William Jaffray, Cuminestown Music Teacher ~1785-1815?

[CoolBreez]

Hello!

This is my first post and I have been told very nice things about the folks on here by a friend!

I have been compiling a tree of my Mums side of the family and have reached my 4th Great-Grandfather, William Jaffray (or Jaffrey), who it seems was a ''Teacher of Music  in Cuminestown Parish, Monquhitter, Aberdeenshire'' according to the 1868 death certificate of his daughter Agnes Morrison, who was aged ~79 at her death. Needless to say I am quite intrigued, as I have a musical background myself and I have recently become a teacher as well! I was wondering if anyone in that area of Aberdeen had access to records that might shed some further light on this relative. I would assume he had to have had a better then average education, perhaps someone can recommend University records that I might search? Perhaps there are musicians guild records or something of that sort?

According to my research, William married Ann Burd on June 29th, 1789 in New Deer. His Father may have been named Alexander. That is as far as I've gotten!

Thank you so much for reading my post and I am looking forward to hearing from anyone!

Peace,

Richard

[Lass]

Hi there!  I'm new to this too, but I've been bugging the members here on Rootschat for a wee while now, and they are wonderful, helpful folks, so I'm sure you'll get some advice!

I'm at work with nothing to do and I forgot to bring my tree notes, so I took a quick look to see what I could find.

There are 3 William Jaffrey's that I can find that might be suitable (don't rely on this info, check it out!!) from IGI birth/christening extracts:



William Jaffray
bap 1772  Fyvie, Aberdeen                  father Alexr. Jaffray

William Jaffray
bap 04/06/1766 Fyvie, Aberdeen         father Alexander Jaffray

William Jafray
bap 27/02/1769 Tarves, Aberdeen      father Allexander Jafray


The first William might be a bit young to be fair but the other two look good.  I only looked at Aberdeenshire of course, but Fyvie and Tarves aren't far from New Deer.  How sure are you that the father is Alexander though, what are you basing this on?  There are quite a few Jaffray's kicking about up there!

I also had a quick peek for Ann Burd and there are only 3 options coming up in that timeline, only one of them born Aberdeenshire:


Anna Bird
bap 02/04/1765   Methlick, Aberdeen       father George Bird

I don't know if any of this will help, hopefully I'm not leading you down the garden path!

Lass x

[Lass]

Also found an Ann Jaffray on 1841 census:

Ann Jaffray
aged 75
born abt 1766, Aberdeenshire
living at Cummestown, Monquhitter, Aberdeenshire

Unfortunately she's on her own, so nobody else to help verify if this is William's wife.  I know these aren't answering your music questions, but the more info the better I reckon! 

Lass x

[CoolBreez]

Thank you for the info, Lass.  It is certainly appreciated. I had found the 3 possible Williams but not the Ann Jaffray in the census! That's quite interesting, I'll have to do further looking and hope to find more info. I only based my Idea about the father being Alexander on the 3 Williams we both found. I also was doing some further reading at the local library today and one of the things I read was to be careful placing too much credence in the death certificate listings, as you must remember these are NOT the recollections of the deceased but rather the bereaved parties who may have fuzzy faculties at the time as well as second hand memories! But so far mine seems to make sense, at least as to the locations and names. We'll see about the occupation, I hope!

By the way, tommorow is my first day of teaching, so hopefully the ancestors will provide a little good fortune!

Thanks again!

Richard

[Lass]

Good luck, Richard, I hope you have a great first day! 

[KirstyG]

Welcome Richard!

I don't know if you are familiar with the Aberdeen and North East Scotland Family history society, and their helpful resources, in particular the online Memorial Inscription Index http://www.abdnet.co.uk/mi-index/

I've had a quick look and there are quite a few Jaffray's (and variations therof). As you have details of the offsping of William and Ann it could simplify matters if they were buried in the same place as their parents or were at least listed on the headstone. Of course not everyone could afford headstones, but it's always worth a look. There are a few kind souls on Rootschat with the books so if you find something promising in the index just post a lookup request and I'm sure someone will be happy to help. 

Kirsty

[CoolBreez]

Thank you Kirsty, I did have the site in my favs but I hadn't seen the Memorial List. I'm sure that will be useful and I'll get right on it!