Looking for ancestors of John Taylor born in Scone 1788...

Colin Peterson · Post by **Colin Peterson** » Sun Dec 14, 2008 6:41 pm

Hello to everyone. I am new to this forum and am hoping you can help. While doing my family tree, I came across a John Taylor (possibly a Reverend) born in June of 1788 in Scone, Perthshire. He moved to Galle Ceylon and married a woman named Anonia Van Geyzel. I have lots from her side all the way into the 1600's into Belgium. I'd like to find the Taylor lineage. Any help would be appreciated.

Post by **SarahND** » Sun Dec 14, 2008 6:55 pm

Hi Colin,
Welcome to Talking Scot! [talkingscot]

Where did you get the birth date and place from-- was it from his marriage in Ceylon? I note that on the IGI there is this record:

John Tailor
Christening: 17 Jun 1787 Scone, Perth, Scotland
Father: John Tailor
Mother: Jean Stuart

That couple appears to have had a few more children in Scone:

Euphan Taylor
Christening 15 Dec 1782

Jean Tailor
Christening: 25 Sep 1785

Mary Taylor
Christening: 19 Apr 1789

They were married on 16 Nov 1771 in Scone, so it seems likely they had other children before the ones I listed above. There is another Jean christened in Abbey (Paisley) Renfrew on 23 May 1773 and an Elizabeth christened 3 Nov 1776 also in Paisley, both with parents by those names. It is possible that they belong to the same family.

All the best,
Sarah

Post by **paddyscar** » Sun Dec 14, 2008 7:33 pm

Welcome to TalkingScot, Colin.

Sarah and I both took a dive into the same source, but with slightly different approaches. http://www.familysearch.org/Eng/Search/ ... search.asp

There are several records for John Taylor including his marriage to ANTONIA FRANCINA VAN GEYZEL
06 APR 1817 Caledon, Cape Of Good Hope, South Africa

and his death 21 MAY 1860 Cradock, Cape Of Good Hope, South Africa

As the records include submissions by members of the LDS church, someone is definitely working/worked on this family.

Also, there are several baptisms/births listed for John Taylor that may fit, keeping in mind, that baptisms sometimes took place significantly later than the actual birth and not necessarily in the actual birth place, but in a neighbouring town/closest parish.

Very interesting sources relating to both church records and info about South Pacific/Asia found by entering
First name: John
Last Name: Taylor
Event: Death/Burial
Country: South Africa

Another John Taylor dies in 1879 which lists his parents as John & Antonia.

Also, on ScotlandsPeople (Scotland's official records site) http://www.scotlandspeople.gov.uk
there are 4 records of John Taylor born/baptised in Perth between June 1788 and Dec. 1789.

Hope this opens up some doors,
Frances

Colin Peterson · Post by **Colin Peterson** » Mon Dec 15, 2008 2:06 am

Thanks everyone. Here's what I have so far on family records:

John Taylor, b. 05 Jun 1788, Scone, Perthshire, Scotland
Died; 18 Jun 1860, Craddock, Cape of Good Hope, South Africa

Married Antonia Francina Van Geyzel 06 April, 1817
She was born 03 August, 1790 in Galle Ceylon and died 04 Nov, 1859 in Craddock, etc.

They had a (pardon the expression) a litter of children and I have their names, etc.

I'm hoping to trace John Taylor's Scottish roots as most resources have only traced the Ceylon/Van Geyzel family back through Belgium. Thanks again for your input. I have reached a complete dead end on John's parents, etc. and need all the help I can get.

Currie · Post by **Currie** » Mon Dec 15, 2008 11:49 am

Hello Colin,

A Google book search for "van geyzel""caledon" (including the quotes) brings up the following publication. The snippets and other information about the book do not appear to be there and may have been removed.

British Families in South Africa: Their Surnames and Origins‎ - Page 142
by C. Pama - Reference - 1992 - 192 pages
TAYLOR Meaning: Tailor, cutter. John, b. Scone, Scotland, 5.6.1778, d. Cradock
21.5.1860. Arr. 1818. LMS missionary. M. Caledon 6.4.1817 An- tonia F. van ...
Snippet view - About this book - Add to my library

The 5 June 1778 birth date for John Taylor (assuming no errors) doesn’t agree with the 5 June 1788 one you have that is also on the rootsweb family tree, while the IGI submission has 7 June 1786. Do you know of any other source of the date of birth information?
http://wc.rootsweb.ancestry.com/cgi-bin ... &id=I39066

The book appears to have him as an LMS missionary. That’s the London Missionary Society, see page 67 of this 1828 Google book “Researches in South Africa“. Page 383 has him leaving the Society to enter into the Dutch Colonial Church, presumably Dutch Reformed Church? It would be worth downloading the book. http://books.google.com.au/books?id=kMs ... 0#PPA67,M1

A third of the way down this page in July 1840 is probably him marrying off his daughter. It has him as Minister of the Dutch Reformed Church, Cradock. http://archiver.rootsweb.ancestry.com/t ... 1090419627

All the best,
Alan

Colin Peterson · Post by **Colin Peterson** » Mon Dec 15, 2008 1:11 pm

All of my information about John Taylor was taken from a family tree match that was on the web. You can see that a Laura Foenander has been doing the research and it's mainly for the Dutch settlers. I suppose she lost interest in the "Lone Scot" that stumbled into her bloodline, whilst it has me on a mission. It appears as if I had typed some info late at night and messed up his birth date at one point, but alas, it is the same John Taylor. Thank you all so much for your help!

Post by **joette** » Mon Dec 15, 2008 6:03 pm

I have Taylors from Scone will have a look & get back to see if there are any connections.
I know a distant connection in Oz had traced them back to around the late 1600's.

Currie · Post by **Currie** » Thu Dec 18, 2008 3:03 am

Hello Colin,

I don’t think there’s anything much wrong with your typing but there could be with at least two of the sources mentioned.

Missionary types tend to leave a bit of a paper trail and I was looking around in the hope of finding an obituary in one of the UK papers but didn’t have any luck. That would a least be something a bit closer to the event and may have provided additional and more accurate information.

If you’re lucky there may be extra bits and pieces of information about him in 19th Century British Library Newspapers or in the London Times or in old books or elsewhere. If you haven’t been down that track and you’re interested in such fragments let me know and I’ll have a look around.

The records of The London Missionary Society, with which he was initially involved, are held here http://www.soas.ac.uk/library/subjects/ ... z/c/c.html (See Council for World Mission) but I don’t know how useful they would be to you.

You would expect that his passing would have been well reported in the South African papers of the time but I don’t have access to those or know if any survive. See also http://talkingscot.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=6178

All the best,
Alan

Colin Peterson · Post by **Colin Peterson** » Thu Dec 18, 2008 1:33 pm

Thanks Allan. Please "have a look around" as I am such an amateur with all of this. I must stand corrected, as my original post has John settling in Galle Ceylon which is incorrect. He went to South Africa. His wife's family was from Galle Ceylon.

I'm not sure how the census' were in Scotland at the time of his birth, but if there are baptismal records, etc. that may have his parents listed, that would be a great help.

Thanks again, and bare with me as I'm not very good at digging deep for family info.

Colin

Currie · Post by **Currie** » Thu Dec 18, 2008 3:52 pm

Hello Colin,

I’ll have a go over the next few days. Quite possibly I’ll only turn up crumbs not at all connected with his ancestry. For example:
“Education in South Africa” 1977 p.14
“Paul Kruger was baptized in Cradock by Rev. John Taylor, an ordained minister who had come out originally under the auspices of the London Missionary Society.”

And from” Petticoat Pioneers: Women of Distinction” 1988 p.207
“On her mother's side she was the great-great-granddaughter of Revd John Taylor of Cradock who arrived with Robert Moffat in 1817. He christened Paul Kruger.”

(For those who don’t know Paul Kruger (1825-1904) was the State President of the South African Republic (Transvaal). He gained international renown as the face of Boer resistance against the British during the Boer War (1899-1902). http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Paul_Kruger)

Alan