Duncan BLUE - lost at sea

[dhalaughlin]

Hi Monica! So nice to hear from you again. You guide so well. THANK YOU! I finished a very detailed response and lost it just now fiddling around with the smiley face. I don't know how to do it. So I hope I can do justice to the message again.

All those Gallisath's are definitely GALBRAITH"S and are of our Duncan's family. That's our Duncan definitely. Alexander (aka Sandy) and Christy (aka Chirsty) are well-known to me as my grandfather wrote some interesting stories about them and their cottage in Bulloch. Mary is Susanna's (aka Susan) mother. As suspected it is abundantly clear now that Duncan is residing with his grandmother Mary Galbraith, nee Kelly and his aunt & uncle. He was undoubtedly helping his uncle in the lobster fishing business. This experience eventually led him to explore his interest in the sea with a futher fatal voyage of fortune to Southern Seas and Van Diemen's Land. He must have been very adventuresome, very desperate, or both. My guess is he left to the southern hemisphere sometime in the earlier part of the decade (1851-1861) as so far I have been unable to locate this Duncan anywhere in the 1861 census. His family remained in Kintyre.

Yes that is correct for Susanna's birth info and her parents. She was born in Rosehill, Killean/kilchenzie.

What exactly is a "cottar"? A homemaker?

Thanks again. No smiley faces, only smiles.

David

[MonicaL]

Hi David 

A cottar is a tenant with only a cottage and little land www.scotsfamily.com/occupations.htm

Monica

[EnlerG]

Hi David,

By odd co-incidence I have been looking at your family and making links in Find A Grave between members buried in Scotland, Northern Ireland and the USA.  I had just looked at the grave you mention of William Blue d. 9 Oct 1847, his wife Susanna Galbraith d. 9 Mar 1888, their son Duncan and William Blue.

Obviously you are working from stories in your family tradition written by those who knew more than I ever can.  However I offer this interpretation of the gravestone inscription that seems to me to reconcile all the information you have posted.

The last three lines of the gravestone inscription read:

AND OF WILLIAM BLUE
FATHER OF THE ABOVE WILLIAM
REPORTED LOST AT SEA

I think this indicates that Duncan’s grandfather William is the individual who was ‘lost at sea’.

When I looked at this gravestone I assumed that Duncan died as an infant – the fact you found him as a 5 year old in 1841 puts a DOB c. 1836 and so before official birth records began.  Admittedly In 1851 a 15 year old could have been living and working elsewhere - but I had assumed this Duncan died as an infant. 

Listing the name of deceased children without giving dates of birth or death is not uncommon – there are three listed on the gravestone of Duncan’s brother William Blue d.  19 June 1890 (Flora, Richard & Susie). 

Yesterday I had looked up the years of the births and deaths for these children and offered them as suggested edits to the manager of the memorial – which possibly accounts for why I viewed the inscription for Duncan as for that of a deceased infant.

I suggest it is worth considering that Duncan died before official records were kept (1 January 1855). 

It is possible that the gravestone inscription has been mis-interpretated a century ago as those who read them did not have the luxury to studying computer screens at their leisure (!)

As I may be wrong in how I have interpreted the information I hope you have the breakthrough you have been looking for.

All the best
SG

[Forfarian]

It is possible he married an Isabella SCOTT and they had a son William b. abt Sep 1866 in Campbeltown.

Duncan Blue married Isabella Scott in Campbeltown in 1860. Go to www.scotlandspeople.gov.uk, invest in some credits and use some of them to download a copy of the marriage certificate. It will tell you the names of the couple's parents including their mothers' maiden surnames.

There were two children of this marriage; Mary, born 18 August 1862 and William, born 3 September 1866.

In 1861, at Drumore, Campbeltown are Duncan Blue, 28; wife Isabella Blue, 26; mother-in-law Mary Scot, 55; and Isabella Tod, 2. 

In 1871, at Kirk Street, Campbeltown, are Duncan Blue, 39; wife Isabella, 35; daughter Mary, 8; son William, 5 and mother-in-law Mary Scott, 65.

ev has already posted an extract from the 1881 census.

In 1891 there are Duncan Blue, 56; wife Isabella, 50; daughter Mary, 25; son William, 23.

There's a death of Duncan Blue, 62, in Campbeltown in 1892, mother's surname Mckinlay.

There is a baptism of Duncan, son of Duncan Blue and Isabella McKinlay, in Campbeltown in 1824.

So I don't think that it was your Duncan Blue who married Isabella Scott, but the marriage certificate will nail that one way or the other.

It would not surprise me if Duncan Blue, husband of Isabella McKinlay, and William Blue, husband of Susanna Galbraith, were the sons of William Blue and Anne/Agnes McNaught(on), baptised in 1806 and 1802 respectively.

A look at the original baptisms might possibly clarify that.

There's also a death of Florence Blue or Watson, aged 82, in Glasgow in 1883. In the 1881 census she is listed as aged 80, born Campbeltown. If I'm right she would be your Duncan's aunt.

[Forfarian]

.

[Forfarian]

A cottar is a tenant with only a cottage and little land

It's actually a bit more defined than just that.

From the OED:
Scottish. A peasant who occupies a cot-house or cottage belonging to a farm (sometimes with a plot of land attached), for which he has (or had) to give or provide labour on the farm, at a fixed rate, when required.

and from J Jamieson, Etymological Dictionary of Scottish Language
Cottar, cotter, Persons of this description possess a house and small garden, or small piece of land, the rent of which they are bound to pay, either to a landlord or a farmer, by labour for a certain number of days, or at certain seasons...

[Forfarian]

Have you seen this?

See also http://www.bruzelius.info/Nautica/Ships/Clippers/Storm_Cloud(1854).html

[EnlerG]

Certainly the age matches the child in the 1841 records.  If you can exclude this 18 year old merchant seaman being the son of the Mckinlay named in the 1892 death certificate then this is a candidate.

I don't know how that can be done as none of the dates people on this forum have already found match the information that is available for the two Duncan Blues we are aware of!

 I am not sure whether I would prefer that the Duncan (mentioned on the gravestone) died before records for death began in 1855 or shared the fate of his paternal grandfather - either way it would seem a life cut off too soon. 

Sadly I have found that some mysteries hang there as the documentation does not exist - but there have been occasions when something does clarify matters.  I hope this happens for Duncan.
SG

[Forfarian]

When I looked at this gravestone I assumed that Duncan died as an infant – the fact you found him as a 5 year old in 1841 puts a DOB c. 1836 and so before official birth records began.  Admittedly In 1851 a 15 year old could have been living and working elsewhere - but I had assumed this Duncan died as an infant. 

He was in the 1851 census, aged 14, with his grandmother Mary Galbraith and uncle, aunts and cousin. He was a lobster fisherman, which is quite consistent with him becoming a merchant seaman a few years later.

If you can exclude this 18 year old merchant seaman being the son of the Mckinlay

There's a Duncan Blue, ploughman, aged 25, born Campbeltown, at a farm in the parish of Killean who is a close match for the son of Duncan Blue and Isabella McKinlay.