William Miller - Erskine Renfrew 1700s

[trish1]

I have a marriage Erskine 1746 between William Miller and Margaret Clark. They have 3 children baptised 1747 - 1749 and then there are 2 more children baptised to the same couple ( or a couple with the same names) in 1762 and 1768. All baptisms in Erskine.

I would appreciate any indication as to what may have been happening 1749 - 1762. Could William have been away fighting - for/against the King? Was there some reason children born in this period may not have been baptised?
Any other suggestions?

thanks

Trish

[Russell]

Hi Trish

I wonder if there was a gap in thye births or whether there was no minister in the church at the time to conduct the christenings ?
This was a time of considerable upheaval in all things religious as well as political and poor rural parishes were hard pressed to find and retain a minister.
It might be worth exploring the time gap to see if they had a minister. I'm not sure which volume of the Fasti covered Erskine so it may not be on-line.
No time to pursue it myself, but it certainly would give you another approach.

Russell

[killearnan]

I have a marriage Erskine 1746 between William Miller and Margaret Clark. They have 3 children baptised 1747 - 1749 and then there are 2 more children baptised to the same couple ( or a couple with the same names) in 1762 and 1768. All baptisms in Erskine.

I would appreciate any indication as to what may have been happening 1749 - 1762. Could William have been away fighting - for/against the King? Was there some reason children born in this period may not have been baptised? Any other suggestions?

They lived in another parish for a bit where the records didn't survive? Or the records for that parish from that time don't survive?

They went to a dissenting church? Or the Scottish Episcopal Church? I'm a little fuzzy on the earlier details but I'm pretty sure there were dissenting Presbyterian churches by that time period and that the Scottish Episcopla CHurch started before then as well.

Then there's the possibility of miscarriages; a couple in a row can lead to a several year gap in children. Another possibility is that they were poor enough that her health was less than great and she didn't conceive; not likely but combine that with a couple miscarriages and you could also get a gap like that.

Don't rule out the possibilty that it is two different couples either. The names are fairly common, so it is something to consider.

I'd say this is one of those cases where I'd use a FHC to order the available films (baptism, marriage, and death/burial) for the parish and just read them, over several years, to get a feel for the parish. Unless it is a huge parish, this won't take that long but might well give you some good background. Plus, there may be details in other records (where, for example, the parents lived or whe they might have served as served as witnesses to otehr events) that help you figure out what is going on.

I'd also make sure to get the death registers for the parish, if they are extant. I've got a couple cases where I've found a child in an unexplained gap only in the death records and not in the baptisms.
BJ

[LesleyB]

Hi Trish
According to http://www.gro-scotland.gov.uk/famrec/h ... r-cov.html
These are the extant records for Erskine - but that does not mean there were no gaps! Not much by way of deaths...

563. ERSKINE
563/1 B 1705-1819 M 1705-1819 D -
563/2 B 1820-54 M 1820-54 D 1852-54
RNE (Register of Neglected Entries)

Best wishes
Lesley

[JustJean]

Not much help....but Bloxham's Key to the Parochial Registers indicates that in Erskine Births are extant from 1705-1854 with no entries May 1770- June 1771. Deaths however are not recorded until Mar 1852- June 1854. This doesn't do anything to explain your mysterious gap!!

Best wishes
Jean

[trish1]

Many thanks for all the suggestions - shame that no deaths/burials are available for the time period - is there any point in trying to find graves/MIs? I know very little about the area/parish.

I hadn't thought about the lack of a minister or late baptisms - so that could be worth checking - but I would probably discount dissenting church - all the family before and after appear to have belonged to the main Church of Scotland.

I haven't found any baptisms in other parishes (which doesn't mean they don't exist). I haven't found a will, but will double check as not knowing any death dates makes this a little tricky. I will also see if I can find Erskine in the online Fasti (which I know about due to useful information from TS on a prior query )

Trish