Parents of Thomas STEEL

[Westozi]

If anyone could help, I'd very much appreciate it as I'm stumped!
Thomas Steel (1795-1845) was born in Montrose and died at sea somewhere near Yarmouth.  His parents were James Steel and Ann Bate (Bait?). They married in Montrose 12 Nov 1780 and that's all I know of the parents.
His siblings were James (1781 -   ), William Mudie Steel (1783 -   ) and Ann (1795 -   ).  All born in Montrose except James junior (not sure where he was born, presumably Montrose as well).
The family were quite a nautical family, apparently.
Thomas married Margaret Scott Gordon in Montrose in 1822 and one of their daughters migrated to Australia, which is where I live.
Thank you
Ann

[Forfarian]

If you register at www.scotlandspeople.gov.uk and look in the church records, you will find the following children of James Steel and Ann(e) Ba(i)t(e)
James, baptised 11 November 1781
William Mudie, baptised 28 September 1783
Thomas and Anne, baptised 26 October 1795
all in Montrose.

You could also search the indexes for possible earlier generations, but bear in mind that the further back you go, the less complete the records are, and many people's baptism and marriage records, if they ever existed, have not survived. Also there has long been an episcopal church in Montrose, and even the surviving records of the episcopal churches have not been made available via Scotland's People. Even if you can find only one candidate for your ancestor, you cannot assume that they are the right one as your one's baptism may not be in the available records.

When searching, use wildcards - st*e*l*, ba*t*, m*die/m*dy - to pick up spelling variants. And look in the next county, Kincardineshire, because there was a good deal of coming and going between there and Angus.

You can view images of the original documents at modest cost by buying some credits. The baptism records might contain names of witnesses who might provide clues to other members of the family.

I have had a look in the book of monumental inscriptions but there are none listed mentioning members of this family. There is one to a William Mudie who died on 23 October 1834 aged 68. This stone is next to a stone to John Mudie, physician, who died on 18 March 1800 aged 69 and his wife Helen Turnbull who died on 22 August 1802 aged 72. This couple had a son William, baptised 6 October 1765.

You might like to have a look here https://www.ancestor.abel.co.uk/Angus/intro.html and see if you can find anything useful.

[Kloumann]

Difficult to explain the 12 year gap between children.

The 2 James Steel births that are possible are for parent William, 1756 in Forfar & parents William & Mary Wood, 1759 in Aberlemno

[Westozi]

Thank you Forfarian and Kloumann for your prompt replies and help.  I'll have to try Scotlands people - didn't realise you could go on it and just get a few credits to search it.  Yes, it's a long way back in time and probably no records to find anyway!

[Forfarian]

Thank you Forfarian and Kloumann for your prompt replies and help.  I'll have to try Scotlands people - didn't realise you could go on it and just get a few credits to search it.  Yes, it's a long way back in time and probably no records to find anyway!

You don't need any credits at all to search the indexes. Only to view an image - and that costs less than a cup of coffee per image.