William MacGregor, agricultural labourer of Cromdale parish

[Geordie daughter]

Monica, the Valuation Roll find is a big help in narrowing the time frame of Wiliam's death down. I don't have any documentation covering the time you asked about, but by 1881, his widow Janet, the daughter Christina, and several illegitimate grandchildren were at "Tenement, 7 South Street, Grantown." Daughter Isabella, who was by then the widow of John Grant, was also at this address with her children and a lodger, though as I haven't access to the original census document, I don't know whether they were living in separate rooms in the same building or in the same room as Janet and co. At any rate, they were enumerated as separate households. Janet died in 1888, but if it's any help, Christina was still in South Street until at least 1901.

Daughter Jessie I haven't been able to trace after 1871 with any certainty, and the son John (my direct ancestor) died in Edinburgh in 1878, leaving a widow and seven children.

Forfarian, this may sound like a stupid question but I'm still finding my way round as regards parishes and registration districts on SP: if William did die in either of those places, what district would he be registered in?

[Forfarian]

I think that if he died in Craig Dunain Hospital the death would be registered in Inverness, and I am sure that if he died in the Elgin District Lunatic Asylum (a.k.a. Bilbohall Hospital/34 Pluscarden Road) it would be registered in Elgin.

If he died in the Moray Combination Poorhouse, however, I think it would be registered in (New) Spynie because the poorhouse was in that parish. I don't know exactly where in Inverness there might have been a poorhouse, but I would be surprised if it were not in the parish of Inverness itself.

[Geordie daughter]

Thank you Forfarian, that's really helpful. If nothing turns up in the way of likely deaths there, then perhaps William's death record has slipped through the cracks somehow. (I do have one ancestor in England whose birth was just never registered, and this has been confirmed by the Register Office in question.)

Sadly, the option of looking for a burial is also out, as apparently there were no written records relating to Inverallan cemetery until as recently as the late 1890s or early 1900s - the gravedigger kept all the information in his head.

[Geordie daughter]

It's back to the drawing board, I'm afraid! Both the 1865 and 1875 Valuation Rolls list William McGregor the shoemaker, who died in 1883. William MacGregor, farmer of Auchnarrow, is also on the list, but not my William  If I didn't know better, I'd swear his family bonked him on the head with a spade and buried him under the floorboards!!

[Geordie daughter]

I may have had a break-through as regards William's parentage: I discovered that Corshellach, where William was employed at the time of his marriage, was occupied by John, Donald and Duncan McGregor from at least 1822 onwards, and that Duncan went off to farm at Balnafettach between 1841 and 1851, at the same time as William was employed there. I thought perhaps they might be cousins of William's, so checked Donald and Duncan's death records to see if they shared parents, and discovered something way more interesting. Because Duncan died in 1855 his death record is incredibly detailed. It turns out Duncan was married three times, had five legitimate children and two illegitimate children; one of these latter was a William McGregor, born 1799. This William was actually the informant on Duncan's death record too, as he was by then the eldest surviving son.

[MonicaL]

That does look promising 

Monica

[Geordie daughter]

Even better, it ties in with the 1797 Dundee baptism you posted at the beginning of this thread, with parents Duncan MacGregor and Christian Glass. (William gave his age as 56 on Duncan's death record so supposed birth year of 1799, but as his birth year varied in every census he appeared in, the couple of years' difference is no big deal.) There's a column showing who each child is named after, and it says "William Glass" in this instance, so I'm assuming that's Christina's father. It looks very much as if Duncan and Christian passed themselves off as married, as there's no mention on the record of William being an illegitimate child. Scottish naming patterns held true, at any rate, as William's first daughter was named for his mother-in-law, and the second for his mother.

[MonicaL]

Just note when you are doing your searches that there was also a couple with the names of Donald McGregor and Catherine Glass having children from at least 1810 to 1830s. Such as this one https://www.familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:VQ7Q-CYD

They look to have had a William who died at the age of 41 in 1855 in Urquhart and Logie Wester. There are other deaths for potential siblings with mother showing as Glass in the same area.

I wonder if two brothers married two sisters 

Monica

[Geordie daughter]

That's why I'm now going to go through everything again tomorrow when my brain is less squishy, to see if the evidence checks out. Duncan's parents were Alexander MacGregor and Janet Grant, while Donald's were John MacGregor and Isabella Grant, so I'm also trying to work out where their family connection is - could be uncle and nephew, or cousins, possibly. I'd also like to see if I can track down Christian Glass. There are several possible Christian Glass births in Urquhart and Logie Wester but none with a dad named William, so far.

Duncan seems to have had a very relaxed attitude to marriage - he only married his second wife in 1826, but he'd already had a child (Malcolm) with her in 1809 (found the birth record) and in between Malcolm and their daughter Janet, born in 1828, he had James who was born "in adultery" as the death record put it, in 1812. Sadly the record doesn't enlighten us as to who James's mother was. The biggest problem I have so far is the patchiness of the pre-1855 records.