Colin Thom

[Kiwicousey]

I am new to this. I am looking for records of my great grandfather Colin Thom who I think was born in Fife (if it is Perthshire) in 1834. His father was William & his mother Mary nee Flockhart. I would be interested in any info. available. He came to New Zealand & maried another Scot Annie Morton.

[whiteout7]

Hi Kc, Fife and Perthsire are two seperate Counties. 

If Colin Thom was married in New Zealand you could get his marriage certificate and death certificate. This would help you say where he was born, in Fife or was it Perthshire.

Melissa

[Kiwicousey]

Thank you  Whiteout.

Colin Thom(my gt. grandfather) was born in Perthshire in 1882 (Isn't it a very big county?) to William Thom & Mary nee Flockhart. That is all I know about his parents. I would really like to know more about them if possible. Can't even find how he got to N.Z. We have tried all the ships which came to N.Z. c.1858. He married in N.Z. in 1872.
Colin died at 93. He was always a man of the land.
Strangely he named one of his sons Colin Wymess Thom. Does that give you any clues??

Regards, Kiwicousey

[JAP]

Kiwicousey,

There appears to be some confusion.  In your first post you say that Colin was born in 1834 in Perthshire and in your second that he was born in 1882 - but married in NZ in 1872

For general information about the counties of Scotland, try GENUKI at:
http://www.genuki.org.uk/big/sct/sct_cmap.html
GENUKI also has a good Newbies Guide at:
http://www.genuki.org.uk/gs/Newbie.html

It would also be a good idea to read the following two posts at the top of the Scotland-General board here:
'Where to start with Scottish Research' by Boongie Pam at
http://www.rootschat.com/forum/index.php/topic,24468.0.html
'Optimise Scotlandspeople searches' by David Douglas at
http://www.rootschat.com/forum/index.php/topic,43916.0.html

Statutory Registration did not start in Scotland until 1855.  Prior to 1855, you are relying on church registers - not only are these far from complete but many children were not baptised.  It might well be that there is no record of Colin's birth/baptism to be found.

However, the censuses from 1841 onwards are available on (the pay per view site) ScotlandsPeople at:
http://www.scotlandspeople.gov.uk/
so you might well find the family there in 1841 and 1851 (assuming the 1834 birthdate is the correct one).

Good luck,

JAP
PS: I notice that, in the IGI at:
http://www.familysearch.org
there is the birth of a William THOM in 1812 in Markinch, Fife to a James THOM and a Jean WEMYSS.  I mention this just for interest - it is probably a complete red herring.

[whiteout7]

Hi Kc, "Wymess" I think is a variation of the spelling of Wemyss (Pronounced Weems).

Wemyss is a costal town in Fife and also the surname of a very old family that lived there right from Pictish times.  There is also a Wemyss Castle here. I know this because my own grandmother was a Wemyss born there.  Wemyss means "Cave" in Gaelic.

Variations of "Wemyss" like Wymess occur all over Scotland though so it does give me any clues.  I've has another search for anyone with the middlename Flockhart or Wymess and not found anyone that links up with William or Mary Thom.

I also put Thom into a NZ Genealogy search engine and it returns Thomas as well as Thom! So I can't see how he got to NZ either.

Do you have Colin Thoms death cert, does it say Perthshire or even what town he was born. You need deathcert from a fellow Kiwi or buy it as a printout from:
http://www.bdm.gov.nz

So now you know wht the Wymess name means
Melissa

[Kiwicousey]

Thankyou JAP & Whiteout for your information. I had given up being able to track Colin Thom's parents in Scotland. His birth certificate says he was born in Perthshire but I can remember older members of the family speaking about Fife. Seems very likely that James Thom & Jean (nee Wemyss) could be his grandparents. His father was William & mother Mary (nee Flockhart). The name Wemyss features strongly in the following two generations here in N.Z. as does Jean. Wemyss is certainly not a name that is commonly heard of in N.Z. if at all.
Yes Thom is tied up with Thomas, Thomson & Thompson etc so makes it quite difficlt to research at times.
Thanks again to you Wizzes,
Kiwicousey.
 

[JAP]

Kiwicousey,

You are still confusing us

Whose birth cert 

1834? (which wouldn't be a birth cert in either England or Scotland as this date was before Statutory Registration)?

1882? 

And where

Some more information and precise details would help us to help you. 

JAP

[Kiwicousey]

Sorry JAP I am confusing everyone including myself. I shouldn't write these letters when I am tired at night. I really meant death certificate instead I said birth. It was Colin's death certificate.

Colin Thom, son of William & Mary (nee Flockhart) was born in Perthshire, Scotland in 1832. He married a scottish lass, Annie Morton in N.Z. in 1872.
He died in Hastings, N.Z. in 1943.
On Colin's death cert. it says that he arrived in N.Z.from Perthshire, Scotland in 1858. We are so far unable to trace his arrival by ship.
I hope I have not confused you even more.!!
Regards,
Kiwicousey.

[whiteout7]

Hi Kiwicousey,

I tried searching for you at "scotlandspeople".
The search engine really doesn't like "Colin Thom".

I checked the 1851 census when he would have been about 17

I put in "Thom", exact, "Col*n", male aged 10 - 20, all records, all districts and got 1 result.

The * means wildcard, maybe you could resort to this type of search, I don't think Colin Thom would be a common name?

You might find his birthplace this way, perhaps he was not born in Fife or Perthshire  . 

Lots of my Granfathers WW2 stuff had Perth, Fifeshire written on it (which I alway thought was weird, perhaps it was were all the big ships left from?)

My family uses the Wemyss middle name in New Zealand too, but my grandmother brought it out in the 1940's to Auckland, so your ancestor might bump into ours (Wemyss, Clark)!

I think I'll give up too for now as I can only do a free search, I used up all my credits at the paysite on my lot!
Melissa