Rangers founder research .....

[miltonbank]

I am currently looking at the history of one of the founding fathers of Rangers FC and wonder if members can kindly offer me some pointers and guidance to help put some meat on the bones of my research to date!

Little is known about one of the founders, William D McBeath, but I believe he may be William Duncanson McBeath, who was born in Callander, Perthshire in May 1856. He married a Jeannie Yates Harris in Glasgow in March 1878 and their first child, also William Duncanson McBeath, was born two years later.

The family moved to Bristol by 1881 (their surname was now known as MacBeth) and they stayed aorund the south west for much of the next decade (another son was born in 1890). However, by 1901 William senior was living in Lincoln with his new wife, Sarah MacBeth (aged 48). I have traced him around the Lincoln area until 1909 after which point he drops off the face of the earth.

I have tried various sources to try and trace what happened to first wife Jeannie and son William (the other son, Norman was living with his maternal grandmother by the time of the 1901 census). I have also tried to source a marriage and death certificates for Sarah and William senior, but with no joy as yet. I ahave also tried all the derivative surnames - MacBeth, McBeth, McBeath, MacBeath, McBeith etc.

I think Jeannie may have died (and possibly William junior too) sometime in the 1890s but ancestry, scotlandspeople.gov, emigration records, genesreunited, commonwealth war records etc (as well as club sources, histories, fan wesbites etc) can't offer any glimmer of light on the family history - deaths, marriages etc.

If anyone can offer further research advice it would be most gratefully received, particularly my failure to trace the death certificate for William senior, which would at least frame his life between two certain years. This grey hair is going greyer by the day in frustration!

Many thanks in advance!

Miltonbank

[Rab]

I read quite a bit of good information on the founders of Rangers Football Club on another forum which was Rangers related- you'll probably know it. If you lik I can look out the thread which contains quite alot of input about the founders and PM it to you.

Cheers

Rab