Birth for Robert TERRES / AS/ ACE 1848

[terrisb]

Hi all

This is my first post so hope it goes OK.

I am trying to find/confirm the birth date for my ancestor Robert TERRES /AS /ACE.
My mother was given a date of 28 December 1848 many years ago, however the lady who provided it has since had a stroke and cannot recall much, so I have no idea where this date came from.

Robert (b. 1848) was born to Robert (b. 1826) and Mary Ann Peter TERRACE (nee MORRIS).  His siblings were mostly born in Cupar.

Robert (b. 1848) married Elspeth Smith FOULIS in 1873 in Ferry Port on Craig.
He was in the 1875 Valuation Roll and 1881 Census as a Locomotive Driver and was living in Ferry Port on Craig.  The family eventually moved to New Zealand in the 1890s but not all at the same time.

I have looked on Scotland's People, FamilySearch and Ancestry but have not been able to find/confirm his birth date.

If anyone could shed any light I would be most appreciative.

Regards
Bev

[Forfarian]

I have looked on Scotland's People, FamilySearch and Ancestry but have not been able to find/confirm his birth date

https://www.rootschat.com/forum/index.php?topic=714261.0

Could your informant have found it in a family bible, perhaps?

Or was his DoB on his NZ death certificate?

Have you found an death announcement or obituary in a newspaper?

Is his DoB on his gravestone?

I see from the 1861 census that Robert had a sister Agnes, born 1850/1851, and a brother David, born 1852/1853, and note that their baptisms are not in the available records on Scotland's People. The usual reason for a whole family to be missing from records after 1843 is that they were members of the Free Church of Scotland, which split from the Church of Scotland in 1843, or of the Episcopal Church of Scotland, which was separate anyway.

In 1855, at the start of civil registration, the Church of Scotland was required to hand over its registers to the Registrar General for safe keeping, and those registers for the bulk of the registers now digitised and online at Scotland's People, and indexed by FamilySearch, FindMyPast and other web sites.

However the government could not force the other denominations to hand over their records, so the other churches' records are separate. Many surviving registers of free denominations are now held in the National Records of Scotland, and most of these have been digitised and are similarly available on Scotland's People. There is a small number that cannot be digitised (yet) either because it is unclear who actually owns them, or the congregaton they belong to has not agreed to their records being digitised.

The Roman Catholic records have been digitised by agreement with the Roman Catholic Church and are available on Scotland's People and FindMyPast.

It is possible that your lady managed to find, or had a searcher find for her, a stray register which for one reason or another has not been handed over to the National Records or digitised.

I note that the marriage of Robert Terras and Mary Ann Peter Morris was recorded on 31 December 1847. Is it just possible that the actual wedding was held on 28 December 1847, and someone has confused the two dates? You can get the wedding date from the birth certificates of some of the younger children. I recommend going for the birth certificate of the unnamed child born on 18 January 1855 because 1855 birth certificates contain a lot of detail not included in earlier or later records. However the birth certificates of James (1862) and Andrew (1865) should also list the date and place of the parents' wedding. 

[terrisb]

Thank for the advice/suggestions you have given.

Firstly, I do have his death certificate from NZ and it doesn't have his birth date on it, only age and time in NZ.
The Obituary had nothing in relation to his birth and there does not appear to be a headstone, only the Cemetery record which has nothing about his birth.

the information you gave about the churches is very interesting and have made a note of that for future reference as I have another line which I haven't started on yet - thank you.

I do have a copy of the Parish of Ceres Register record for Robert and Mary's marriage - I got it from Scotland's People and it shows the wedding day as 31 December 1847 with date of proclamation as 11 December 1847 - would this marriage record indicate that they were married in the Church of Scotland? 

You made the excellent suggestion of getting the birth record for the 1855 child or one of the later ones - which I will do and see if that sheds any more light.

[Forfarian]

I do have a copy of the Parish of Ceres Register record for Robert and Mary's marriage - I got it from Scotland's People and it shows the wedding day as 31 December 1847 with date of proclamation as 11 December 1847 - would this marriage record indicate that they were married in the Church of Scotland?

Not necessarily. The Church of Scotland was supposed to keep a record of all marriages and baptisms in the parish, irrespective of denomination, but in practice this did not always happen. Sometimes you do get marriage records in the C of S registers saying that the couple were married by Rev So-and-so of Such-and-such church, but that's relatively unusual.