Hi
I am trying to find the pareantage of James Geddes my gt gt gt grandfather. Who ever put our Geddes tree on familysearch luckily only got his parents and birth date wrong. I have been in contact with 2 people who can verify without doubt that Alexander Geddes and Isobel Nobel were not his parents ( unless of course there was another couple with the same names but i haven't found them !). I have tried contacting the lady who now lives in Utah but to no avail.
It says he was born 26th Sept 1792 Fordyce Banff. Untrue, the 1841 census doesn't give birth place but puts his age at 40 (b/y 1801). The 1851 says Fordyce the age is hard to see as there is a ink smudge over it but it could be 69 or 56. By the time of the 1861 census he has died.
I have thrown a lot of money at scotlandspeople trying to find out about his death hoping it would have included his parents and wife but if it was before a certain date it wont give me that. I haven't found many people doing this line on the web and I'm hoping one of you are !
But James Geddes DID marry Mary Sim 15th March 1828 in Fordyce Banff. They had nine children all of whom i have information for. My line from them is Ann Geddes b 1844 then her daughter Lily Townlie Gray Geddes b 1883
Waiting in vain !
Tracey
Tracey
In the 1841 census only ages of adults over the age of 15 were rounded down to the nearest 5 years, so someone reported as 40 could have been aged between 40 and 45, so born sometime 1795 to 1801; equally, someone who was really 48, say, but gave their age as 45 would also be shown as 40 ......
In this case the 1851 reported age of 56 would result in a year of birth of 1794/95 ..........
Remember that the OPR info on scotlandspeople and available via IGI represents the records of the Established Church of Scotland that have survived to the present day, and by no means everyone was a member of the "Auld Kirk", as the Established Church of Scotland is often known.
The Auld Kirk records were supposed to include info on all parishioners, but it is rare to find records relating to dissenters and non-conformists.
Have a look at
http://edina.ac.uk/statacc/ for the Old Statistical Account which will most likely list any dissenting churches in Fordyce and other surrounding parishes, - and be aware that is was not unknown for people to travel a few miles to a church of their choosing, and that might be across a parish boundary.
If there are such dissenting churches, then contact National Archives of Scotland (or look at their on-line catalogue, but note that this is still not complete) and/or contact the nearest library to ask their advice in terms of extant records for dissenting congregations ........
1792 is a potentially problematic year due to an 1783 Act which put a tax of 3d on every registration (repealed in 1794). This discouraged many people from making an OPR birth (baptism) or marriage (banns) registration, and there were even some ministers who refused to maintain their OPRs during this period as they regarded this Act and tax as an unacceptable intrusion into the affairs of the Kirk.
ibi
Author
Topic: James Geddes / Mary Sim (Read 12495 times)