Author Topic: Jane Clave b. 1819 Mochrum - twins?  (Read 3064 times)

Offline portlandlisa

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Jane Clave b. 1819 Mochrum - twins?
« on: Saturday 25 October 14 16:59 BST (UK) »
I am trying to find information about Jane Clave, born to Robert Clave & Janet Dods Clave.  Her family emigrated to the US in 1846 on the Fredonia.  Jane did not travel the family; she may have emigrated earlier than 1846.  There are two two-year old children who traveled with the family in 1846 named Elizabeth and William.  I think these children may have been the illegitimate twins of Jane.  I don't believe they are the youngest children of Robert & Janet b/c of Janet's age and because Robert & Janet already had a living son named William.  I have found a birth record for Jane, but no marriage or immigration record.  I have also found records for these two children in the US, but never a mention of a father's surname.  Would there be a record of illegitimate births, or was there a certain place where unwed mothers would have gone to wait out their pregnancies and give birth?

Offline ScottishAncestry

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Re: Jane Clave b. 1819 Mochrum - twins?
« Reply #1 on: Sunday 26 October 14 21:21 GMT (UK) »
There are a couple of sources you can use to discover records of illegitimate children in Scotland and some other sources of clues.

Illegitimate children often have their father’s surname in the census, this can often be a clue to who the father was.

If a father refused to support his illegitimate child the mother could take the father to court and extract payment. These records are found in records of Sheriff Courts, you would most likely need to consult the Wigtown Sheriff Court. Fortunately a very kind volunteer has been indexing these records and there does appear to be a record of Jane Clave taking a William Smith to court in 1843.

You can read about ‘Finding Paternity Cases in Sheriff Court Records’ on the Sottish Indexes online guide: http://www.scottishindexes.co.uk/learningcourt.aspx

You can see the index entry to Jane’s case here: http://www.scottishindexes.co.uk/courttranscript.aspx?courtid=19004035

Another useful type of record are the Kirk Session records. Sadly few of these are indexed or available to access online/outside Scotland. When you are able to access them, however, they are very useful. The church would often investigate cases of illegitimacy within their parish, and this would almost certainly happen when a mother wanted her child to be baptised. The church would also be keen to make sure that fathers paid for their children. The Sheriff Court records and the Kirk Session records can complement each other, both providing information from different perspectives.

The National Records of Scotland (NRs) held most Kirk Session records until recently and have digitally imaged all the records they then held. All can therefore be accessed at Scottish archives with remote access to the NRS or at the National Records of Scotland itself. I believe there is a plan to make these valuable documents available online but I’m not holding my breath!

Offline portlandlisa

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Re: Jane Clave b. 1819 Mochrum - twins?
« Reply #2 on: Sunday 26 October 14 21:45 GMT (UK) »
Thank you so much!  You've been a huge help.  I've ordered the full transcript of the Sheriff's Court Record.