Family link or just big coincidence?

[MonicaL]

Looks like Margaret Wilkie (from this family) has died by 1851 The family in 1851:

John Dickie 44 widower Farmer Of 12 Acres b. Slains, Aberdeenshire
Isabella Dickie 46 sister unmarried b. Aberdeen, Aberdeenshire
Isabella Dickie 15
Alexander Dickie 11

Address: Auchleuchries, Cruden

1861

John Dickie 50 farmer
Isabella Dickie 52 sister
Elizabeth Wilken 55 sister (in law?) visitor merchant's wife b. Aberdeen
Isabella Dickie 35 daughter
Isabella Robertson 6 grandchild

Address: Auchleuchries, Cruden

No sign of an Alexander Dickie in 1861...

Monica

[t1m]

Hi Monica,

Thanks for posting that. My initial feeling is that Dickie is a bit far from Davidson, especially when also Margaret's name goes from Wilkie to Wilken. However, iirc, there were suprisingly few Wilkie families in Aberdeenshire at the time, and I wondered if perhaps she was a Wilken. Again, possibly clutching at straws (and I may also be mis-remembering --- it really has been a while since I looked at my thankfully detailed notes!).

Also, I would be extremely surprised not to find a James Davidson. I would also expect to find a Thomas Davidson, and possibly a George Davidson too. But Alex and Ann named their third child James, and their fourth William Lumgair Davidson --- the fourth I know for certain was named after a family member of Ann's, so I would expect to find James as a family member of Alex's. (The first and second children were also named after identified family members.)

Alex being the son of the elusive John Davidson and Margaret Wilkie, and Ann (Sturrock) being his wife.

Thanks for the suggestion though, and taking the time to post it.

Tim

[t1m]

Also, I will add that I do want to spend a little time (in addition to the avenues I posted previously) learning about Cruden and the people there of the time. I want to confirm the size of the population, and whether or not many were transient (perhaps Alex was born "in transit", so his birth certificate may be registered in a place other than where he was born).

[t1m]

I think I did, Malky. I would have to log back into Scotland's People and go through all the certificates I looked at. But I did look at a lot of Davidson certificates. Also, Alex's (and Ann's) only daughter was named Margaret, and like a lot of people of the time they certainly named their children after a naming pattern. And of course Margaret was named on Alex's marriage certificate (1869, mother deceased, father a farm servant).

[t1m]

I will also add that I did purchase the death certificates for every John Davidson in Aberdeenshire that died after 23rd April 1869 (when he was still alive, according to his son's marriage certificate) until whatever date I decided he couldn't have expected to live after. That was back in 2011 (ish) and none contained Margaret Wilkie as a deceased wife. Perhaps he remarried and his first wife was just ommitted (don't know how likely that was). But it again suggested to me that the family was quite transient (and iirc this would have been usual for farm servants), so the certificates could be anywhere.

Of course, perhaps the certificates just didn't survive.

I will update this thread when I pick up the search again. 

[Hydes]

Hi,
I just came across your post whilst researching my WILKIE family and found that you had mentioned Margaret Wilkie i believe you had said somewhere that she was also listed as Margaret Rennie is that right? 

[t1m]

Hi,

I haven't done much genealogy for the past few years -- not from lack of interest, but lack of time as I just don't have any these days.  So looking through my genealogy documents I can see that I was halfway through organising them, which is the worst type of organisation to leave them in!  I can see from the dates in this thread that it's been longer than I thought it had been.  Perhaps I will find time to pick up the threads again this year.  Or at least organise the research I've completed up to now.

As I recall, I was all over the place trying to find the parents of Alexander Davidson -- John Davidson and Margaret Wilkie.  I could find no digital documentation for either of them, beyond reference to them in their son's own documents.

As I recall (without reading through the whole thread), there were very few Wilkies in Aberdeenshire (where AD apparently comes from), though I found a family with names which fitted a naming pattern.  However I could find nothing concrete.

I concluded (at least temporarily), that though it was possibly the same family, that given Alexander's first found census (in 1861, aged 20-21) was in Roxburghshire (a fair way from Aberdeenshire), and his father was a farm servant, that the family may have moved around the country a lot.  Failing that, the documents may have been among those which if I remember correctly were destroyed.

All I know for sure is that John Davidson (d. 1869-1923, oc. farm servant) married Margaret Wilkie (d. 1839-1869), and had at least one son called Alexander Davidson (according to censuses b. 1839-1840 in Cruden or Peterhead, died 23 May 1923 in Dundee, oc. railway surfaceman).  Anything else about JD and MW has been little more than speculation.

If you ever come across "my" Margaret Wilkie, please do let me know!

[Forfarian]

Coincidentally, I've been wondering about the possibility if Alexander was non-conformist.  He was married in CoS in Monikie, but if we were all to go far back enough then we'd all find non-conformist ancestors. 

This is one of my bêtes noires. The term 'non-conformist' was originally coined to describe people who did not conform to the Church of England. Therefore every member of any Church of Scotland congregation, and indeed of all denominations in Scotland with the possible exception of Episcopalians, was a non-conformist, so the term has no useful meaning in Scotland.

Alexander could have belonged to one of the dissenting denominations, of which there were many.

However north-east Aberdeenshire was a stronghold of the Episcopal Church, so it is also possible that he was a member of that denomination (and, therefore, one of the few who were possibly not a 'non-conformist'!), which could account for the scarcity of records.

The fact that he married according to the forms of the Church of Scotland is not significant, because weddings were more commonly conducted in the bride's parish and by her own minister.

Unfortunately the surviving Episcopalian registers are not always easy to track down. Some are still in their churches, some are in diocesan archives, and others are in the care of local or university archives. If you felt inclined to pursue this, the Aberdeen and North-East Scotland Family History Society may know where surviving Episcopalian records are held.