Difficulty finding parents/early life of James McIntosh, b. 1867 d. 1944

[Calmasis]

Hi all. I'm having difficulty finding the parents of my great-great-granddad, as well as anything on his early life.

He was called James McIntosh. According to the censuses he was on, he was born in 1867 in Elgin. He married a Mary McDonald in 1892 in Perthshire, and the marriage record said his parents were George McIntosh, a fisherman, & Annie McIntosh née Gold, both deceased.

I have James on the 1891-1911 censuses, as well as his marriage & death certificates. I'm just having difficulty finding him on the 1871/1881 censuses, as well as any record of his parents existing.

I've checked all the statutory records of people called Ann marrying people called George McIntosh, and none of them are right. Same with the parish marriage records. In fact, there's no record of an Ann McIntosh née Gold dying in Scotland at all. Which makes me think he either got his parents names wrong, or they just didn't marry. I also think he may have gotten his date/place of birth wrong, since none of the James McIntoshes on the 1871 census said they were born in 1867 in Elgin.

Can anyone help me out?

Thanks in advance!

[Ruskie]

First thing that comes to mind is possible variations of that surname - have you searched for M*intosh as well?
(PS. Welcome to rootschat)

[bleckie]

Hi

I did a search on www.scotlandspeople.gov.uk

James M*cintosh  born 1866-1868  moray  in Elgin you only get 1 hit it turns out this one is 1867.

Worth a look
Yours Aye
BruceL

[higgsy]

Hi
What was james's occupation on his marriage cert?


Norma

[Calmasis]

Ruskie, yeah, I've been checking for variations of McIntosh. (And thank you!)

bleckie, thanks! I checked that record, and unfortunately it says his parents were Donald McDonald & Isabella Gilbert, so I think it's the wrong one.

higgsy, James was a joiner on his marriage certificate & on the censuses as well.

[Forfarian]

Is it possible that he was illegitimate and resgistered under his mother's surname?

According to the censuses he was on, he was born in 1867 in Elgin.

The census never gives a year of birth. It tells you what age the person said they were on the date of the census. The census is always taken around the end of March, a quarter of the way through the year. So only a quarter of people have had their birthday in census year before the date of the census. Therefore if you 'calculate' the year of birth by subtracting the age from the year of the census, you get the wrong answer three times out of four. So if your James said in 1891 that he was 24, he is more likely to have been born in 1866 than in 1867, assuming he wasn't either lying or miscalculating.

Not sure if that is particularly helpful, however. But it might help to widen your search a bit.

[MonicaL]

Just for background in terms of census, this looks to be the family in 1901, all the children born in Kilfauns (?):

James Mcintosh 34, wright b. Elgin, Morayshire
Mary Mcintosh 29 b. Dunkeld, Perthshire
George Mcintosh 7
Mary Mcintosh 6
James Mcintosh 4
Marjory Mcintosh 1

Address:    Burnfoot Joiner's House, Kinfauns, Perthshire

Monica

[MonicaL]

Norma, I know you asked about occupation much earlier...let's speculate with that 1901 entry 

1891? Think you may have this already Calmasis?

John Haddon 34 farm servant, b. Farnell, Forfarshire
Annie Haddon 29 b. Urquhart, Rossshire
Maggie A Haddon 2 b. Dundee, Forfarshire
James McIntosh 24, nephew, joiner b. Elgin

Address: Stobsmuir, Dundee

Monica

[Calmasis]

Forfarian: it's possible he was illegitimate, I suppose. His marriage certificate said that his parents were married, which made me think he was legitimate. I know the information about parents on marriage records is self reported though, so he could well have been wrong if his parents had died while he was still young.

I know the census doesn't give a year of birth, but I figured it was kind of long winded to say "in 1891 he said he was 24 which means he was probably born in about 1867". As I said, I think he probably got his date of birth wrong anyway, since there's no James McIntosh with his age/place of birth on the 1881 or 1871 census.

Thank you for the suggestion, though.


MonicaL: Yeah, those are the censuses I have for him in 1891 & 1901! Although Ancestry said James was a visitor in the house, not a nephew. Was it mistranscribed?