Doan Birth 30 May 1819 Bpt. 7 June 1819 to John Doan and Jannet Maxton Dunning parish.

(*John Don junior later gives his birthplace as Dunning. He would have only been about two or three years old when the family moved from Dunbarney, so he may well have thought he was born in Dunning parish.)

It looks like John Don senior died between the birth of Robert (1819) and this marriage:
James Henderson (with no bride recorded but assume Janet Maxton) on 23 August 1823 in Dunning parish. (I also mention that there is a marriage of a James Henderson to an Ann Doyle in 1820 in Dunning parish. The “Doyle” however may be a mistranscription or a variation of “Dougal” because a James Henderson and Ann Dougal recorded baptisms from 1821 to 1841 in Dunning parish and there is no marriage recorded between those two names.)

Then there are these baptisms for children born to James Henderson and Janet Paxton:
James Greig Henderson Birth 14 June 1828 Bpt. 22 June 1828 in Dunning parish.
Peter Henderson Birth 13 Oct 1831 Bpt. 23 Oct 1831 in Dunning parish.
Bathia Henderson Birth 13 Sep 1833 Bpt. 22 Sept 1823 in Dunning parish.
Jane Henderson Birth 25 Aug 1835 Bpt. 6 Sep 1835 in Dunning parish.

It looks like John Don junior was living with his mother and stepfather in 1841, while the other boys (David and Robert) were absent. John is recorded as being only ten years old but this looks like a mistranscription because he is given the occupation of “Wright”. Details from Ancestry.com are:
Address: Commercial Street (Dunning). James 40 (Occupation “Sp Deal” (Spirit Dealer?), Janet 45, Mary 14, James 11, Peter 9, Bethia 7, Jean 5, and John Don 10 (?) (Occupation Wright).

I can’t identify John junior’s brother David in the 1841 census; perhaps one of two David Dons in Edinburgh was him (one an ironmonger and the other a tailor).

However, the 1851 census details below look like those of David, because of the second name of the son (Henderson, the stepfather’s name) and David’s occupation (Spirit dealer, same as the stepfather). But David’s place of birth on the census record is a mystery (Blantyre, Lanarkshire; perhaps he misconstrued the question on the census paper ?):
Address: Thornleighbank, Renfrewshire. David Don 29, Sarah Ann Don 26, Peter Henderson Don 5, John Williams 49, father-in-law from England, Assistant in Sprit Dealer, John Moses 21, from Glasgow, Salesman to Spirit Dealers, and Catherine Miller 24, from Cambuslang, Lanarkshire, House Servant.

It looks like John junior’s younger brother, Robert, became a soldier. In 1841 it looks like him in 2 Batt. Scots Fusilier Guards at St George Barracks, Middlesex, England, and in 1851 - as Robert Donn - at St Johns Wood Barracks.

Hope you have fun checking out the above details.

Cheers, Peter

Definitely "Guilford" to me, Glen, in both examples. The "G" is disguised be the letters above and below in the first example. But I probably wouldn't have seen it without the second example. Cheers, Peter

My McGregor family has a tradition of descent from the legendary Rob Roy’s family, but there is also a strongly held yet fallacious family prejudice that goes with the claim. All “true” MacGregors are supposedly spelt that way and, the story goes, those families spelt McGregor (or any other variants) are not related to our family and are definitely not related to Rob Roy.

In fact, my father’s generation was the very first of our family to be christened MacGregor; Dad’s father and his siblings had their names “corrected” when they started school - late 19th century. In a curious twist, as a boy I had always thought that my own name was spelt Macgregor, but when I had to provide a birth certificate in connection with starting work I found that the registrar had inadvertently spelt it McGregor - the “correction” was thus “corrected”. So, rather than MacGregor being the only “right” way to spell our name, Dad was the only one ever in our direct line to have it spelt that way.

Oh, and Rob Roy himself was christened McGregor!

Cheers, Peter

Forfarian, a very interesting point. My experience certainly matches with yours from about the first third of the 19th century. I even have one case - my great-grandfather’s cousin (1843) - of a daughter called “Janet Jane”; that is, names had much diverged and solidified by then so that they were seen as different names.

But in earlier times - say the 18th century - I have come across a few instances of a Jean naming a daughter Janet when you would expect a Jean. I’ve also seen a couple of instances of a mother’s name changing from Janet to Jean and back again at subsequent christenings.

I think written names were much more fluid in those days, having a lot to do with different priests’ English interpretations of the spoken (Gaelic) words, and before most Highlanders had much understanding of English.

Cheers, Peter