SPROAT Family

[KirstyG]

I don't have Porters or Sproats in my tree. I just like solving puzzles

[dollysearch]

Hi,
I don't have any birth/marriage certificates but I have obtained my info from certain websites. The info I have is as follows:
William Porter 1780-1867 m Agnes Sproat 1789-1867.
Their children: Elizabeth 1827-1916, James 1826-, Jessie 1831-, Peter 1840-1901, Thomas 1809-1868, John 1820-1882, William 1841-

Hope this helps.
Shirley

[KirstyG]

Hi Shirley

I would recommend confirming for yourself some of the major connections in your tree from original sources (transcriptions can be very useful). You don't want to do a lot of work only to discover later that you were looking at the wrong family, or mixing up generations.

The IGI does have an entry for the birth of Elizebeth Porter, parents William Porter and Agnes Sproat, Kelton, Kirkcudbrightshire 1st  August 1826.

There is another child to parents of the same name: Janet Porter birth 12th October 1829 Kelton.
Another sister or the one you have as Jessie?

According to the Friends of the Archives of Dumfries and Galloway transcription there is a William Porter with wife Agnes in the 1851 census in the parish of Colvend, also living with them is a son Peter born Kelton. Agnes is 62, William is 70. This would match with the dates you have given for them, however the son Peter is given as 43.

You may want to have a look at the information you have before trying to go any further back.

Kirsty

[dollysearch]

Hi,
Jessie was 10 in the 1841 census. By 1861 she was living with her brother Thomas at Woodhouse with his nephew Thomas aged 11.

Peter was 41 in the 1851 census and 51 in the 1861 census. In the latter census William was aged 81 and Agnes was 72. For each census they were living at Gibbs House.
He was probably living elswhere before the 1841 census, perhaps married. I haven't researched all of the siblings yet, my main person was Elizabeth who is my G G Grandmother.

I have however, visited the churchyard at Colvend and collected quite a bit of information from the grave stones to back up my findings.
Shirley

[KirstyG]

Ah Peter's age in your previous post was a typo then 

Janet and Jessie may be the same person as the names were used interchangably. In the 1841 census ages were rounded to the nearest 5 years so an 11/12 year old would show as 10.

As Agnes lived beyond 1855 does her death certificate not have parent's details?

Kirsty

[dollysearch]

I don't have a death certificate. I found her death date on her gravestone!
A pensioner can only spend so much you know!
As for the typo

[KirstyG]

Don't worry about the typo - we are all guilty of those!

Maybe you could post a lookup request and the next time some kind soul is going in to Edinburgh/Glasgow to do some research of their own they could check it for you.
The costs involved with certificates do make this a rather expensive hobby!

[KirstyG]

Lots of Sproats listed in the Death Notices of the Wigtownshire Free Press (covers KKD)

http://freepages.history.rootsweb.ancestry.com/~leighann/wfp/deaths/27.html

[dollysearch]

Thanks. Looks interesting and will look more closely soon.