James Ross

[Karytay]

Yes, thanks

[MonicaL]

Great news that you have found details on his death. Hopefully something to now work with trying to find his roots.

Monica

[Karytay]

I hope so!

[MonicaL]

Have you looked at the images of the children's baptisms to see whether any potential family could have acted as sponsors (Ross or Lamont)?

www.eggsa.org/cgi-bin/dosearchBaptisms.pl

Monica

Added: Just been looking through some of the images. Doesn't look like any sponsors' details were included 

[Karytay]

There were no sponsors or witnesses for any of the children.

What do you think Monica, when you look at the names of the children you do you think would most likely be James parents name and Isabella's

This is James and Isabella's marriage affidavit. Among the witnesses on the bottom left I see a Ross can you make out it out? 

[MonicaL]

Looks like initials for second Ross....G for first letter?

You can post here for help with deciphering too www.rootschat.com/forum/handwriting-deciphering-recognition/

Monica

[MonicaL]

The main first names jumping out to me are John and Alexander, also Mary and Helen.

John and Alexander were repeated following early deaths, which normally indicates an important family name.

They only had one girl Mary Helen, so 50/50 on that one!

We can only use it as a guide really on searches, keeping an open mind of course in case they did not follow any Scottish naming order.

Monica

[Karytay]

That is what I was thinking,  John and Alexander and Mary Helen were the one's to look at first.

I did come across this for Isabella 

Scotland Births and Baptisms
Name    -Isabel Lamont
Gender   Female
Christening  -Date   06 Dec 1778
Christening Place   , RUTHERGLEN, LANARK, SCOTLAND
Birth Date    -26 Nov 1778
Father's Name    -John Lamont

Mother's Name   Helen Armour


I looked up Rutherglen and it is a small town near Glasgow, so this could be a possibility but the birth date does not match with that of her death record. Which works out to 1781

[MonicaL]

I saw that one also. Don't worry too much about approximate years. A couple of years out is pretty standard really for these times, together with spelling variants on first and surnames.

One thing to bear in mind when looking at BMD events in Scotland before 1855, and the start of official registration there, is that only about a third of birth and marriages were recorded in the old parish registers. Burials and deaths too were the worst kept of all events. Lots of reasons for this as always, registers lost and destroyed over the years being some of them.

Have you looked for other Ross males in Cape Town at that time and tried to find out more about them to see if they link up to Scotland and possibly James?

The main names coming up in the City and Area Directories for Cape Town are:

George - Superintendent of the Printing Office...maybe witness?
Hamilton - Merchant
Richard - Shipwright
Alexander - Musician
Robert - Merchant
Donald - Cooper

There may be more for sure but these names were the main one showing between 1813-25.

Monica