Balmain, Malcolm, William, Walter - Wemyss

[dollydebs]

Hi,

Unsure if anyone will be ables to help me due to the dates involved but thought worth a try.

I have traced the family tree back to a Malcolm Balmain, dob unknown but died 09 March 1772 Wemyss.
He was a shoemaker and married at least three times:
30 Nov 1711 Agnes Durie
04 Nov 1714 Agnes Davidsone
21 Jun 1723 Margaret Selkirk

All marriages in Wemyss but records show that a William and Walter Balmain were witnesses to his first marriage.

Malcolm did have sons with each of his wives; John, George and another John which has not helped with scottish naming patterns so far.

Query witnesses at wedding were brothers or poss father and a brother?

There were a couple of unnamed birth records in Dunbarney and Torryburn with father listed as either Willjam or William balmain. The same father is also listed for a William birth but not Walter. No mothers listed.
The earliest birth record I can find for a Walter is 30 Jan 1724 with parents listed as Walter Balmain and Jean Berrage, whilst the son is eliminated his father is not. Can find nothing concrete on Malcolm prior to his first marriage.

Wonder whether Malcolm and his family tie in with anyones tree or if you have access to Wemyss MI if there is a headstone for Malcolm which may possibly give a date of birth.
Any guidence would be appreciated.

Many thanks
Debbie

[diddymiller]

Hi Debbie, the fife death index has 20 Balmains listed under Wemyss.

Malcolm balmain 9/3/1727 no age known

2 children of Malcom (no names) 12/6/1713 & 6/5/1720

there are also children of Walter & a John Balmain around the same dates (no names)  which would suggest that they were his brothers.

Diddy

[dollydebs]

Hi Diddy,

Ooops typo re Malcolm Balmain date of death and to my shame I did preview the post before submitting it

Malcolm had four children that I am aware of but have no deaths etc recorded for.
Based on the marriages I am assuming his first two wives possibly died in childbirth which could account for the two unnamed deaths of his children.

Issue I have:
John 04 apr 1713 - went onto marry Margaret Duncan
George 11 May 1719 - nothing further
John 09 Apri 1724 - went onto marry Alison Wilson
Katherine 23 Jun 1726 - went onto marry James Hendry

I have a question mark over a possible son, David born 23 Oct 1692 in Orwell Kinross, mother unknown and no record of a marriage but could indicate an earlier date of birth than I guesstimated .

A Malcolme Balmain was born in 1662 circa to a Malcom Balmain in Dunbarney, further data unknown but there seems to be a strong Balmain/Balmane connection to this area in the early 1600's, with family christian names; William, Alexander and Malcolme.
Problem is of course finding out if any link to my Malcolm.

I have managed to collate a list of Balmain births and marriages for most of this area in Scotland, which will be a handy reference once I have firmed up the earlier relationships - am very happy to assist anyone by the way with this data

I am certainly leaning towards Walter being his brother though.

Huge thanks,
Debs

[diddymiller]

Debs, i would be happy to send you the full 20 Balmain deaths in wemyss -word doc if it would help.Please PM me your email.

Diddy

[hdw]

In 30 years of family-history research, this is the first time I have seen anyone else show an interest in the name BALMAIN in Wemyss parish.

I had 6 x great-grandparents called David ANDERSON and Mary BALMAIN who were married in Wemyss parish in 1707. David was a miner in Methilhill. I have a lot of information about this couple from the kirk-session records, as they were always in trouble with the minister and the elders, and at last they got fed-up with being harassed by the kirk authorities and did a moonlight flit to Dysart. Their descendants ended up in Pittenweem.

When I was researching this branch of my tree, many years ago, I made notes about other Balmains in  the Wemyss area, but never worked out who Mary's parents were.

And here's a coincidence for you - about a year ago I was contacted out of the blue by a distant cousin on my Melrose MOFFAT side. She told me she also had ancestors from Fife. I asked her for details. She said they were called DUNSIRE, and lived in Wemyss parish. So I told her that the two elders of Wemyss parish church who were sent regularly to pester my David and Mary about their "immorality" and test them on their Biblical knowledge in 1707-09 were both called DUNSIRE, and seemed to be brothers. Whereupon my new Moffat "cousin" informed me that one of those Dunsires was her direct ancestor!

Harry

[dollydebs]

Hi Harry,

What a lovely tale, I find its snippets like this from our past that makes everything so interesting when researching our history.

I have actually gone through my notes on the Balmains and the earliest birth I have for a Mary is 1730 to a Walter Balmain and Jean Berrage, Wemyss which is far too late for your Mary. I do have your Marys marriage though, in my notes.
Should I uncover anything I will let you know via rootschat as I imagine her date of birth will be around the same era as Malcolm.

My interest with the Balmains started with Jane Balmain born to Margaret Greig and Thomas Balmain in 1852. My middle name Jane, was in her honour and apparently our heights 4ft 9 matched although how my parents would know that I would be shorty when I was born is a mystery!
My Balmains according to family hearsay, originated in France but I have yet to confirm that link and it seems doubtful that I will be able to.

Regards,
Debs

[hdw]

Hi. Starting at the end of your message, I think I can squash the theory that the name Balmain originated in France. I think somebody has heard of the French couturier Pierre Balmain and assumed from that the name is French. I approach it from the opposite angle - I've often wondered if Balmain had Fife ancestors! Given that so many east-coast Scots settled in France and elsewhere in Europe.

The fact is that Balmain is the name of a farm near Largo in east Fife, and it's first recorded in about 1335. The name is Gaelic for middle farm or settlement, and corresponds to the English/Lowland Scots name Middleton.

A lot of surnames derive from place-names. Taking Fife ones alone, Kirkcaldy and Leuchars both occur as surnames, and a common surname in my part of East Fife is Tarvit/Tarvet, no doubt connected to (Hill of) Tarvit near Cupar. Tarvit contains the Gaelic word tarbh, meaning 'bull', which would have been a totemic animal for the local Pictish tribes.

You mention a Balmain married to a Berrage. This latter name shows the local pronunciation of Beveridge, a common surname in the Kirkcaldy area, which has many spelling variants. It also used to be spelt Belfrage, in which form it was taken to Sweden by Scottish emigrants.

Regarding being short, another name in my family-tree is Petticrew/Pettigrew, and that seems to come from two French words meaning 'small growth'. But whether the first Petticrew really was short, or the name was a joky nickname for a tall man, I don't know!

Harry

[dollydebs]

Hi Harry,

I too, have the place name Balmain and its meaning jotted down and that was the pivotal point in my research which led me to advising my Gran it was unlikely that the Balmains orginated from France.
Family lore can be a stumbling block at times and at others a little Godsend!

For Berrage, I have Belfrage in the search string along with a couple of others. I have noticed that a lot of the early records have names spelt phonetically and try to cover most bases which has assisted a great deal. However I was unaware that the origin was Beveridge - something I have now noted down.
With Balmain, I also search Balmane, Balman, Ballman etc and have found various spellings for the same people in the records

Whilst i have a few surnames noted with their origins and variants, I am beginning to think it prudent to research them all.

One odd thing I have found is that where I had thought only my maternal side of the tree originated in Scotland, my paternal side does too. I am beginning to think its time for me to visit Scotland and go to one of the research centres.

Have gone off on a tangent here and time for me to start the dinner, so I will attempt to leave the research, for a while at least

Many thanks for the tips,
Debs

[hdw]

I forgot to mention that there is a district in Sydney, Australia, called Balmain. I don't know whether or not it's called after an individual of that name.

Harry