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Author Topic: James Tocher Mortlach, Elgin, Banff  (Read 3719 times)

Offline Itildu

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Re: James Tocher Mortlach, Elgin, Banff
« Reply #9 on: Tuesday 20 September 11 19:04 BST (UK) »
GDub, You have a point.  According to his army record he put  Town, Parish and County of origin down as Mortlach.

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Re: James Tocher Mortlach, Elgin, Banff
« Reply #10 on: Tuesday 20 September 11 23:36 BST (UK) »
For the sake of the geographically challenged:
Mortlach is a parish in the county of Banff. Its principal burgh is Dufftown, which was founded about 1817, after the Napoleonic Wars were over.
Elgin is a burgh and parish in the county of Moray which (unfortunately) was for a time called Elginshire, or Elgin for short, which causes great confusion.
Banff is a burgh and a parish in the county of Banff which (confusingly) is often called Banff for short.
Therefore Banff and Elgin, whatever they actually mean, are mutually exclusive.
Grange is a parish in the county of Banff. It is about 30 miles from Mortlach to Grange, depending on which parts of each parish you mean.
The parish of Keith is in both eastern Banffshire and western Banffshire. It has a boundary with Aberdeenshire to the east and a boundary with Moray to the west.

Is it possible that James Tocher might have been a Roman Catholic? I ask because I have come across a Tocher family in Banffshire who were RC, and consequently don't appear in the Church of Scotland parish registers. The RC records are indexed on www.scotlandspeople.gov.uk

Beware the 1817 birth in Grange on the IGI - it is a 'submitted' entry not an 'extracted' one so you absolutely have to track down the original document and check it for authenticity.

Have you found him in the 1851 and/or 1861 census? If he was in Scotland in either of those years the census should tell you his parish of birth.

Never trust anything you find online (especially submitted trees and transcriptions on Ancestry, MyHeritage, FindMyPast and other commercial web sites) unless it's an image of an original document - and even then be wary because errors can and do occur.

Offline Itildu

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Re: James Tocher Mortlach, Elgin, Banff
« Reply #11 on: Wednesday 21 September 11 09:03 BST (UK) »
All Geographical info much appreciated.

 I cannot trace a James Tocher around 1810/1820 in the catholic parish records.

 I have seen the Grange extract online on Scotlandspeople for 1817  it does tie up with the indexed detail. 

Unfortunately he would not appear on a census as he left Scotland in 1833/34 and served in the Army in India till his death in 1866.

The dates of birth that I have to work on is 1813 and 1816.  The search so far has shown James Tocher with fathers called James:  Old Machar, 1813.  Newhills 1815.  Grange 1817, Forgue 1817,
Oyne 1818 and Rayne 1819.

No births in 1813 or 1816.  This is all I have to go on so far.   
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