Alexander LAING Help Please!!

[MonicaL]

Oh Legg, give me a mo'....found something else earlier that I put to one side...

[MonicaL]

Do you remember that possible 1861 entry I posted for Alexander with the surname of Wood?

William Taylor 62, farmer b. Grange Banff
Anne Taylor 63 b. Boharm, Morayshire
Mary Winton 16, servant
Alexander Wood 3, boarder b. Elgin, Morayshire

Address: Andersons Ward, Grange, Banff

I had a look to see if I could follow this through to 1871 and there was this:

William Taylor 72, farmer
Ann Taylor 75
Alexander Legg 13 boarder b. Elgin
Mary Hay 13, servant

Address: Andersons Ward, Grange, Banff

[MonicaL]

Possible birth entry from IGI for Jessie/Janet:

Janet LEGG, mother JESSIE LEGG, b. 30 Nov 1863 in Edinburgh

[MonicaL]

Sorry for the drib and drabs of postings, Gary. Just adding now as I find:

From 1861, there is this possible entry:

Jessie Legg, domestic servant, 29 yrs b. Portnokie, Banffshire. She is working at the MUIR household at Middleby St., Newington, Midlothian.

Some guesses here Gary, gives a shape to work around for research:

Jessie Legg has Alexander in Elgin c. 1858 (would be good to find this birth entry!). He is then boarded out to the Taylor family where he shows in both 1861/71.

Jessie moves to Edinburgh area for work. She has Janet/Jessie in 1863. There is also a potential other birth back north:

George LEGG, mother Jessie b. 30 Sep 1865 in Seafield/Fordyce, Banff.

As always, something to work from until it is (dis)proved!

Added: There is another Jessie Legg showing as born in Portnokie c. 1839/40. Daughter of James and Margaret. She looks to have married in 1869 a George Badenoch. ~Therefore, I have a question mark on that 1865 birth in Seafield for a George and which Jessie is mother.

[MonicaL]

Possible from 1871:

Janet Wood 42, Laundress b. Banffshire
John Wood 17, son, Glassblomer (likely glassblower) b. Elgin
Jessie Wood 7, daughter b. Edinburgh (likely entry we now have)
Mary Duff 6, boarder b. Canongate, Edinburgh
Adam Whitchead 17, boarder, blacksmith b. Canongate, Edinburgh

Address: Munros Close, Edinburgh Canongate

Picking up on potential new son/sibling John born c. 1853/4, from 1861 as a possibility:

John Nicol 26, carter b. Canadun (?spl), Linlithgowshire
Hellen Nicol 22, wife b. Arth, Stirling
Hellen Nicol 25, visitor b. Oberown, Linlithgowshire
James Hay 24, boarder b. Glasgow
John Legat 8, boarder b. Elgin

Address: 8 Giles St, Leith
Monica

[MonicaL]

At some point, to let you confirm the above census entries hopefully by being able to confirm the maiden name of the Janet, mother above, from the 1881 census and possible marriage for son John. As before, perhaps John's marriage cert to Georgina might give you some further info:

John Wood 27, glass maker b. Edinburgh
Georgina Wood 23 b. Edinburgh
John Wood 3 b. Edinburgh
Janet Wood 49, laundress b. Banff

Address: 4 North Back Of Canongate, Edinburgh

I might be completely wrong by now Gary and we find that Janet had a completely different surname...which would be sad!

Take a bit of care on the marriage searches, there looks to be two couples with the same names (John Wood and Georgina) having children in the Edinburgh area at the same time which never helps. The marriage entry in Canongate in 1877 might be good to check given the census location for 1881.

This looks to be the John and Georgina we have been looking at in 1901:

John L Wood 66 (age looks to be mistranscribed) glass blower b. Elgin
Georgina Wood 48
John L Wood 22 cellarman brewery
Jessie Wood 11
Georgina Wood 8

Address: 23 Waverley Park, Edinburgh.

Lots of gaps there for the children. Sadly looks like a number of likely early deaths for their children you would think.

Monica

[MonicaL]

If you are feeling gong-ho with SP units.....

Janet Legg/Wood death in 1895 in Canongate, born circa 1834 (going by death age). A good possibility for Jessie Snr I would think (with my fingers crossed here...and if her mother turns out to have Newlands for a surname it would makes sense of so much  ).

[Thistle76]

Monica,

Thanks so much for all this, here is where I have got to -

1 William Legg
m
Jane Newlands

2 Janet (Jessie) Legg
b c1834, Portnokie, Banff
d 13 Jul 1895, 3 Ann Terrace, Abbeyhill, Edinburgh (witness, son, John Wood)
(Can’t find a marriage certificate for James Wood and Jessie Legg)

3 John Wood
b c1853/4, Elgin
d 29 Dec 1908, 3 Ann Terrace, Abbeyhill, Edinburgh (name on cert John Legg Wood, Fathers name, James Alexander  Wood, Mothers name Jessie Wood, MS Legg. Witness, John L Wood, Adopted Son)
m 29 Dec 1876 3 St John St, Edinburgh
Georgina Pace
(When Alexander Laing relocates to Edinburgh in 1900 he moves to 4 Waverley Park Terrace, John L Wood is living doors away in Waverley Park, him and his mother die in Abbeyhill as well)

3 Alexander Wood (unable to find birth certificate)

3 Janet (Jessie) Wood
b 30 Dec 1863 1 Union Street, Edinburgh (Illegitimate,
m 31 Dec 1880, Canongate (Mother, Jessie Legg)

Everything seems to fit but the birth certificate for Alexander still eludes me. I have tried all the Alexander Wood and Alexander Legg births in Moray and Banff around 1858. Do you think this is as good as we can get? It looks like it all fits in, I’m only worried about having no certificates from Banff or Moray.
Gary

ps, is Newlands special?

[MonicaL]

That's great Gary, goes a long way to confirming all we have seen so far 

The reason I mentioned Newlands and possible connections earlier....

I had seen the children and parents William Legg and Jane/Jean Newlands on IGI. There are at least 11 children showing as born to them in the parish of Cullen, Banff, from the OPRs. Janet/Jessie might have shaved off a few years along the way of her life  I think this is her entry:

Janet Legg b. 17 Dec 1823 and chr. 23 Dec 1823 in Cullen - parents William Legg and Janet Newlands

Just connections here and why I was interested in the surname of Newlands is that if you remember the couple that young Alexander boarded with in 1561/71, I think this is their 1841 census entry with the surname Newlands in the household:

William Taylor 40
Ann Taylor 40
Jannet Newlands 15
James Newlands 13
Alexr Lemmon 15
Margaret Morison 9

Address: Andersonsward, Grange, Banff

There is on IGI banns/marriage between:

William Taylor and Ann Newlands - 6 Dec 1829 in both Bodyie and Keith, Banff. Actual extract
from registers.

I thought this might be young Jessie on the 1841 census, working by now away from home:

John Newlands 50 Lime Manf.
Jane Newlands 50
May Mathew 8
Janet Legg 15 female servant (FS) b. Scotland
Elizabeth Innes 10

Address: New Elgin, Moray

And in 1851:

John Newlands 60, farmer and lime manf. (I think! transcription not great but check FreeCen)
Jane Newlands 53
Alexander Simpson 23
Jess Legg 23, farm servant b. Banff
Jane Anne Mathew 16
Mary Farguhar 14

Address: New Elgin, Moray

So likely William Taylor and wife Ann were not strangers or just friends who took in young Alexander whilst his mother went off to find work in Edinburgh? How Ann Newlands, wife of William Taylor, is connected to Jessie's Snr's mother, Jane Newlands, is hard to say at this stage but something to work on....

Monica