William Tod born 1802. John Dun born 1803

[ginger9]

Hi,

I'm new to this forum, so please excuse any blunders I make with procedure etc.

I am researching my husband's family tree, and have only the most basic information about two of his great-great grandparents, and I would love to find out more.

William Tod was born in 1802, in the Lasswade area. We think he married Catherine Nimmo in January 1828, in Lasswade. I can find no information about Catherine at all. The 1841 census has a William Tod, living in Lasswade, a Baker. But later he is the owner of St Leonard's Paper Mill, in Lasswade, and I'd love to find out more about his early life. Baker to Mill Owner, seems a fascinating step. His son John Tod (who wrote under the name John Strathesk) continued with the Mill, successfully. His parents may be William Tod and Janet Noble, but I'm not sure.

The other great-great grandparent, John Dun, was born in 1803 - possibly in Melrose, and married Catharine Sanderson in 1840, in Melrose. Catharine has been a success! I have traced her parents and grandparents - but John Dun has drawn a blank. His parents should be George Dun and Euphemia Lees, but I can gain no concrete evidence of this, and no dates.

So, all help that anyone can offer would be gratefully recieved. I have no clue as to the best places to begin searching ...

thank you

ginger9

[JustJean]

Well here's a starter for you......If the William Tod paper maker is indeed your relative then you can confirm all your suspicions by purchasing a few records from www.scotlandspeople.gov.uk . A death record after 1855 contains the names of the parents of the deceased as well as occupation of the father. In your case William Tod's death is easily found indexed as:

1869 TOD WILLIAM M 68 COCKPEN MIDLOTHIAN 676/00 0041

There looks to be a wealth of further information you could probably glean from not only his will but what could be the will of his father. You can search the will indexes for free same place you'll buy the death cert from. They appear as:

TOD WILLIAM 10/06/1870 PAPERMAKER IN LASSWADE EDINBURGH SHERIFF COURT WILLS SC70/4/126
TOD WILLIAM 24/05/1848 BAKER, RESIDING AT LASSWADE EDINBURGH SHERIFF COURT WILLS SC70/4/5

One of these is 23 pages and the other is 31. Well worth the GBP to buy a view in my opinion!!

As for William's wife Catherine Nimmo. You said you knew nothing about her. Well you should definately purchase their OPR marriage records(again found on the scotlandspeople website) Since they were residing in different parishes at the time you'll find the banns and marriage recorded twice. The Liberton one contains a nice nugget of info about Catherine's father. Not sure if this will lead you anywhere since you are already back earlier than many folks are able to get but it's a name and location to go on!

Best wishes
Jean

[trish1]

Hi Ginger9 & welcome to TS
I have Duns in my family history so was interested in your John Dun (but I don't see any connections - my family were from Fife).

If you haven't seen it - there is a website with much information about the Scotland Dun families - the site developed by Michael Dun.
http://www.dun.org.uk/

The 1851 census shows John born Melrose. As well as children Joanna Catherine and Georgina it has George Dun nephew 14 born Melrose which may help to find the right family for John.
1861 John and Catherine are still alive, living at Galashiels so you should be able to find a civil death certificate for John, which will hopefully name his parents.
1871 they have moved to Dalkeith, Midlothian and John is a landowner and Merchant
1881 He is still at Dalkeith, listed as a seed merchant
I cannot find him in 1891

Looking at Michael Dun's site he has the following death
22 Oct 1887 John 84 parents George Dun/Euphemia Lees died Dalkeith wife Catherine Sanderson born abt 1803 - pleasantly providing some parents as his OPR birth records are indexed by parent. This seems to be the correct person. You could download the death certificate if you don't already have same.

Checking the OPRs from the Dun website I find
2 Aug 1804 JANET GEORGE DUN/EUPHAN ELLIS FR786 MELROSE
5 Feb 1802 JOHN GEORGE DUN/EUPHAN ELLIS FR786 MELROSE -- perhaps your John Dun
25 Sep 1796 JEAN GEORGE DUN/EUPHANS LEES FR587 GALASHIELS
28 Mar 1798 ANDREW GEORGE DUN/EUPHANS LEES FR592 GALASHIELS
19 May 1800 GEORGE GEORGE DUN/EUPHANS LEES FR598 GALASHIELS

I would suggest that Eupham Ellis and Euphans Lees are the same person (name interepreted by different ministers) - but you may need access some OPRs to help prove that this is the case. OPRs often have no more than what is on the index, but sometimes you will get an occupation and/or address to help the search. There is often a birth date as well - Galashiels and Melrose are about 3 miles apart. Nephew George from 1851 presumably belongs to one of the brothers above.

The birth/baptism of John is also on the IGI - this gives the birth date as 5 Jan 1802 and baptism as 18 Jan 1807 Melrose - might be worth checking the opr.
Sister Janet born 2 Aug 1804 is also listed as baptised on 18 Jan 1807


Trish

[killearnan]

Looks like a couple people have given you good clues to get started.

I do urge you to look at the actual OPRs (well, the virtual copies of them.....) as there may be details on the entries that aren't in the index.

In addition to residence and occupation mentioned above, it's worth keeping track of the witnesses to the baptisms and marriages. Sometimes they are relatives.... in a couple cases I've been able to sort out families with common names because of non-overlapping sets of witnesses.

[ginger9]

Thank you all so much for your help. I now have plenty of sources to start tracing, which will keep me quiet for a bit

best wishes

ginger9

[joette]

which will keep me quiet for a bit

Honestly Ginger we don't mind noisy folk here

[susandun]

Hi Ginger, I have quite a lot of info on the Borders Duns as John Dun and Catherine Sanderson were my husband's GG Grandparents and my husband's aunt has all the family details going back to John's father George and Euphemia Lees. All of the info on their descendants is on Michael Dun's site dun.org. The family still own Gilston and also next door Brothershiels which I think as far as I can remember came into the family due to a marriage with one of the papermaking Tods. Despite years of trying I have not managed to get the Duns back beyond George/Euphemia though I would love to. I suspect the family were at one time farmers at Boleside which is where John's oldest brother Andrew lived before becoming more prosperous, becoming involved as merchants in Galashiels, buying Gilston farm at Heriot and Gilston Modge in Dalkeith. The John you are talking about set up the family firm John Dun & Company with his brother George in 1821, my husband took this firm over from his father in the 1980s though it was subsequently sold when we moved to France where we now live. I've also found a bit about Catherine Sanderson, at least I think I have (but it's mostly supposition!). I have her mother's family as Hoggs from Stow and her father originating somewhere in E Lothian but no details on his parents etc. Any info you can givce me on the Hoggs/Sandersons would be very much appreciated and of course if I can help with the Duns in any way please do just ask.

Best regards
Susan Dun (originally Melrose, now Val d'Isère in France)

[joette]

Hi Susan & .
It's great when your first encounter makes a family connection.If you want to contact Ginger directly-he/she hasn't posted since last year-you can try PM'ing him/her which hopefully if they still have same e-mail should prompt a reply.
Have a look around the site & it's links etc-we are a friendly bunch & we like to help and accept help too .
Jeannette.

[pamelakavanagh]

Hi everyone,

My name is Pamela and I am new to this forum. I work for an antique jewellers in Edinburgh and it appears that we may have an item of great significance to the Tod family in our possession. I don't want to say too much on here yet until I hear back from Ginger9 but I am quite excited about it.

I have sent the private message but thought it best to post this publicly too in case she doesn't see the private message.

[Russell]

Hi Pamela and a warm welcome to TalkingScot
I do hope that Susan and Ginger are still using the same e-mail addresses so they can get the alert for your new post.
I do love when a family related item turns up and someone as alert as you makes the connections. I know from personal experience the buzz you get simply holding an item which an ancestor held so many years ago. Some things have special significance within the family. I have an inscribed pottery piggy bank given to an uncle who did not survive into adulthood. It is the only item connecting my generation to his.
I'm sitting with fingers crossed

Russell