Dundee - Hamilton

scooter · Post by **scooter** » Tue Oct 06, 2009 3:24 pm

Another great resource from Scotlandspeople, and once again, another series of questions.

Why for example, would a protestant Flax Draper (with no previous Catholic faith) living in Dundee, up sticks and head down to Hamilton (with his protestant wife and two children) and have them baptised in the Catholic church. This would be 1853 and a total mystery to me!

Any ideas?

Cheers,

Scott

Post by **Anne H** » Tue Oct 06, 2009 5:15 pm

Hi Scooter,

Maybe the section of Hamilton they moved to was similar to Coatbridge which was mainly Irish and Catholic.

Could it be they just wanted to fit in to that particular society or maybe they were following their hearts and felt the need to have their children baptised as catholics. The Spirit works in mysteries ways!

Regards,
Anne H

scooter · Post by **scooter** » Tue Oct 06, 2009 5:36 pm

Hi Anne,

Several of this man's siblings all changed to non-conformist churches and I'm wondering if they rather liked what they saw in Catholicism and converted as a result. Perhaps the idea of having the children baptised in Hamilton was to keep things under-wraps from the rest of the family/friends back home. As far as I can tell they never actually lived in Hamilton, and were certainly in Dundee from 1854 onwards.

Thanks for your advice!

Scott