Searching for Marriage Banns GG Grandaparents

[Mary Kate]

Hi Folks,

I've been trying to find marriage banns for my GG Grandparents Thomas Ballantine and Catherine Dobson. I know that they had a son John in 1810 in Sanquhar in Dumfries in 1810, and on the 1871 cenus on Luing my G grandfather is noted a being born in Sanquhar, he is 46 on the census, so, making his birth year 1825/1826.

I've tried all of the variants on Thomas's name on the Scotland's Peoples website, including using Catherine's name, and all of the variants on that. I've checked Dumfries, Lanark and used the all regions too, but no joy. I have G Grandfather's marriage banns for 1846, on those his surname shows as Bannatyne, and I've tried that too with Thomas's name, but again no joy.

Can anybody suggest another course of action please.

Thanks

Mary Kate

[killearnan]

A couple quick thoughts....

a. The record may not exist as records before 1855 can be very hit and miss, even if the record book survives.

b. any chance the family belonged to a non-established church? The records on-line are from the established Church of Scotland (with a very few exceptions....), so if they went to a non-established Presbyterian church (associate/relief congregations, for example) or an Anglican/other denomination church, the records that still exist aren't on-line, for the most part. In these cases, the challenge is to find out which congregation they attended and where the records might be.

c. If you are pretty sure that the family was Church of Scotland, it might be worth using a Family History Center (usually found at your local LDS {Mormon} church) to order the microfilm for the parish that they lived in, as some records are missed in indexes or so badly indexed that they can't be found. Also, in cases like these, I also look at the witnesses for non-family baptisms ~ in one case like that, I figured out how the new baby's mother was related to the witness (a several greats uncle....) and that detail helped me build a ladder over a brick wall....

Realize this might not be very helpful but that's research before civil registration.....

BJ

[Mary Kate]

Hi Killearnan,

Many thanks for the reply. I thought I was perhaps hitting my head against a brick wall. They were Church of Scotland, I know that due to a family story about G Grandfathers wife .

Kind regards

Mary Kate

[nelmit]

I wonder if this is them in 1851 at Crawfordjohn from FREECEN -

Piece: SCT1851/636 Place: Crawfordjohn -Lanarkshire Enumeration District: 1
Civil Parish: Crawfordjohn Ecclesiastical Parish, Village or Island: Crawfordjohn
Folio: 668 Page: 1 Schedule: 1
Address: Greenburn

Surname First name(s) Rel Status Sex Age Occupation Where Born Remarks
BALLANTYNE Thomas Head M M 63 Shepherd Dumfries-shire - Kirkconnel
BALLANTYNE Catherine Wife M F 62 Dumfries-shire - Sanquhar
HENDERSON Marion Grndau U F 16 Employed At Home Lanarkshire - Douglas
CUNNINGHAM Marion Grndau - F 5 At Home Lanarkshire - Crawfordjohn

It looks as though Catherine died at Kirkconnel, where Thomas was born.

A look at the Hugh Wallis site shows a gap in marriage records from 1793 - 1825 at Kirkconnel - so if they married there maybe the record doesn't exist right enough.

Regards,
Annette

[carlineric]

According to V Ben Bloxham's "Key to the Parochial Registers of Scotland" (taken from "Detailed List of the Old Parochial Registers od Scotland") there are only two entries (1825 and 1827) prior to July 1829.

Eric

[killearnan]

I wonder if this is them in 1851 at Crawfordjohn from FREECEN -

If so ~ according to the extracts at Ancestry, in 1841 the same family is at Greenburn, Crawfordjohn, Lanarkshire (all born Scotland but not Lanarkshire):

Thomas Ballantyne 50 ag. lab.
Catherine Ballantyne 50
Marion Ballantyne 14
Frances Laurie 16 (female)
Robert Rumage 60 lead miner

[Mary Kate]

Hi Nelmit, Carlineric and Killearnan,

Many thanks to all of you. A veritable wealth of riches =D> That all looks correct. I have Thomas's son, David, at Kirkconnel on the 1851 census with his wife and children.

I had a feeling that the Ballintines were from Lanarkshire, and I had mentioned to my sister that I thought this was the case. I know that Crawfordjohn has a family history set up in one of the old churches in the town, but, it is only opened in the summer. Think it is time to go and have a look at some of the cemeteries, and see what I can find.

Once again, thank you for all of your work, you've made me one very happy person

Mary Kate

[killearnan]

Mary Kate,

Have you looked for death records for Thomas and Catherine? You didn't say, so figured it was worth asking If they were alive in 1851, there's a chance one or both lived until at least that 'magic' year of 1855

From Google Maps, it looks like Crawfordjohn is only about 15 miles or so from Kirkconnel and Sanquhar, despite being in different counties, so they didn't move far. That's good ~ helps narrow down where to look for further information.

BJ

[Mary Kate]

Hi BJ,

" Magic Year"??? I've never heard of that. I wanted to see if i could find them first, didn't think I would be able to find death certs for them. Oh, I get it, 1855 is the year that the records become statutory =D>

At least our records are better the the Irish ones. I have family from Co. Donegal, and I think I've found a cousin in New York City, but, we are having problems confirming that her Patrick Hannigan, is the brother of my G Grandfather Joseph Hannigan. That will have to wait to next year until I can go over, and hopefully find records confirming that.

Thinking of brothers, I don't have any family paperwork about the Ballintines, is there any way that far back to see what children Thomas and Catherine had???

Many Thanks

Mary Kate

[AndrewP]

" Magic Year"??? I've never heard of that. I wanted to see if i could find them first, didn't think I would be able to find death certs for them. Oh, I get it, 1855 is the year that the records become statutory =D>

Not only was 1855 the first year if statutory registration in Scotland, in that year there was more information on a birth, marriage or death certificate. From 1856, some of the information was dropped.

See http://www.scotlandspeople.gov.uk/Conte ... ?r=554&404 for information about what pieces of information were on death certificates at different times.

All the best,

AndrewP