cloy research help

[bridgewaterwolfie]

in my maternal grandma's lineage i would like to know if what i have is true or not,it's my own calculations of a connection but i have no way of knowing it's true.

robert cloy c1788 md elizabeth (m'guffie)-i have the death certificate and i'm sure i'm seeing it
                                                            correctly and not as mguffog or mcguffock,anyway
                                                             on with the paternal line.
? cloy c1790
? cloy c1792
? cloy c1794
william cloy c1801 md jane niblock
? cloy c1803
? john cloy c 1805 md helen ?

these come from different areas like old luce wigtownshire,kirkmaiden wigtownshire as far as i am aware,could be other areas nearby,i have the names of robert's children and possibly 3 of william,of which i can let you know to ascertain any similarities.
thanks in advance

[CaroleW]

Difficult to say as you haven’t given any details of the actual names the question marks refer to & which Cloy you are descended from?

We always advise to work backwards from the ancestor you are certain about

Scotlands People site is not available at the moment due to maintenance so nobody can check anything

[Ronda231]

Hi bridgewaterwolfie,

I have checked out Robert Cloy + family on the familysearch website and there seem to be a few family lines running in the Wigtownshire area with the name MCcoy, McCloy & Cloy.
They possibly originate from the same family.

The two familysearch source images below refer to Mcloy but were attached to people called Cloy.

Maybe what happened was that there was a name evolution from McCoy, Mcloy to Cloy, but the real ancestral name remains McCloy or McCoy.

Best regards

[Neale1961]

Help is available, but you have not given enough information so far.

Who was your grandma - her name?
Where and when was she born?
Who were her parents?


You say you have a death certificate - who's death is it?
Can you post it here, or either transcribe ALL information on it?


It is important to start with the information you know is correct.
So how did you get to Robert McCLOY marriage 30/01/1812 Kirkmaiden to Elizabeth McGUFFOG?

[Neale1961]

I see you started a thread here about the same family.
You received lots of good advice, but never responded to it.
https://www.rootschat.com/forum/index.php?topic=879683.msg7519922#msg7519922

Can I suggest you revisit that thread and review the information there before starting a new thread requesting information on the same family.

You appear to have several threads about the Cloy family. Here is another.
https://www.rootschat.com/forum/index.php?topic=528962.0

[Ronda231]

Hi again bridgewaterwolfie,

I think you have a very difficult task here unless you limit yourself to working with confirmed data records. Your name is Cloy and you say you have some link to the couple Robert Cloy and Elizabeth Mcguffog. However there are no records for this couple, but there are records for the couple Robert McCloy and Elizabeth Mcguffog. So are you originally a McCloy?
You mention Elizabeth McGuffie in relation to a death record & there is an Elizabeth Mcguffie (1763-1837) on the Find-a-grave website, but she was married to a Peter McKie (not Robert).
Sometimes the Census returns can help sort out problems of this nature, I've had a brief look on the Freecen website but there is no obvious solution. Maybe an in depth check of the census records will help:
If you go on Freecen website (https://www.freecen.org.uk/) it has good coverage for most of the Scottish census years in Wigtownshire, best of all it’s totally free.

Good luck and best regards

[bridgewaterwolfie]

i appreciate your reply

[Ronda231]

Hi bridgewaterwolfie

I think I may have found a possible reason why you are having so much trouble following your Cloy family line in Wigtownshire. It would appear that there are quite a few missing birth records for the Cloy family on the ScotlandsPeople website.

This is highlighted by comparing the number of Cloy birth records actually held by ScotlandsPeople against the Census records for Cloys born in the Wigtownshire area in the period up to 1855.

I carried out searches for "Cloy" on both sites:

Freecen Search results for 1841, 1851, 1861 & 1871 census years   

ScotlandsPeople births search for years 1555-1855 for the whole of Scotland

There are a number of 'Cloys' that the census records indicate were born in Wigtownshire before 1855, but there are no corresponding birth records for these people held by ScotlandsPeople.

I have put the search results into a table (see image below) and also attached it as a pdf for info.

Best regards

[Forfarian]

It would appear that there are quite a few missing birth records for the Cloy family on the ScotlandsPeople website.

This is correct. It is very well known that a significant proportion of records of baptisms and banns are missing, and the further back you go, the larger the proportion of missing records.

It is, however, important to understand that the principal reason why records are missing is because either the record never existed, or it has not survived. The vast majority of surviving records are on Scotland's People.

Yes, there are a few surviving pre-1855 registers of minority religious denominations which are not on Scotland's People, but the emphasis is on 'few', and next to none of these is readily available to consult. There is no other large online repository which holds records not on Scotland's People.