Hello Jess
Welcome to Roots chat.
Catherine Peddison/MacRae is my enigma ! My brick wall
I have struggled to find her birth and parents, this is what I know so far. ** Marriage date now corrected
Catherine Peddison/Pedison/Pedieson is my husbands paternal GG Grandmother. She married David MacRae shoemaker in Rosemarkie on 31.1.1847 (her father not named on the register) and was his second wife.
She died on 22.4.1910 age 80 (but not convinced this is correct) at Watson place Fortrose, witness her son Simon MacRae 3 Castle street Fortrose who did not know the names of her parents i.e not on the death certificate.
This means, assuming info was correct, she was born approx 1830.
I have sat for hours at the Scotlands people centre trawling through the births in Rosemarkie around that period (she states on various census she was born there)
There is no Catherine Peddison but the only Catherine is a Catherine Mustard B 23.10.1821 This name is later used when naming their children, John 1848, Catherine 1851, Isabella 1854, Simon Fraser 1856, Mary Ann 1858 and Alexander Mustard 1861
Don't know if you have ever been to Rosmarkie but it,s a wee place even now. There were only about 20/30 odd female births in the whole of the parish in the 10 year approx time scale I searched.
The more I research the more I realise mistakes were made sometimes by the ministers when filling out the registers, a moments hesitation ? Familiarity of his congregation , forgot to put the surname in ? Mustard been written in the wrong place and probably the parents couldn't read or it was written up later on after the baptism. Who knows but the use of surnames as middle names is still common in Scotland. Particularly maiden names.
One last thought .. I have always romantically thought that her family could have come from Norway at some point as it is a Norwegian sounding name and there was trade between there and the north of Scotland
Hope this helps, happy searching.
