Smith - Mcintosh families from Elgin Moray

[Robertsmith]

I have been building a tree of my ancestors via the McIntosh family and having problems getting past Duncan McIntosh 1798-1846 Married to MargaretCampbell
His father was John Mcintosh.
They migrated to Australia about 1850 and set up sawmills at Echuca Victoria.
My family the Smiths emigrated with them from the same area so I want to dig deeper into their past.

[Forfarian]

Welcome to RootsChat!

The best source for Scottish records is www.scotlandspeople.gov.uk.
See https://www.rootschat.com/forum/index.php?topic=714261.0

The Moray Local Heritage Centre has a useful index
http://libindx.moray.gov.uk/mainmenu.asp

The 1841 census (transcription at https://freecen1.freecen.org.uk/cgi/search.pl) gives Duncan's age as 45. In that census adults' ages were supposed to be rounded down to the nearest 5 years, so that implies that he was born between 1791 and 1796. It also says that he was not born in Moray.

He was married in 1823, and the marriage was recorded in both Elgin and Duffus. This means that one of the couple lived in Duffus and the other in Elgin at the time of the marriage, so the banns had to be called in both parishes. The originals of the marriage records, available at Scotland's People, will tell you which was which.

The old parish registers list five children of Duncan MacIntosh and Margaret Campbell
James, 1823, Cawdor
Isabella, 1825, Cawdor
Jane, 1827, New Spynie
Margaret, 1829, New Spynie
Janet, 1830, New Spynie
You can view the originals of all these baptisms. If the witnesses' names are listed, they might provide a clue to earlier generations.

The 1841 census lists three children: Margaret, 10; Jessie, 8; and Charles, 6. The name Jessie is used interchangebly with Janet in Scotland. The ages don't quite match but these must be Margaret and Janet listed above.

Margaret Campbell, wife of Duncan Macintosh, baker, Bishopmill, died on 21 June 1837 aged 41. Their stone also mentions three of their children: Isabella, died in infancy; Jane, born Spynie 10 March 1827, died in infancy; James, born 2 October 1823, Cawdor, died in Elgin 8 August 1895.

Does that help?

[Robertsmith]

Yes thankyou.

That is a help but I would like to more about older generations of Duncan Mc Intosh.

[Forfarian]

Yes, but there are five records of Duncan Macintoshes baptised 1791-1798 with father named John, and there could be others whose baptism records have not survived. It is not possible to tell which one is yours.

You need to collect all the information you can about Duncan and Margaret and their family to see if there are any clues to the older generations.

You could then compare baptisms, deaths and the census to eliminate some possibilities.

The five are
Mother Elspet Campbell, baptised Kirkmichael (Banffshire) 1793
Mother unnamed, baptised in Kiltarlity 1796
Mother Ann Fraser, baptised in Boleskine and Abertarff 1797
Mother Ann Dow, baptised in Perth 1798
Mother Elspet Gordon, baptised in Duthil 1799

There are also six deaths after 1855 of Duncan Macintoshes born 1795 plus or minus 5 years.

They are (with estimated dates of birth, assuming that the age at death is accurate)
Aged 70, mother's maiden surname McLean, 1861, Urquhart (Inverness-shire) so DoB 1788/1789
Aged 71, 1870, Portree so DoB 1798/1799
Aged 83, 1873, Bowmore and Kilarrow so DoB 1789/1790
Aged 82, 1875, Daviot and Dunlichity so DoB 1792/1793
Aged 76, 1876, Stirling so DoB 1799/1800
Aged 89, 1880, Kilmallie so DoB 1790/1791   
   
The 1851 census index at SP lists 7 Duncan Macintoshes aged 50 to 60. I've added birthplaces from online transcriptions and (with estimated dates of birth, assuming that the age in the census is accurate)
Aged 50, Portree (born Snizort) so DoB 1800/1801
Aged 51, Kippen (born Weem) so DoB 1799/1800
Aged 55, Bowmore and Kilarrow (born Killean) so DoB 1795/1796
Aged 56, Kilmonivaig (born Boleskine) so DoB 1794/1795
Aged 57, Daviot and Dunlichity (born Dunlichity) so DoB 1793/1794
Aged 60, South Uist (born South Uist) so DoB 1790/1791
Aged 60, Kinfauns (born Laggan) so DoB 1790/1791

So you can see that there are at least as many Duncan M(a)cintoshes whose baptisms are not in the surviving records. You can probably eliminate most of those whose baptism records have survived, but you cannot rule out the possibility that there was another unrecorded one.