Jane McKay or Isabella MacKay Watten

[tryggo]

My great grandmother Margaret Gunn Coghill was born 18th July 1866 at Banks Watten , She was an illegitimate child born to Isabella McKay farm servant as written on the birth certificate. The father was given as John Coghill also a farm servant. When Margaret Gunn Coghill died at Gillock on 2nd Feb 1901 her mothers name was given on the death certificate as Jane MacKay. The only other information I have was that Margaret Coghill seems to have been in Dunnet with her uncle as below
Piece: SCT1871/36 Place: Dunnet -Caithness Enumeration District: 6
Civil Parish: Dunnet Ecclesiastical Parish, Village or Island: Dunnet
Folio: 0 Page: 2 Schedule: 8
Address: -

        Surname       First name(s)       Rel       Status       Sex       Age       Occupation       Where Born       Remarks   
        COGHILL       David       Head       M       M       35       Agricultural Labourer        Caithness - Dunnet           
        COGHILL       Elizabeth             Wife       M       F       37       -        Caithness - Reay           
        COGHILL       Margaret             Niece       -       F       4       -        Caithness - Watten       

Can anyone help me regarding who Isabella or Jane Mackay was..............Really appeciate any help on this one  Many thanks
 

[MonicaL]

Hi Trygo

I am assuming that you have been able to trace the family of John Coghill through his brother David?  Possibly this family from 1851?

James Coghill 62 Farmer Of 20 Acres b. Olrig
Elizabeth Coghill  b. Olrig
David Coghill 15 b. Dunnet
John Coghill 6 b. Bower

Address: Tofts Of Tain, Olrig

1871 shows a 26yr old John Coghill, agricultural labourer b. Bower in the Dunnet area.

Maybe finding a possible source to the name 'Margaret Gunn' might give you some clues as to Isabella or Jane McKay?

Monica

[MonicaL]

There is a Margaret Gunn wife of an Alexander McKay who had an Isabella in 1844 https://familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:XYDW-7RH

This may be the family in 1871:

Alexander Mckay 42 agr lab b. Thurso
Margaret Mckay 46 b. Thurso
Isabella Mckay 26 b. Thurso
Jessie Mckay 14
Alexander Mckay 12
Jas Sinclair Mckay 6
Annie Mckenzie Jack 1 grandchild

Address: Castletown Rd, Bower

Some of the children's births here on the FS index www.rootschat.com/links/01iva/

If this is the right Isabella Mckay for Margaret's mother, Isabella had another daughter as showing above on the census, Annie https://familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:XYGF-S6J

Monica

[tryggo]

Hi Monica Thank you very much for this most excellent information. It looks very promising indeed .. I wonder why it said Jane on my gt grandmothers death certificate. It also said that Isabella-Jane had passed on .. The hundred percent proof is to find Isabella,s death cert but that will need to wait until I am back in Scotland as there a large number of Isabella, on SP!!! I found her parents were in Gerston in the 1881 census along with her brother James Sinclair McKay .. I had found the Coghill side previously ....Again thank you very much .. I really apprecriate your help!!!

[MonicaL]

Doesn't help really but Margaret may not have kept in touch with her mother's side if she was raised by her Uncle David and his wife Elizabeth (see was still with them wasn't she in 1881). I would be more inclined to go with her name being Isabella as showing on Margaret's birth cert. Death certs are reliant on the informant giving information and errors can creep in... 

Isabella/Jane may or may not have been deceased at the time that Margaret died. Hard to say without more verification isn't it. Would be good to find out what happened to this Isabella after 1871.

Monica 

[MonicaL]

I did see this entry earlier from 1881 and wondered whether it was Isabella McKay married to a John Jack:

John Jack 35 Brewers Labourer b, Dunnet
Isabella M Jack 35 b. Thurso
Alexander Jack 3 b. Edinburgh
David Jack 1 b, Edinburgh
Anne Jack    9 Months b Edinburgh

Address: No 3 Catherine St, Edinburgh

There was the Annie McKenzie Jack that we had from 1871 (she must have died if we have the same Isabella in 1881, with the name being re-used).

Monica

[MonicaL]

Isabella McKay did marry John Jack in 1878 in Newington Midlothian. She was a domestic servant at the time and he a labourer. John Jack's mother shows as an Ann McKenzie, her name likely the source of the Annie McKenzie Jack/Mckay that we had born in 1869.

Monica

[MonicaL]

Growing family by 1891:

John Jack 46 Brewer's Labourer b. Dunnet
Isabella McK Jack 47 b. Thurso
Alex Jack 13
David Jack 11
Annie Jack 10
James Jack 9
Andrevine Jack 5
John Jack 3

Address: 14 East Arthur Place, Edinburgh

....And no sign of Isabella in 1901 (which would fit with her being deceased by 1901 possibly):

John Jack 54 Brewery Labourer
Alexander Jack 22
Andrewina Mackay Jack 15

Address: 14 East Arthur Place, Edinburgh

Monica

[tryggo]

Monica ..that is wonderful.. thank you very very much for this. Annie McKenzie Jack did not live very long at all and as you say Isabella could well have passed on before 1901 which would tie things up
Again I cannot thank you enough.