1841 census look up please. Porteous

[jachri]

Sorry if I posted this in the wrong area earlier!
Could anyone look up John Porteous in the 1841 census for me? He was married to Isabella Gardner and had a child James born in 1804 Ruthwell Dunfries. Rather a long shot that either of them would still be alive and living in the same area but you never know!
Audrey kindly came up with these two as possible parents for my James Porteous (married in Brampton, Cumbria in about 1836, born somewhere in Scotland) but I don't where she sourced it, so if you read this Audrey could you let me know?
Kind rgds Jane

[MonicaL]

Hi Jane

I wonder if this could be them from 1841 FreeCen:

PORTEOUS John, age 65       Potter    Dumfries-shire            
PORTEOUS Isabella, age 60          Dumfries-shire            
PORTEOUS Margaret, age 22        Dumfries-shire            
MILLS Adam, age 35        Lodger   Ireland  Occupation crossed off   

Address: Watchhill, Annan-Dumfries-shire

Regards.

Monica

[jachri]

 Hi Monica,
Thanks, this does seem a possible match. Annan isn't that far from Ruthwell and the ages are about right. I had an idea that John might have been a husbandryman, but perhpas he turned his hand to pottery too!
If this is the same family, the fact that there is a daughter listed might help me confirm that they are James's parents.
Kind regards
Jane

[MonicaL]

Jane

From IGI, these are the children showing for John P and Isabella G.:

ISABELLA PORTEOUS  - 28 FEB 1809 Ruthwell, Dumfries, Scotland             
JANET PORTEOUS  -  28 FEB 1811 Ruthwell, Dumfries, Scotland
MARGARET PORTEOUS -  27 APR 1817 Ruthwell, Dumfries, Scotland
NICHOLAS PORTEOUS  - 22 JAN 1800 Ruthwell, Dumfries, Scotland
JANNET PORTUS - 09 MAR 1812 Ruthwell, Dumfries, Scotland
NICHOLAS PORTOUS - Female 26 JAN 1800 Troqueer, Kirkcudbright, Scotland
ANN PORTEOUS -  05 DEC 1807 Ruthwell, Dumfries, Scotland.

As you can see, they are all girls. The boy births have not been loaded on the on-line IGI data. This can happen. Audrey may have access to the BVRI cd (British Vital Record Index) which is more complete. There is also an entry for the birth of a James P in Ruthwell to those parents (two entries actually) on Scotlands People. I haven't viewed it but can see by the free search option.

The Margaret showing with John and Isabella in the 1841 census would fit the age of that born in 1817.

Regards.

Monica

[jachri]

Hi Monica,
I was just looking at the LDS IGI when your message came in. How did you find all those children? I could only come up with the verification of Isabella and John being Margaret's parents. I must be looking in the wrong place.
That is very intesting about only girls being listed, (though don't you think that naming a girl Nicholas is even stranger?!) All those sisters must give me some help matching up James, I just hope I'm not leaping to conclusions that this is the right family, but I suppose this is all part of detective work.
I did visit the Scotlands People website, but couldn't get very far, I think I will buy some cedits to see if I can settle some of these doubts. Fingers crossed James et al are listed in the Parish records,
I thought I would be able to gain access to indexes as in the English system but this doesn't seem possible..unless i'm just being dim!
Thanks again for your help.
Jane x

[MonicaL]

Jane

Firstly, on IGI you can do parent searches to find out what children are showing for any sets of parents. On the IGI page of Family Search, simply fill in the parents names and then GB/Scot. Depending on your results, for example if you get lots of children from couples with the same names, you can then add year ranges/ county. In this case, these are the only children (the six girls) showing for a couple with that name. The source of IGI data as you may know, is either transcriptions of actual records from the OPRs or submitted data by members which can be (very) unreliable. In this case, all the girls' birth entries are actual extracts from the OPRs.

With Scotlands People, you can register without having to buy credits. This lets you carry out free searches. You only pay/use up units to view results.  From the free search option, with the surname Port*us and parents John and Isabel* Gard*r, there are 9 entries coming up in Ruthwell between 1795-1820. I imagine these will be the 6 entries for the girls and there are two showing for a James in 1804 (not sure why, maybe birth and christening?). There is still one entry which may be for the christening of Nicholas, 26 Jan 1800 in Troqueer which shows on IGI.

Hope this helps.

Regards.

Monica

[jachri]

Hi there again Monica,
That clears up a few things, I thought I must be doing something wrong not to come up with the same details. I did guess that the second entry for Nicholas (I still think that's abit odd!)would be her christening, I might check out the two entries for Janet though, either there was a very long gap between birth and christening (over a year) or else perhaps the first baby died and the second was named after her? though that sounds a bit macabre.
Thanks very much for your help.
Jane

[MonicaL]

Jane

With the exception of the two entries for Nicholas (birth/christening), all the other ones are single birth entries. So more likely the first Janet died and they called their next daughter Janet also. Not uncommon, happened a lot in my family, particularly with the name Angus MacDonald for some reason!

Regards.

Monica

[jachri]

Monica,

That seems so sad doesn't it? I suppose a sign of high infant mortality rates of the day.

Well, the search goes on.
Regards
Jane.