James Fin(d)lay in Kilsyth, late 18th Century

[Forfarian]

Margaret Fin(d)lay was my ggggrandmother. She married William Bryson in Cumbernauld in 1804.

The 1841 census lists her, aged 50, with William and some of their family at Glenhead, Cumbernauld. In 1851 she was a widow, aged 67, born Kilsyth, living at Feus, Cumbernauld. I have yet to find her in the 1861 census, but she died at the home of her son, Lochgreen, Camelon, Falkirk on 3 August 1864. The death certificate names her father as James Findlay but her mother's name was unknown.

Her second son was named James, and her eldest daughter Elizabeth. If they adhered to the naming tradition, this suggests that her mother's name may have been Elizabeth.

Does anyone else have a Findlay from Kilsyth, father James, born around 1780-1790?

Note: Parallel thread in Stirlingshire at http://www.rootschat.com/forum/index.php/topic,531233.0.html

[roothuntervt]

My grandmother, Elizabeth Easton Findlay, was born in 1893 in Cumbernauld.  (She emigrated  to Canada around 1913 where she met my grandfather, Lester in Toronto.  They married in 1916.)  She was one of 8 children, whose names were Janet (Jenny), Helen (Nell), Mary, Margaret (Peggy), Jeanie, Alexander, and James (Dick). Her father was James Findlay (b. 1861 - d?) and mother was Janet White/Whyte (b. 1865 - d?).  James was a coal miner and Janet was a domestic.  James' parents, Alexander Findlay (b. 1835 -d?) and Elizabeth Easton (b. 1829 - d?) were married in Falkirk. Janet's parents were John White and Mary Smith.

My aunt Kate (Catherine) came to own some poems by Robert Bryson.  Kate said my grandmother's brother James, who was known as Dick, was the "wee Dick" in Bryson's poems and that they were good friends.  Your mention of all these names makes me wonder if there are connections.

I have not worked on this quite a while, but I have shared information at:
http://freepages.genealogy.rootsweb.ancestry.com/~capels/findlay/index.html

This is about all I have been able to find about my grandmother's family and keep hitting brick walls in my search for more information. 

--Valerie Capels

[Forfarian]

Interesting. However your Alexander b 1835 is at least a couple of generations away from my James in Kilsyth.

Alexander Fin(d)lay and Elizabeth Easton were married in 1861. According to their marriage certificate, Alexander was the son of James Findlay and Helen Strachan and Elizabeth was the daughter of Alexander Easton and Jane Campbell. (This means, incidentally, that the online tree saying he was the son of James F and Janet Buchanan is wrong, and moreover it is wrong in significant facts that it took me about 30 seconds to prove wrong. In other words whoever posted that tree is guilty of seriously sloppy research, and not to be trusted as far as you could throw an overweight elephant.)

Helen Strachan's name is simply recorded as 'Helen Strachan', not as Helen Findlay M S [short for Maiden Surname] Strachan, which specifically implies that she was not married to James Findlay. Nor was Jane Campbell married to Alexander Easton.

In the 1841 census there is a household at North Main Street, Cumbernauld, comprising Margt Strahan, 45, cotton winder; Helen Strahan, 40, cotton winder; John Paterson, 24, labourer; Alexr Findley, 6; all born in Dunbartonshire. I have a feeling that I have come across this household before while following up my Paterson family, but eventually decided that he wasn't connected.

In 1851 Margaret Strachan, unmarried, aged 61, a pauper and cottom weft winder, and nephew Alexander Findlay, 16, coal miner, are listed in Wynd, Cumbernauld. Unfortunately both Margaret and Helen died before 1855, so there is not going to be a death certificate to get back another generation.

As for who James Findlay, father of Alexander, was, there might possibly be something in the Cumbernauld Kirk Session minutes that might give a clue to his identity, but I seem to recall, having looked at them, that they are not as comprehensive as some of the Kirk Session minutes I've read.

I've never heard of Robert Bryson's poems before. Do you have any more information about him, for example a date of birth?

By the way, Cumbernauld is not a county. It is a parish in the County of Dunbarton, which can also be referred to as Dunbartonshire (but never, ever 'Dunbarton County' or 'County Dunbarton'!)

[roothuntervt]

Thank you for the quick reply!  Wow. 

I knew the people in our posts were generations apart.  With the similar names and the tradition of carrying them through generations, I thought there might be a connection farther back, especially with Bryson added to the mix. I hope the poems I posted to my Web page will yield some clues.
 
I have not been able to find a thing through general online sources about Robert Bryson.  I also have not delved deeper into searching until now. 

I am only now getting back into researching my Findlay line after several years.  Just today, I found some (new to me) online 1800s census data on my grandmother's parents and her siblings.  I have not yet obtained the marriage certificate for Alexander and Elizabeth you mentioned.  Thank you for sharing that information.  I hope I will be able to find it through the Scotland's People database.  I am also intrigued about the ill-informed online family tree you mentioned.  I do not have a Buchanan in my records, so I am relieved it was not anything I posted.