searching for Archie McFarlane

[AndrewP]

You set my curiosity going...

I took a look at the birth certificate, and my interpretation of the birthplace is: Coto, Laighwood, Clunie. On looking at the maps of the time, I have a 'good' suggestion for it: Cothole, which is close to Old Laighwood, and near to Laighwood, all at the west end of Clunie Parish.

See this map:
https://maps.nls.uk/geo/explore/#zoom=1 ... rs=168&b=1

Where the map has been digitally stitched together you will see "Cothole" to the north of "Old Laighwood".

... and on a current map:

https://osmaps.ordnancesurvey.co.uk/56. ... 3.49314,17

My feeling is that when Jessie went to register the birth, that "Coto" was the registrar's interpretation of what she said.

On looking at the aerial view of Cothole, it is still standing, but the track to it looks unused and the building could be falling down, so my feeling is that it is no longer occupied.

https://www.google.co.uk/maps/@56.59838 ... authuser=0

A description of Cothole is given here...

https://scotlandsplaces.gov.uk/digital- ... lume-16/15

See here a picture of Cothole, which is described in the text below the picture as a derelict farm cottage.

https://www.geograph.org.uk/photo/1100444

All the best,

AndrewP

[mullardoch]

Hi Andrew , I don't think that I would have thought about viewing the cottage or house location on an O.S. Map And if I had seen Cothole on the map would not have immediately linked Cato to Cothole. As you say her dialect was probably the cause of registrar recording it incorrectly. The photograph is a great bonus, and my cousin Christine out in N.Z. will be over the moon to see it, she drove past it often, on her visits over the years.
Andrew , thank-you very much for taking the trouble to solve this part of the puzzle for me,
best regards, Hugh MacF.

[WilmaM]

Good find Andrew,
as ever, a good look at an old map can help a lot.