Catherine McNaught born 1833.....

[Davie]

I have been searching for any information on this Catherine for over 20 years.
She was born in Buchanan Parish on the 28th October 1833 and christened six months later.
She was the first born illigitimate child of Catherine McNaught/McNaughton.
I have her on the 1841 census.
And that is it.
Her siblings were,
Hugh McMillan, Alexander McFarlane, Donald Johnston, Henry and Peter Gardiner.
Catherine's mother, Catherine,was the Daughter of John McNaughton and Margaret McFarlane
Could never find their marriage records either)

Awrabest
Davie

[sporran]

Hello Davie,


I have been rummaging around this family for a couple of days without being able to link Catherine b.1833 to the rest of the family. Catherine b.1819 would have been exceedingly young by the standards of the time to be having a baby. What does the 1841 census show?

Margaret McFarlane seems to have died before 1857 (almost certainly before 1855) from son Duncan's marriage details, and John McNaughton died at Buchanan aged 77 in 1864. Confusingly, there was another John McNaught(on) in Buchanan, because his wife Mary McCallum died there in 1860. That marriage can be found (but she was Margaret!) in 1817 at Fortingall.

To add a further coincidence, the death in 1863 of John McNaughton, son of John McNaughton and Mary McCallum, was on the same page as the death of Alexander McLaren (you typed McFarlane), son of Catherine McNaughton.


Regards,

John

[Davie]

Thanks John for the effort.
It really is appreciated
And you are right, I meant Alexander McLaren rather than McFarlane.
Senior moments coming too often of late, which of course is probably what happened years ago as well, when other eejits like masel, were passing on the information.
Alexander drowned at Sallochy in 1863.
I have been there often, but don't venture for a swim.
Finlay (my great grandfather) who "signed" his Father John’s death certificate in 1864, did not know his Granny’s name.
I know from family papers that Catherine had one girl and five boys, but never married.
All the names are given.
It was in the family “Box”, letters etc.
I have all the marriages deaths and census returns for the four remaing boys Hugh, Donald, Henry and Peter.
It was Peter who signed his Mother's death cert in 1889 at the Poorhouse in Dumbarton.
I have visited the library there and went through the records.
We were lucky to have the tales from my grt Aunt Jen (b1869) who died in her 90s.
My own Faither (born in 1905) and three of his brothers and sister also snuffed it in their 90s and they were really the last of the Oral tradition in our Family, but my older Brother diz a guid job puttin it all down in writing.
one day we may get in transcibed to the PC.
Here is the information that was left to me, and was researched long before Bill Gates wiz oan the go.
This is what got me started on this stuff.

Generation 2
The one thing you learn when you look at a series of Census Returns is that you cannot trust all enumerators. In the 19th Century it was the enumerator who filled in the form, and if he was not local, misunderstandings could arise. One can imagine the situation, with a middle-class English-speaker standing on the doorstep interviewing one of Loch Lomondside's Gaelic speakers. Small wonder if he wrote McNaught instead of McNaghtan! If the person answering the questions was John, the youngsters in the house would be "grandsons"; if Janet or Catherine, they were "nephews". If he forgot to ask where each person was born, he might well improvise the same answer for everyone in the household. Who would care in a hundred years' time?

Buchanan Parish (East side of Loch Lomond, near Rowardennan)
In 1891, the sole occupant of a one-roomed house at Sallachy was Catherine McNaughton, aged 68, unmarried, formerly a domestic servant. (10 years before the description had been "General Worker". Like all our relatives in Buchanan she spoke both Gaelic and English. The nearby Millarochy (2 windowed rooms) was occupied by John McFarlane, widower, born Aberfoyle, his daughter Agnes Johnson, aged 37, and his son-in-law Donald Johnson, a 41-y-o woodman born in Buchanan Parish.
In 1871 Sallachy was occupied by Catherine Macknaughton, aged 40, and Peter Gardner, aged 13. In 1861, John McNaghtan, shepherd, 74, was head of the household, Catherine was 42; John's son, Finlay, was a 23 y-o woodcutter, and there were three grandsons: Peter (3), Henry Gardner (8) and Donald Johnson (11).
In 1851 John McNAUGHT, already widowed at 63, presided over two unmarried daughters, Janet(35) and Catherine(28), and three NEPHEWS: Hugh McMillan (10), Alexander McLearan (7) & Donald Johnson (1). No sign of 13 y-o Finlay! The 1841 Census gives sparse but puzzling information. The house at Sallachy is home to Charles McFarlane (45), agricultural labourer, and his 40 y-o wife, Agnes; another labourer called John McNicol (20) -- and Catherine McNaught, aged 8.

Where was Catherine’s mother, and the rest of the family?

[StewL]

Hello Davie
I was looking at your post and saw the bit about the "family box" and oral history.
Unfortunately if there is a family box it is not in my possession, one the of relatives in Scotland "might" have it, but when I started on this caper of looking for my long lost deid punters, I began on the basis of stories my late father used to tell me. Fortunately my only remaining aunt, and a cousin sent me some information on both sides of the family, and with that help and guidance from many on the old SP forum I was able to get a hoof on and now have a fair list.
Unfortunately if I had relied on the oral information from my father I would have gone down the wrong track. Not that it was all wrong, just wee snippets. The main wrong snippets were wrong given names, especially my maternal grandmothers, who was known as Jean, married as Jeannie, but whose Sunday name was Jane. If I remember correctly DWW put me on the right track there.

[sporran]

Hello Davie,


the apparent birth to a 14-year old still bothers me, and I would imagine that the Kirk Session records might have something to say.

However, the IGI has all the children of John McNaughton and Margaret McFarlane baptised at Aberfoyle, up to 1837. Catherine has Hugh McMillan and Alexander McLaren baptised in Aberfoyle in 1840 and 1843, so why use Buchanan in 1833 for daughter Catherine? It is quite some distance between the two places, with other churches on the route.

You mentioned that in 1841 Catherine McNaught, aged 8, is with Charles and Agnes McFarlane at Sallachy. Is Charles related to Margaret McFarlane?


Regards,

John

[StewL]

Hello Davie and John

I have been reading this thread, and was a bit curious about the apparent early age that the girl had her first child (14years).

As you stated John, if this was the case then the Kirk Session would very likely have had a strong word about it.

But in saying that, although the average age of menarche at Catherines time was around 15.6 years. There could very well be other factors which caused early development, including precocious puberty.
In our time such an early birth would not be out of the accepted range of menarche (12.4years) currently. But of course this current age trend and reduction of the year of menarche, can be put down to a number of conditions, including better health care and nutrition, and generally better living conditions.

So as you said a bit unusual, but it is not totally out of the question.

Hope I havent bored you to death