The right direction

[courtneylion]

Hi to all can anyone point me in the right direction as i have been looking for an ancester for ages and can't find him i have been back on scotlands people with a bit more information and still can't find him i don't want to waste anymore time going round in circles so if any kind soul could send me the right way i would be very grateful i have been in birth opr and deaths statutory

[LesleyB]

Hi courtneylion
..and welcome to Talking Scot
Can you tell us the name of the ancestor who is giving you grief? We can maybe then try to help you find him. Often the reason folk cannot be found can be to do with spelling variations, so if we know what name we are working with, that option can be explored. If you can tell us what you know about him already with a few dates, that would also help us to help you.

Best wishes
Lesley

[courtneylion]

Thanks Lesley the elusive ancestor is Peter Mclaren born 1800-1802 in Killin Perth married Killin 1831 to Margaret Mcintosh born Kenmore 1804-5 they have 4 children all born in Killin bar 1 Peter born Trinity Gask they are on census 1841Trinity Gask 1851 Auchterarder Margaret dies 1856 Auchterarder dont find him till 1861 and 1871 Dunblane on census tried looking for death 1871 -1881 as couldn't find him on census for 1881 anywhere in Perth what do you think?

[Russell]

Hi courtneylion

There are 4 deaths for a Peter M*cLa*r?n come up in Perthshire between 1871 and 1881. Possibly one of these.
My usual approach to locating elderly relatives is to follow up via census returns on the various members of the family. If you locate where they were staying for the appropriate time period they may have taken in their old Dad rather than have him sent to the Poor House or live alone and unloved.
I have used wildcards (*)&(?) to see if he has been recorded under a variant spelling e.g. McLaurin.
The '?' stands for only one letter. The '*' can be several, one letter or none . Useful but with the 'Mc?/Mac names they have to be used with care.
It usually pays off to bring up all Peter M*cLa*r?n death options that come up.

Hope this helps

Russell

[courtneylion]

Thanks Russell i will give the census returns a go there was only 1 child that didn't live in Perth at that time i will try that tomorrow once again thanks

[morgano]

Some writers of parish records consistently spelled "McLaren" "McLeran", too, so switching those vowels around is worth a try.

Morgano

[nelmit]

Thanks Lesley the elusive ancestor is Peter Mclaren born 1800-1802 in Killin Perth married Killin 1831 to Margaret Mcintosh born Kenmore 1804-5 they have 4 children all born in Killin bar 1 Peter born Trinity Gask they are on census 1841Trinity Gask 1851 Auchterarder Margaret dies 1856 Auchterarder dont find him till 1861 and 1871 Dunblane on census tried looking for death 1871 -1881 as couldn't find him on census for 1881 anywhere in Perth what do you think?

Hello,

I'm not convinced the Peter in Dunblane is yours.

According to the Ancestry 1851 census Peter was born around 1795. There is a death at Aucterarder in 1869 of a Peter McLaren born 1794 that might be worth a check since that's where Margaret died.

Regards,
Annette