My wife has Mary Ann McGilvray in her line but initially we could find no trace of her because of the spelling of the name. We knew from family lore that she was born in Oban in the mid 1800’s but nothing more. Hmmm! Forget Oban, the parish is Kilmore & Kilbride
Once we cracked the correct wildcard entries to use (or so we thought) we were able to find her marriage to John O’Donnell in 1875 in Glasgow.
Now we had her parents names and dad Archie was a Mariner, and even the name of a sister who was witness at her wedding. It should be easy to find them
Her father Archibald does not appear to have been around on the 1841 and 1851 census nights
Her mother Jean(Jane/Jeannie) was more accommodating and was living in Shore St, Oban in 1851 with her 5 children (Catherine, Charles,Margaret, Euphemia and Archibald ). They were all born in Kinlochspelvie, later ones with Torosay added (check out when the parishes were amalgamated!) so it was easy to find her on the 1841 census. 1861, 1871 – she was still at Shore Street but still no Archie. He must come back from sea regularly as the family keeps growing. By this time Mary Ann was born, and Jean, and John, and Ann.
We were thoroughly frustrated by this time as we still had no clues about where Archie was born and could not find him on any general searches. Scotlandspeople could have paid for a staff Christmas dinner on the credits we had wasted on fruitless searches.
At last
He appeared on the 1881 census in Stafford Street, Oban, but was now a widower. We now had his birthplace. Colonsay. Its only a small island so it should be straightforward We were using M*cGil*v*r*y as our search name but nothing showed up at all. From the Colonsay website http://www.colonsay.org.uk/index.html we discovered that people on the Island used the spelling McGilvra. By this time the OPR were on-line and a search produced our Archie – child of Archibald McGilvra and Pegy McNeill Would you have thought to wildcard Pegy and McNeill ?? as well as discard the ‘Y’ from McGilvray ?Deaths for Archie brought up a likely entry in Oban in 1907.
Right person, right place, but two wives – Jean and Christina McLean.
We found that Jean had died the previous year (1880) at that address.
On the 1901 census we had an Archie and a Christina living in Oban with sons Archd aged 19 and Neil aged 13.
We found the marriage certificate a marriage certificate for Archibald and Christina McLean in 1881 in Oban but Archibald’s age was wrong. His mother was named as Isabella McGilvray and at this point we didn’t know his mother’s name so we assumed we had found the correct Archie.
We then found them on the 1891 census, again his age was wrong and he was born in Mull. The two children Archie and Neil were the correct age and born in Oban, as they were on the 1901 census and we couldn’t find another Archie & Neil born in Oban at this time. However when investigating a marriage for Archie’s daughter Effie in Oban we found a 21 year old with parents Archd & Isabella McGilvray and later found from a census that she was from Mull too. Was it possible that 2 Archie McGilvrays had married 2 Christina McLeans from Glenelg (her birthplace on 1891 & 1901 census).
We were now sure that the Archd McGilvray on the Marr Cert and the 1891 census was not ours. Could the children on the 1901 census be from a previous marriage of Christina’s ? Did our Archie marry her later than 1881 ?
We found their marriage in 1896 and it was the same Christina McLean who had first married Archibald McGilivray from Mull. (her parents were the same on both marriage certs.
So! Where was Our Archie in 1891 ? We found him married to his wife Ann (Who was Ann?),living in Stafford St, Oban. We then found her Death certificate in 1895 a year before he married Christina. Her name was Ann Campbell widow of James McAlpine. We couldn’t find a marriage for them but found an Archd McGilvray married to a Mary Campbell in 1881 and this was our Archibald. – Correct age, correct parents.
We looked for her Death and she too died in Stafford St in 1887 married to Archd McGilvray, Mariner. Presumably he married Ann between 1886 and 1891 but we still haven't found their marriage record so far.
Ann’s death cert. has an RCE entry but no apparent reason for this so another avenue to be explored.......
Life on the ocean wave must keep you fit and attractive to add a fourth marriage while in your seventies. We found this one in Dunblane of all places. This was due to inspired guesswork plus refined search techniques, on my wife’s part. Why Dunblane ? They were still from Oban.
I think I can take out the name from my list of interests now
A relieved and self-satisfied Russell
Edited to include Colonsay website URL -Russell
congratulations on your detective work! =D> It's so nice when it all finally comes together!