JAMES BLAIR AND MARGARET CORBET IN PAISLEY

[TARTAN8]

Hi all,
I'm re-searching my great great grandparents who lived in Paisley from about c 1880's to 1920's James died around 1890 and Margaret in 1920..I'm looking for their siblings also if any.....thank you for reading my request.David Blair

[paddyscar]

Hi David and Welcome to TalkingScot

Have you had a look on ScotlandsPeople? http://www.scotlandspeople.gov.uk/searc ... index.aspx

It's a pay-as-you-go site, but contains the official registrations of BMDs for Scotland.

Do you know approximately when they were born, or married? Their marriage registration would give you their ages and occupations, their parents names and occupations. This information would possibly allow you to estimate the time of their parent's marriages and lead you to siblings.

Compulsory registration began in 1855 and before that some Parish records can also be searched.

Census returns are also available, so with the parent's names you may be able to locate their families in the census and get the names of Margaret and James' siblings.

If you can give us any more info you have on them, and where you may already have looked, that would be helpful.

Frances

[JustJean]

Hi David

Frances is correct in that you should start with obtaining the info contained on their death certificates. Since you knew the exact years of death perhaps you have already taken this step. If not both records are easily found on www.scotlandspeople.gov.uk in the years you expect them to be.

Now for the troublesome bit.....seems that when James passed on his daughter Agnes did not know his parents names and so there is a huge gaping hole there that is going to prevent you from easily going backward or finding siblings for him.

However not all is lost. Your couple popped around Scotland a bit having children in Dalry and New Kilpatrick before arriving in Paisley and listing various places of birth. However the 1871 is the real telling census to find them on. Here is the ancestry.com version of that:

Name: James Blair
Age: 31
Estimated Birth Year: abt 1840
Relationship: Head
Spouse's name : Margaret
Gender: Male
Where born: Ireland
Registration Number: 575
Registration district: Renfrew
Civil parish: Renfrew
Town: Renfrew
County: Renfrewshire
Address: 1 Glebe St
Occupation: Poal Miner
ED: 5
Household schedule number: 71
Line: 5
Roll: CSSCT1871_104
Household Members: Name Age
James Blair 31
Margaret Blair age 31, b. Ireland
James Blair age 10, son, b. Ireland
Agnes Blair 8
Jane Blair 5
Margaret Blair 3
William Blair 1

Both James and Margaret state they were born in Ireland as well as eldest son James aged 10. So then I searched out a Scottish birth of a child of theirs that would contain their marriage details and sure enough...it is stated they were married 18 June 1860 in Newtonards, County Down, Ireland.

So now armed with precise details I took a look in the FREE Irish Civil Indexes on the Familysearch Pilot website and by searching independently by Corbet and then by Blair there is one record that can only be theirs.....

Reg. Dist. Newtonards
Vol. 9
Page 243
James Blair and Margaret Corbit

It would be very interesting to learn if perhaps this marriage record contains any information about James parents. I think the LDS have microfilms of many of the Irish Civil Records but there are none that I know of in any online searchable databases. If you don't take the FHL route or order in film at your nearest FHC that only leaves ordering one. The one method I know of is from GRONI.... http://www.groni.gov.uk/index/order_certificates.htm

I didn't see a death in Scotland for Margaret's mother using maiden name and married name search but this isn't necessarily conclusive.

Bascially your researching just got alot more challenging!!

Best wishes
Jean