McIntosh/Robertson

[charmedc]

I have been searching and searching but am unable to find out anything past my grandmother or grandfather - Maggie or Margaret Robertson 1880 daughter of John Robertson, (Tailor) and Catherine Brown & John McIntosh Son of Joseph Mcintosh (calender worker) and Betsy Mitchell. A kind gentleman from Scotland was going to Edinburgh and was able to at least a copy of her marriage certificate to a John McIntosh  28th December 1901 in St. Margarets Church, Lochee and supply me with this information. The witnesses were a David Peebles and Helen Mcintosh.
It is so frustrating trying to do this from overseas; I have already spent a fortune, well a lot of money  on scotspeople to really not find any information out. What is weird also, my mum's family was not exactly small and yet I cannot locate any relations/ancestry files that are even looking for the same thing. I was the first generation to be born outside of Scotland - there apparently were 2 of my mother's brothers who went to the United States.
If anyone has either McIntosh/Robertson in their ancestry could they please help me please shed some light on this as both names are apparently quite common there and not knowing exact d.o.b. makes it even worse.
thanks heaps
Jacki

[Forfarian]

OK, I am going to assume that you have an image of the marriage certificate, and that you have not tried anything else to go back any further.

Look at the names of the mothers of the couple. Are they shown as "Catherine Robertson MS Brown" and "Betsy McIntosh MS Mitchell" or as "Catherine Brown" and "Betsy Mitchell"? Because if it doesn't say "x MS y" it is implying that the parents were not married, and you may need to look for the child/children's births under their mothers' maiden names, not fathers' names.

If they do say "x MS y" and you cannot find the birth certificate, the next step is to look for the marriages in the IGI at www.familysearch.org. I've checked, and the closest John Robertson/Catherine Brown marriage to 1880 is in 1847, so I think it can be discounted. Now, barring errors in the indexes, the IGI lists all marriages to 1874, so you only need to search the SP indexes from 1875 until the date of the children's marriage, 1901.

SP lists two marriages of a John Robertson to a Catherine Brown in this time span, and one marriage of a Joseph McIntosh to an Elizabeth Mitchell (Betsy being short for Elizabeth). I haven't viewed them but they should be worth a look.

Now, the census. I can't paste in the 1881 census data here for copyright reasons, but at 2 Albert Street, Liff and Benvie there is a family consisting of Joseph McIntosh, aged 21, born Inverurie, Aberdeenshire, his wife Betsy Mitchell, aged 23, born Arbroath, son John, aged 1, born Lochee, and stepson William Peebles, aged 9 months.  So John was born in 1879 or early 1880, Joseph in 1859/60 and Betsy in 1857/8.

Back to the IGI. It lists the baptism of Joseph Calder McIntosh, son of Joseph and Catherine McIntosh, in St Mary's Episcopal Church, Inverurie, on 11 July 1859. Putting Joseph McIntosh and Catherine Calder into the 'father' and 'mother' boxes in the IGI produces a list of 7 children born between 1846 and 1863. So when you get the marriage certificate of Joseph and Betsy, if it says his mother was Catherine Calder - there's your great-great-grandparents. (There is something odd about this - I would have expected a birth in 1859 to be in the IGI as well as the baptism, so there might be a slight mystery there).

And lo and behold, the widowed Catherine Mcintosh, aged 52, born Aberdeen, and daughters Jane, Mary, Augusta and Catherine, plus a couple of grandchildren, were in the 1881 census in ..... Lochee!

Now, Betsy Mitchell. The IGI lists one born in Arbroath on 4 March 1858, who would have been 23 on the day of the 1881 census. Her parents were Allan Mitchell and Elizabeth Mitchell, and the IGI lists 11 children, the eldest born in Brighton and the two youngest in Ireland, whch could account for the fact that I failed to find them in the 1881 census. Among the children was one born in 1855 - so if Joseph and Betsy's marriage certificate confirms that these are her parents, get a copy of the 1855 birth certificate - it will gve you a load of extra detail that you don't get in any other year.

I haven't found a suitable Robertson family, though there is a John Robertson, jute factory worker, with daughter Maggie, aged 9 months and his mother (i.e. the baby's grandmother) Catherine, living in Liff and Benvie. Could Maggie have got mixed up between her mother's given name and her granny's maiden name and given the wrong one when she got married?

I also had a look to see if there was a likely-looking Maggie Brown in the 1881 census, but no.

You have enough information now to go and look at two marriages and the 1891 and 1901 census on SP. And don't forget the 1855 birth certificate of Mary Hastings Mitchell in Arbroath.

Happy hunting!

[charmedc]

oh thank you so veryyyyyyyyyyy much for all your help............ i have copied and pasted your message so that i can work on it tomorrow, the brain is all frazzled out tonight........ it really gets you in once you have started trying to trace your ancestry but it can make those grey hairs greyer if that is at all possible........