st vigeans a photo if possible

[hdw]

That Auchmithie website, set up and run by Joy Spink, is very good, but be warned! - accessing her charts can freeze the screen on your computer, so that you have to shut it down then switch on again. That's what happens to me anyway, so now I steer clear of her charts.

I think everybody with Auchmithie ancestry is related to everybody else. I started off researching my SPINKS, then I discovered that I had SMITH and LAWSON as well, and then SWANKIE, and finally CARGILL too.

It's not generally known outside Fife, where I was brought up, that a lot of Auchmithie fisherfolk moved to Fife in Victorian times. My 2 x great-grandparents John SPINK and Janet "Jessie" SPINK moved to Crail, where their daughter Margaret SPINK married James "Pilot Jimmy" PEEBLES, a local fisherman and harbour pilot.

John SPINK was the son of David SPINK and Campbell SWANKIE. His wife Jessie SPINK was the daughter of another David SPINK and Janet "Jessie" LAWSON. This last David SPINK was drowned at sea and his widow later married Alexander BEATTIE.

I have too much information to post here, but can give more details of my family-tree if anyone's interested. Some of my ancestors have nice carved headstones in St. Vigean's churchyard,

Harry

[Forfarian]

I would be interested in any information about the families who lived at Ethie Haven (New Haven of Ethie), just up the coast from Auchmithie. The surnames are the same - lots of Cargills and Lawsons, and a few Andersons, Blues, Duncans, Findlays, Gadies, Gauldies, Perts, Peterkins, Simpsons, Stephens, Swankies and Torns. No Spinks that I know of, however.

[hdw]

Ethiehaven is in the parish of Inverkeilor. My Auchmithie ancestors included a couple called William SWANKIE and Margaret LAWSON, and Margaret was from Inverkeilor. I think she was the Margaret born there in 1767 to Thomas LAWSON, skipper in Newhaven of Ethie, and Isobel PETERKIN.

And I believe that William SWANKIE was the William born at Auchmithie in 1766 to John SWANKIE and Helen CARGILL.

Harry

[Forfarian]

Ethiehaven is in the parish of Inverkeilor

Correct.

> My Auchmithie ancestors included a couple called William SWANKIE and
> Margaret LAWSON, and Margaret was from Inverkeilor. I think she was the
> Margaret born there in 1767 to Thomas LAWSON, skipper in Newhaven of
> Ethie, and Isobel PETERKIN.

Could be.

Unfortunately there were two Thomas Lawsons there at the same time - one married to Elspet Cargill and the other to Isabella Peterkin. I have been able to link some of the Ethie Haven families together because Isabella Lawson, daughter of Thomas and Elspet, lived until 1862. She married George Cargill, son of Robert Cargill, who lived until 1855. His death certificate doesn't name his mother, but I think she must have been Helen Pert.

However I cannot so far make the link between this family and Thomas and Isobel/Isabella or the remaining Lawson families.

[hdw]

Talking of photos, here's one of the headstone, in St. Vigeans churchyard, of my 4 x great-grandparents John SPINK and Jannet SWANKIE of Auchmithie, who were married in 1773. My younger son is holding on to the stone. He's now over 30 so it wasn't taken yesterday.

Harry

[Kev61]

People who have posted on this thread, especially those searching ancestors from Auchmithie and St Vigeans, may like to visit the Auchmithie Roots Forum at http://www.invisionplus.net/forums/index.php?mforum=auchmithieroots&act=idx

The Forum is an information and discussion board on the genealogy of the families who originally hailed from Auchmithie, particularly the Spinks, Swankies and Cargills. Registration is required.

[swankie]

> My Auchmithie ancestors included a couple called William SWANKIE and
> Margaret LAWSON, and Margaret was from Inverkeilor. I think she was the
> Margaret born there in 1767 to Thomas LAWSON, skipper in Newhaven of
> Ethie, and Isobel PETERKIN.

Could be.

Unfortunately there were two Thomas Lawsons there at the same time - one married to Elspet Cargill and the other to Isabella Peterkin. I have been able to link some of the Ethie Haven families together because Isabella Lawson, daughter of Thomas and Elspet, lived until 1862. She married George Cargill, son of Robert Cargill, who lived until 1855. His death certificate doesn't name his mother, but I think she must have been Helen Pert.

However I cannot so far make the link between this family and Thomas and Isobel/Isabella or the remaining Lawson families.

hello, I'm new to family history, but all my relatives seem to be from St Vigeans.  On the Spink website mentioned above it says that William Swankie's wife Margaret Lawson was the daughter of John and Elizabeth Lawson - were there two William Swankie and Margaret Lawson families?  Sorry if I'm being stupid.

[Forfarian]

hello, I'm new to family history, but all my relatives seem to be from St Vigeans.  On the Spink website mentioned above it says that William Swankie's wife Margaret Lawson was the daughter of John Lawson and Elizabeth Lawson - were there two William Swankie and Margaret Lawson families?

It's not impossible, but I don't think so. The eleven children listed for the couple(s) of this name seem to come along at pretty regular intervals of about two years, which suggests they are all one family.

There is obviously a question about Margaret Lawson's parentage - whether she was the one born at New Haven of Ethie n 1763 to John Lawson and Margaret Christie, or the one born there in 1767 to Thomas Lawson and Isabella Peterkin, or the one who was the daughter of John and Elizabeth Lawson.

The only piece of evidence I've seen one way or the other is pretty feeble, namely that William Swankie and Margaret Lawson do not seem to have named a child John, which I would have expected if Margaret's father's name had been John as well as William's. But on its own it's not enough to draw any conclusions from.

I have not seen the original baptism records of the children of William Swankie and Margaret Lawson. If they list the names of witnesses, there might be a clue there.

[swankie]

Thanks very much for replying. 

As you say it’s not really conclusive about naming children after parents, that doesn’t seem to follow any pattern in the Auchmithie research I’ve done so far, and in William Swankie and Margaret Lawson’s case they waited until child number 11 to name a daughter after William’s mother.  The Margaret Lawson born in 1763 doesn’t seem likely as she would have been 78 in the 1841 census when Margaret gave her age as 70 (I know the ages in the census aren’t always accurate).  I might email the spink website and see if they have any more info. 
Thanks again.