Margaret Anderson Update

Yes, I know Duncan's, I promised you Saturday morning. I lied, Margaret is wanting my attention today and she is not taking no for an answer!
 
So, I found the document, and didn't find the document, that is helping with a time line:

-Affair with George Valentine.
-Produced daughter Elizabeth c. 1847. (illegitimate)
-Married William Nicoll 6/28/1851.
-David Nicoll born c 1852.
-I am assuming William Nicoll died between their marriage and 1855 when John Anderson was born, she is a widow on his birth registration.
-John Anderson born 1855. (illegitimate).

The document I found is the marriage record for William Nicoll and Margaret Anderson in Brechin, where she was born. Date 6/28/1851. Unfortunately I have the search and the record number but when I went to look at the record it was not the correct record. I reported it to ScotlandsPeople so hopefully I will get a hold of the actual record at some point.

Additional searches found nothing. I searched for:
 
David Nicoll's birth record.
 
William Nicoll's death record but I don't know enough about him to know if any of the search finds are him and the deaths are recorded in a book not really giving next of kin information.

Re the 1861 Census, I searched David Nicholl, David Anderson, John Anderson, John Nicoll, Margaret Nicoll, Margaret Anderson. I just can not find this census.
 

Margaret Anderson afterward Nicoll

My plans to get serious on my redo of my database were hijacked by things that were more fun. I sat down this morning to work on plugging in my Duncan's of Tennessee into my database… read, finally… to drift back to Scotland to my maternal Grandmother's line. I collect clues, put them aside and then promptly forget and then out of nowhere a switch goes off and it is like a gate at a horse race opening, I am off, on it, going to move that brick wall along and out of my way! This was one of those days. Sorry Duncan clan, Saturday morning Is for you, I promise!!
 
Margaret Anderson, I have posted about her before. Mystery, her son, my great-great-grandfather, John Anderson whose birth record says he is illegitimate. I had a message through Ancestry about a year ago from a nice gentleman that suggested we share the same Margaret Anderson and to take a look at a site he had with the information he had on her. Seriously, it has taken me almost a year to follow up? I have too many lines I am trying to work on, lol. My family history could and would be my full time job if not that I need to eat and pay rent, alas, work once again in the way of my hobbies! It's a crime I tell you! So I finally looked and then slid into ScotlandsPeople.gov.uk to poke around. The thing about Margaret is John's birth certificate. John is her third child, she states she is widowed. So is Anderson her surname or married name? Usually the Scottish records show for example: Elizabeth Dewar Anderson M.S. Spalding. I can not find John's death record which might have more clues. Without the 1911 census I can't pin point him being alive or dead and searching 30 years of John Anderson death records would be hugely expensive, the search comes up with like 94 John Andersons!

But.. I digress, a habit of mine. This information on the site was extremely helpful. The thing is, I can not find any of her event records, or couldn't. The information given to me from this site was hugely helpful. She and George Valentine had a daughter in c. 1847, Elizabeth. I found her death certificate that states her as illegitimate but her father is listed as George Valentine. Interestingly, her death certificate doesn't list her with a maiden surname but her married name, Milne, and her father is listed so I wonder what name she used growing up. I expect Anderson. I suppose I could hunt down her marriage record to kill that curiosity. I have not looked into George, I don't know if he was married or not. So Elizabeth is one of the two children before John. Being 1847 when she was born and 1855 when John was born, I am assuming Elizabeth is the first born, the second in between them I am also assuming is a girl since John has the name of Margaret's father. George Valentine was listed as Elizabeth's father, John's birth record had no father mentioned. So was George his father too? And who is the mystery man, William Cameron, stated as John's father on his marriage record? Later, she married William Nicoll. Her son David is how I found her on the 1891 census. William died before the 1871 census. Margaret was a widow on that. She had a lot of addresses and different jobs, I can not imagine she had an easy life especially when she was with men she was not married to.
 
So after tracking down her children who are not of my family line, I do have her birth and death records! I can't find a thing that has to do with her and William Nicoll. I do have her birth record. Her maiden surname IS Anderson. All this led me to her death certificate, finally. Her parents are John Anderson and Helen Gibb.
 
It is the 1861 Census I think will have the most information for me regarding the before William Nicoll period. I can not find it to save my life. Searching it in ScotlandsPeople is not working out. The 1871 Census has her a widow with David Nicoll (18) and a younger son John Nicoll (15) with her. And yikes, a second son named John?? I can't find 1881. 1891 Census she is living with David, he is a widower with 6 children, 5 boys, of course, one named John! Haha.

((Oh wow!  I was just proof reading this post and realized that second boy John is my John!  He was born in 1855.  ~One of my more duh and dense moments here for the world to see, haha.~  Now I am more confused.  David is older than John and he is a Nicoll?  Or… She and William never had children and David is the third illegitimate child but he used Nicoll whereas John kept his name Anderson, I have census' for him… gads, now I need David's birth record!  I am on the hunt again!))

 
John Anderson Birth Record:
John Anderson, (present), Male, 1855 June Third, 4h 0m A.M.
Greystone, Parish of Monikie, Forfarshire
(Illegitimate)
Margaret Anderson, Widow, Her 3rd Child, 29 years, Brechin
Margaret Anderson, her X mark, mother
John Sturrock, Witness
James Cowper Witness
1855, July 13th At Monikie
(Signed) W.M. Alexander, Registar

His Marriage Record:
1879 on the Twenty Seventh day of June at Laurel Bank, Dundee
After Banns, according to the forms of the Free Church of Scotland
(signed) John Anderson, Railway Pointsman, Bachelor; 24, Victoria Street Carnoustie
(signed) Elizabeth Spalding, Jute Winder, Spinster; 23, 24 Dallfield Walk
William Cameron, Ploughman; Margaret Anderson afterwards Nicoll
James Spalding, Yarn Bleacher (deceased); Elizabeth Spalding, M.S. Dewar (Deceased)
(signed) James Ewing, Officiating Minister
(Signed) William Lindsay Johnson, Witness; (Signed) Maria Spalding, Witness
1879 June 30 at Dundee; Dav(?) Scott, Registar

Elizabeth Anderson/Valentine Milne death:
Elizabeth Milne married to Charles Milne, General Laborer
(Illegitimate)
1909 June first 3 h 0 m A.M., 4 Stonewell Road, Dundee
F; 62 years
George Valentine, Carter (deceased)
Margaret Anderson afterwards married to William Nicoll, Ploughman (deceased)
Cancer of the liver, about 6 months, as best by James H W ? MD
(cant read name), daughter, present
1909 June 1st at Dundee
Jas Murray, Registrar

Researching an Illegitimate Line

My Grandmother's family line brings me to Scotland.  I have been having good luck in collecting the first few generations birth, marriage and death records from ScotlandsPeople.  But I am finding I have to figure out how to be a super sleuth in records I have little experience with.

My great-great-grandfather of the maternal side was John ANDERSON.  His birth record shows him as Illegitimate, his marriage record shows William Cameron being his father.  The first mystery to solve is to identify his mother, Margaret Anderson.

John Anderson's birth record reads as follows:

John Anderson, (present), Male, 1855 June Third, 4h 0m A.M.
Greystone, Parish of Monikie, Forfarshire
(Illegitimate)
Margaret Anderson, Widow, Her 3rd Child, 29 years, Brechin

Margaret Anderson, her X mark, mother
John Sturrock, Witness
James Cowper Witness
1855, July 13th At Monikie
(Signed) W.M. Alexander, Registar

His Marriage Record:

1879 on the Twenty Seventh day of June at Laurel Bank, Dundee
After Banns, according to the forms of the Free Church of Scotland
 
(signed) John Anderson, Railway Pointsman, Bachelor; 24, Victoria Street Carnoustie
(signed) Elizabeth Spalding, Jute Winder, Spinster; 23, 24 Dallfield Walk
William Cameron, Ploughman; Margaret Anderson afterwards Nicoll
James Spalding, Yarn Bleacher (deceased); Elizabeth Spalding, M.S. Dewar (Deceased)

(signed) James Ewing, Officiating Minister
(Signed) William Lindsay Johnson, Witness; (Signed) Maria Spalding, Witness
1879 June 30 at Dundee; Dav(?) Scott, Registar

So, Margaret "should" be findable but I am having a hard time tracking her down.  The Marriage Register shows she was afterward Nicoll so she did re-marry after John was born?  Did she re-marry after John was grown and gone?  And as far as her name when John was born.  Is Anderson her maiden surname?  Would she have given her deceased husband name to another mans son's name?  I have her approximate birth date of 1826 as she was 29 when John was born but was she born an Anderson or another surname?  Searching a Margaret in Brechin comes up with a lot of Margaret's!  And how do I figure out for sure that William Cameron is truly his father?  I expect that is something I will never know.   I have been searching the 1861 census for her as Anderson with a 5-6 year old son named John and two older children.  I have been searching for her as Nicoll with three children, one being John Anderson.  I have been searching for a death record for Margaret Nicoll.  I feel like I have enough clues to crack the mystery but so far I am not having any luck.  In the last week I have burned through at least 60 credits at ScotslandsPeople and have birth records for a couple Margaret's and a death certificate that could almost be her but by the age 10 years off, and a few census' that are not even close to being her.  So tonight I have been poking around through Ancestry's Scottish census' looking for a clue in 1861 but I think I am going to move into 1871 and see if I can find her and her Nicoll's husband there!

It feels like it should be so easy.......

((Bloggers note:  And gosh, not even an hour later I found her in someone's family tree on Ancestry.  Major clues to identify her as my Margaret Anderson!  An ahhhh moment!  *and happy dance*.)) 

Slacker I am....

I have not been blogging of late. I do that, I tend to fade then come back.. fade, and so on. I am trying to be better with the family history. It is not to say there has not been some significant progress on my Grandmother's line but I have been angry for four days and it zaps all of my energy yet re-energizes a different side of me. I am just grumpy and have a lot of attitude right now and a lot of thinking to do. I am angry at myself and this kind of makes me realize that these are the things we will never know about our ancestors. In this day in age, by reading this blog, everyone will know I am in a mood. Two generations away can read this blog and see I was in a mood. What were the days like when my great-grandmother came here from Scotland. Was she ecstatic about leaving her family to come to America. Was she excited but then have to deal with the homesickness. Did it ever seem too much to her to uproot and rebuild? It is not like they suffered. They were working class and weathered the depression pretty well. Did she have... "moods". Did she have a 10 year mood like I seem to be having? I am a ten year increment person I have decided.

I feel like I am changing yet again, or maybe I am re-emerging. Ten years ago I felt like I needed a change and that prompted a divorce. It was what I wanted but at the same time I did not anticipate how I would respond to losing my home, my house. I was silently devastated I will say. Not a lot of screaming or crying, a move to a crappy apartment that would take our cat but a silent shut down of everything I loved to do. I am a spinner, weaver, knitter, felter and an all purpose fiber addict. I had a group of four friends and we had spinning days, dying days and so on. So when we moved into this small apartment I stopped doing all the things I loved. It all sat in boxes or stuffed in a storage cubby. My wheel just sat in a corner being ignored. My friends all left the area. I took up a hobby of roleplaying. It was a good place to lose myself and found I made a few friends and could write and just have fun but then a year would go by, then another and constantly I would say... "My wheel just sits there.... I should start spinning again.." but then there went another year. One of the friendships I made is 10 years old. I have never met him face to face, I have never spoken to him on the phone yet he knows about my life and I know about his. We share stories of our kids, our frustrations and our pride in them. His wife wishes me well on holidays and I do the same to her. I love him dearly. And... we fight. It was a stupid fight but it was hurtful. Maybe it helped me put things into perspective.. today anyway, who knows if I will see this the same in three days when the anger begins to fade. It made me see what a time sink that hobby is, it makes me wonder why people who say they have such a good life seem to spend so much time in a time sink... food for thought. Things are never ever as they seem and it opens my eyes enough to ask the following questions...

Where is the woman that was an awesome fiber artist.

Why did I put her away.

Where is the woman that chased life and made it happen.

Why do I ignore the peace that these activities brought to me in the past.

What do I want to be remembered for......

Did my Grandmother, Great-Grandmother and back beyond ever feel this way about life? Elizabeth Anderson, did she? She was a widow that had an illegitimate child in 1855... her hardships had to be quite more than my week of fussing.

So as you can see, there is a lot of thinking going on here though I think that had always been one of my bigger problems. I think.. wayyyyy to freaking much. I am analytical, I will lay awake all night picking apart a discussion/argument until I drive myself insane and it makes me mad. It is hell being a Virgo, let me tell you!

I distanced myself from my friend to lick my wounds, to assume he doesn't care and is over it already and I am in the process of making some decisions to change. When I am ready I will talk to him and see if the friendship will be salvaged. I love him but today I do not care if I speak to him again. ::lying like crazy::

Why is this all in this particular blog? No reason.. vent space. I am miserable yet feeling good too.

This morning I ordered my dream spinning wheel, for it I have given up my vacation to Pennsic this year. The energy I expend will be to what I like to do. Family History, Spinning and Knitting. The roleplaying hobby will take a lesser role in my life until it disappears for good. It is time. I have sulked long enough, I think ten years is plenty of time to waste feeling sorry for myself or whatever it is that I am doing.



I am going to walk more.

I owe emails to my sister and my cousin.

And in a completely different direction.. Genealogy...(yes, finally on topic)

Finding Grandpa. I can so relate to this blog. I find I want a happy ending for she and her mother.

A woman contacted me through Ancestry about my family tree. She said she found her Aunt Leona on my family tree and her Grandfather. Leona was my Aunt as well and we share the same Grandfather. She didn't tell me who she was the daughter of. My father had four sisters and in honesty, I would not be surprised to find he might have had more children at some point. I have not seen him since I was 13 and it will stay that way. Still, she is either my first cousin or could be a half sister. I have written a message to her and I hope that she replies sometime soon.

My Grandmother's family tree is coming right along. I have quite a few generations that I have researched in ScotlandsPeople.com. I have actually had quite fun being a sleuth as I had an illegitimate child show up. My Great-Great-Great-Grandmother (Margaret ANDERSON) was a widow and her third child (John ANDERSON) was written in as illegitimate on his birth record yet his marriage record had his father listed as William CAMERON. His death record and all the census I have found on him listed no father. So... what do I do in this case? I will keep searching for something that might mention a father but if I can't find anything I suppose I will have to consider this a brick wall. In the meantime the search is on!

The Ahnentafel for my Grandmother. ( I LOVVVVE! Roots Magic 4).. see that? 6 generations with progress. Not too shabby. I have been taking a class on GenClass with David W Webster. I have enjoyed it very much and David has such an enthusiasm that it keeps me plugging away.. until the last couple days anyway.. slacker mode hit (though the knitting I have gotten done!)

Generation 1

1. Elizabeth Spalding Dewar FENDER-1: born 21 Mar 1909 in District of St. Mary, Dundee, Scotland; died 3 Mar 1984 in Rochester, Monroe, New York.

Generation 2

2. Edward Cummings Alexander FENDER-2: born 19 Jul 1878 in District of St. Andrew, Dundee, Scotland; died 10 Apr 1952 in Akron Ohio.

3. Elizabeth ANDERSON-3: born 8 Mar 1880 in Carnoustie Scotland; died 31 Jan 1933 in Akron, Summit, Ohio.

Generation 3

4. George FENDER-5: born 9 Jan 1852 in Dundee, Angus, Scotland; married 9 Jun 1871 in Dundee, Scotland; died.

5. Jane Watt ALEXANDER-6: born 1852 in Dundee Scotland.

6. John ANDERSON-7: born 3 Jun 1855 in Monikie, Forfar, Scotland; married 27 Jun 1879 in Dundee Scotland; died 10 May 1935 in Dundee, Angus, Scotland.

7. Elizabeth Dewar SPALDING-8: born 17 Oct 1855.

Generation 4

8. George FENDER-9: born 4 Apr 1817 in Dundee, Angus, Scotland; married 26 Nov 1843 in Dundee Scotland.

9. Jane BEAT-10: born 18 Feb 1817 in Ferry Port on Craig; died 18 Mar 1898 in Dundee Scotland.

10. Alexander ALEXANDER-11: born 20 May 1820 in Dundee Scotland; married 24 Jan 1842 in Dundee Scotland.

11. Margaret WATT-12: born 1822.

13. Margaret ANDERSON-15: born 1826 in Brechin.

14. James SPALDING-13: married.

15. Elizabeth DEWAR-14: born.

Generation 5

16. George FENDER-40.

17. Elizabeth SMITH-41.

18. James BEAT-38: born 1 Oct 1789 in Ferry Port on Craig; married 22 May 1816 in Ferry Port on Craig.

19. Isabel MURRAY-39.

20. Thomas ALEXANDER-36.

21. Elizabeth MILNE-37.

22. A WATT-16.

Generation 6

36. William BEAT-42.

37. Jean GORIE-43.

I come from quite a few Ship Masters. Two George Fenders and James Beat were all Ship Masters. Alexander Alexander was a stonemason. I come from the working class, I would love to take a further peek into their lives.

So there.. a long winded blog to attempt to fill in the space of the long weeks of silence.

If you read all the way through this.. woah.. I am impressed. If not.. it is so understood.

:)