Help with my Smith Family Please!

[marcie dean]

alexander smith married Janet O'May 15th March 1875 Their children were:
Agnes born 1879
Maggie born 1883
John born 1891
these 3 above I have no information on.  Tried IGI and Ancestry. Did try sp ages ago.

The ones I know about are
Janet (my grgran) married George B Steele, then Sidney Tongs
Hugh married Esther, then Mary
Muriel married James Hamilton, they had two chldren. Agnes and James.
Alexander born 1875 married Isabella Schembri: and I keep forgetting
William married Irene Murdoch Osborne or is it Osborn Murdoch

[O1dgobbo]

Hi Marcie

You have not said when and where Alexander was born or where he and Janet were living. On the basis of the childrens' names I guess that we are talking about

Alexander Smith (Stone Mason) b. about 1852 in Pollockshaws, Renfrewshire
Janet Smith b. about 1852 in Campbeltown, Argyleshire.

These two appear in the 1891 and 1901 censuses with the folllowing children

1891 in Eastwood Pollockshaws 19 Rossendale Road
Alexander 16 Stone Cutter Apprentice b. Campbeltown, Argyleshire
Agnes 12 b. do
Maggie 8 b. Pollockshaws, Renfrewshire
William 4 b. do
Janet 2 b. do
John 4 mo b. do

1901 in Glasgow Springburn at 24 Ro?bank Street
Janet 12 b. Pollockshaws, Renfrewshire
John 10 b. do
Muriel 6 b. ---------, Lanarkshire
Hugh 4 b. Pollockshaws, Renfrewshire

All the best

Gobbo

[marcie dean]

Spot On, Alexander snr born Renfrew 1854, whilst Janet O'May born Campbeltown 5th April 1853. sorry forgot to tell you. They married in Campbeltown in 1875, 15/03/1875.

My problem is now that I need to find who they married and when, also if they had any children, stayed put in scotland or moved as my nan did eventually.

Hugh is the youngest, he was in the 1st WW, injured he ended up in a Hospital where he met  Esther his wife to be.  They had two children
Alexander Hugh Smith and Esther. The grandchildren of (these two children of Hugh), and I, are in contact

Janet Smith she met George Blanchard Steele, became pregnant and had my nan, they married 3 days later and eventually had Elizabeth who married Francis Mannion Slaven and had a son, named Alexander.

[marcie dean]

Muriel Omay Smith: married James Hamilton abt 1923 and had
James Stanley Hamilton he met and married a Ms Jacobs christian name either Linda or Joyce
They had 4 children, who are all alive, 3 married and have families of their own.  That is as much as I will say about them

Agnes Margaret Hamilton their daughter met and married Neill MacDonald, his parents were Roderick MacDonald and Catherine Campbell. Neill and Agnes had three children, Douglas died very young, the daughter I think was Elizabeth, she married (cannot remember her husbands name)the other son was also named Douglas born 1955.

[marcie dean]

William Alexander Smith  met and married Irene (Osborne Murdoch or the other way around) that is all I know about the pair. It would be nice to find out about their children etc.

The others, Agnes, John and Margaret I have searched, but because of their name its difficult to find any information that can be verified as them or as part of my family.

if you can find any information about these three, I would be eternally grateful.
marcie

[O1dgobbo]

Hi Marcie

I was a bit puzzled by your query but I see now that you are trying to trace descendents of

Agness Smith b. about 1878 Campbeltown Argyll
Maggie Smith b. about 1882 Pollockshaws, Renfrewshire
John Smith b. about Dec 1890 Pollockshaws, Renfrewshire

Apart from the problems of the name Smith you also have the problem that the records are Scottish and those canny folk ensure that we pay to see them. It might help if you buy some credits and find the exact dates of the births of this trio - it might focus the search on subscription sites such as Ancestry and FindMyPast.

I did look for public trees on Ancestry and there are three, which I guess you know about - Laidlaw Family tree & MacDonald Family Tree both owned by Barkiss91 and Smith Family Tree owned by smudgersmith2403. None of these trees follows the the two girls beyond the 1891 census or John beyond the 1901 census.

There is a faint possibility of a John record on Ancestry's UK Soldiers Died in the Great War, 1914-1919. This includes John Smith born Pollokshaws (sic) died of his wounds 29 Aug 1916 in France & Flanders as 3681 Private in the Highland Light Infantry 10/11 Battalion. The CWGC reference is

http://www.cwgc.org/search/casualty_details.aspx?casualty=557166

All the best

Gobbo

[marcie dean]

 Oldgobbo,
what is your real name, can't keep referring to you as that, seems a little rude to me to call you like that.

 Currently I am out of credits and the means to purchase.  Ancestry used to allow you to see scottish records, now some of the records have to be paid for same as sp.  I have tried the IGI to obtain this info.  wont be in a position to purchase until after the 21st this month. So I will have to be patient.  I think I may have found on sp at least two records out of the three I am looking for.
Thankyou for finding the records for the military, I will check them out when I can to see if that was definately him.  Will also see if I can find William and his wife.  Tried finding info on Alexander and Isabella Schembri but to no avail, so perhaps they moved away.  Her father had come from Malta (British) it said and a language interpreter, Isabella's mother was also Isabelle Carruthers, found a reasonable amount about their ancestry in the past.

It is just that they are, just by the nature of their name, obscure because of the amount of Smiths there are, makes them invisible sometimes.
If I can will return the favour.
Marcie

[marcie dean]

  You are quite right those trees are mine.  On one of them I have over 4,000 people, which looks good, until you realise that some of them (talking about the list which you search for people to go straight there) are repeated.

This is the only thing  that upsets me about  Ancestry Trees.  Sometimes you go to your tree and it seems as though you have lost information, so you type it in again, only to find that its been held in the ether, and when you check your list that person is there several times over.
It is a lot better since they did the revamp. I spend as much time deleting the duplicates as I do on the tree itself.  Also transferring information which I have held on SP for yonks and which I have forgotten I had.
Must be something to do with my age.   Marcie

[marcie dean]

Oldgobbo,
when you search for people in the forces, does it also give you information as to where they came from as well as when they joined up and where they joined?

This is something I have never done.  Most of my family seemed to have come home safely, barr one or two.  Another John in my family was in the merchant navy, taking supplies to other ships etc. during WW2 he came home safely, I met him only once, whilst he was helping his father, my step-grgrandad move an old bed from upstairs into the front room, only for Janet to say that she didnt like it there.  Was either that or climb those stairs he told her.  marcie