JOHN BANGE

[Neale1961]

Yes,I agree. I too looked to see which young men named James Gray were about, and came to the same conclusion, that there were too many possibilities to have any certainty.

[Moonbabyx]

As Annie Gray was illegitimate, she may also have been known as Annie Howie.

Finding her father is likely to prove impossible. Annie Gray was born about November 1851, so he must have been at Blairerno in the early months of 1851. However he is not enumerated in the household there in the 1851 census, which means that he had moved on before 30 March 1851.

FreeCEN returns 263 James Grays aged 18 to 38.

Of these, 89 are sons living with one or both parents, who can probably be discounted because Annie Howie would surely have known where James Gray's family were, and would have told the Kirk Session.

That only leaves 174 possibles. Many could be eliminated by looking to see if they were married. If so, then Annie Howie's sin was adultery, not fornication, and the Kirk Session would have taken an even dimmer view of the event.

You could probably narrow it down to a couple of dozen likely candidates by eliminating those with incompatible occupations.

Okay well at least I have a lot to start with now. Thanks to you guys I wouldn’t have found the real John Bange yet so thank you so much, I’ve been doing this for weeks now and I was at a dead end. I really appreciate all the help!

[Forfarian]

I discovered how to import data from FreeCEN to a spreadsheet, so I imported the 263 James Grays aged 18 to 38 in the 1851 census.

Then I eliminated any who were living with relatives, any who were married, and any who had an occupation other than labourer, farm servant etc. That left me with 30 possibles. Details attached.

However, it may be that my assumptions are incorrect, and/or that there are more James Grays in parishes which have not yet been added to FreeCEN.

My money's on the 30-year-old from Lancashire who's boarding in St Cyrus. But there's not a shred of proof!

[Rosinish]

My money's on the 30-year-old from Lancashire who's boarding in St Cyrus. But there's not a shred of proof!

It's quite possible DNA would prove that theory.

Annie