John Harvey, Mary Kirk

[KenJ29]

Agness and Janet Harvey are shown to have been baptized in 1805 and 1815 respectively in Kirkunzeon, Kirkcudbrightshire, with parents John Harvey and Mary Kirk (ref. findmypast and scotlandspeople). I am searching for the marriage of John and Mary, so far unsuccessful. I find a marriage between John Harvey and Margaret Kirk in Dumfries on 23 Sep 1793, showing Margaret as from Urr in Kirkcudbrightshire (also ref. findmypast and scotlandspeople). I think they may be the same people, but Mary is not generally another name for Margaret. I think I have gotten all I can from findmypast and scotlandspeople. Looking for suggestions as to how to pursue this further. Mary and Janet (and maybe John) emigrated to New Brunswick, Canada in c. 1822.

[Anne H]

Hi and

Did you search for any other children to see if they fitted in with your family names and did you actually view the original certificate at Scotland's People? I have on at least one occasion found that a Margaret was indexed as Mary but looking at the writing very closely saw that it was written as 'Magt.' with the 't' being so faint it was picked up as Mary. Just a suggestion.

Regards,
Anne H

[AndrewP]

Hi KenJ29,

On doing a 'parent search' on the online IGI for children of John Harvey and Mary Kirk, I get the following results.

Agness Harvey
christening: 24 March 1805 Kirkgunzeon, Kirkcudbrightshire, Scotland, United Kingdom
father: John Harvey
mother: Mary Kirk

Mary Harvey
christening: 29 December 1809 Kirkgunzeon, Kirkcudbrightshire, Scotland, United Kingdom
father: John Harvey
mother: Mary Kirk

Janet Johnston Harvey
christening: 14 February 1813 Kirkgunzeon, Kirkcudbrightshire, Scotland, United Kingdom
father: John Harvey
mother: Mary Kirk

A similar search using parents John Harvey and Margaret Kirk produces no results.

Some parts of the IGI only give female results. When you compare to the results below from ScotlandsPeople, this looks like the case here.

Like you, I find no sign of the parents' marriage.

All the best,

AndrewP

[AndrewP]

Hi again,

A search on ScotlandsPeople for Harvey births/baptisms from 1790 to 1820 in Kirkgunzeon gives the following results.

HARVEY, JAMES
JOHN HARVEY/MARY KIRK FR28 (FR28)
M
29/08/1802
872/10 34 Kirkgunzeon

HARVEY, AGNESS
JOHN HARVEY/MARY KIRK FR28 (FR28)
F
24/03/1805
872/10 34 Kirkgunzeon

HARVEY, THOMAS
JOHN HARVEY/MARY KIRK FR29 (FR29)
M
29/06/1807
872/10 35 Kirkgunzeon

HARVEY, MARY
JOHN HARVEY/MARY KIRK FR29 (FR29)
F
29/12/1809
872/10 35 Kirkgunzeon

HARVEY, JANET JOHNSTON
JOHN HARVEY/MARY KIRK FR31 (FR31)
F
14/02/1813
872/10 37 Kirkgunzeon

All the best,

AndrewP

[KenJ29]

The marriage reference is from Old Parish Registers, Dumfries, and is faded but definitely says Margaret, it says "John Harvey of the Breadalbane Fencibles, Margaret Kirk from ___ " (which I can't read, but another person decodes as Urr).

I had not found Mary, James, and Thomas. Janet Johnston (also known as Jesse) is my ancestor from New Brunswick.

Thank you,

Ken

[Currie]

Hello Ken,

Marriage records for Kirkgunzeon parish survive only from 1812.
https://www.familysearch.org/wiki/en/Ki ... _Genealogy

According to the Statistical Account of 1793 the population of the parish was 520, with averages, per annum, of 18 births, 3 marriages, and 10 deaths. https://stataccscot.edina.ac.uk/static/ ... account_1/

The 1845 Statistical Account has comments about the Parochial Register being “very irregularly kept”, “all jumbled together”, having “curious insertions” and being “lost or mislaid”. https://stataccscot.edina.ac.uk/static/ ... account_2/

For an interesting read about Scottish records being burnt in fires, borrowed and not returned, eaten by vermin, dropped in streams, etc etc see George Seton’s “Sketch of the history and imperfect condition of the parochial records of births, deaths and marriages in Scotland” published 1854. https://www.google.com.au/books/edition ... frontcover

All the best,
Alan