Cumming Comyn - Carmunnock East Kilbride Glasgow Lanarkshire

[DCITaggart]

I am in Ontario Canada and have been recently researching my Cumming family history in Scotland. Our relatives came from the Carmunnock area of Glasgow in the 1840s. Also East Kilbride and Cathkin areas are mentioned. The tree I've seen and researched goes back to the early 1700s. I have used familysearch.org and Scotlands Peoples/Places websites extensively plus a large amount of Googling.

I have many questions. Firstly I am looking at a lot of the available Cumming (Cumyng, Cuming, Cummyng, etc.) info for the documented Glasgow merchants in the 1600s. The book "The Burgess & Guild Brethren of Glasgow 1573-1750" is very valuable as it describes some family relationships. The book about the Maltmen of Glasgow was useful also as there were several Cumming maltmen in Glasgow. The online Burgh of Glasgow documents also contain many valuable references here.

So, Carmunnock is only about 5 miles from the merchant area in Glasgow, but I cannot as of yet find positive linkage between the Glasgow merchant families and the Carmunnock families in the 1600s. I have some possibilities as yet unexplored but I wonder if anyone can shed some light here for me? I just have trouble believing that they are two separate independent "strains" given the close proximity.

The only linkage theory I have at this time relates to Alexander Cumming (Glasgow merchant) and wife Isobel Fleming, married in 1651. A 1667 land tax record for Carmunnock and one other has entries that says I believe "Coming and Fleyming".

I have also been reading about the more ancient history with respect to the Comyn's and the power struggles in the 12th and 13th centuries with Robert the Bruce, etc. I have looked at the Comyn trees documented from that time and see no linkage to the Cumming's in Glasgow in the later times (1500s/1600s). The Comyn's did have power in the area (The Comyns of Kilbride and the castles of East Kilbride and Kirkintilloch to the north) but the family trees for those branches all seem to die out on the male side.

So, is there any linkage to the old Comyn's documented? Is it suspected that the Glasgow Cumming's have origins from the old Comyn clan or clans? If not, where did the Glasgow area Cumming's come from? Is there a separate path to England or Ireland instead?

I would also be interested if anyone has any direct knowledge of my tree. The last generations in Scotland for me include (all born in Cathkin - Carmunnock):

John Cumming abt1716 - 1789, wife Agnes Thomson, married 1741.
James Cumming 1742-1829 wife Mary Reid, married 1775.
James Cumming 1789-1846 wife Agnes Craig, married 1813. James in buried here in Canada - visited his grave site a couple of days ago.

The birth for John Cumming in 1716 has not been verified by myself yet - no OPR for that definitively. Linking back becomes very hard as everyone seems to be named John.

Thank you.
Terry Cumming

[Russell]

Hello Terry and welcome to
As you have discovered, when you get back before the earlier written records it can be very difficult validating a family line. In giving your various sources you have taught some of our members who are new at this game that there are many possible sources beyond the on-line possibilities.
I can't help with your family search but applaud the name variants you have discovered. We had a similar problem with my wife's Lapraik line It is qute common in Scotland to find clusters of population with the same surname - rich and poor in the same area with their relationships tenuous at best. You may have reached a stage where you are beyond full verification particularly when the usual naming pattern wasn't followed.
Hopefully one of our members is tracing the same lines and will welcome you with open arms. Alternatively search engines like Google often draw people to TalkingScot when a family name crops up. Fingers crossed they may come along soon

Russell

[DCITaggart]

Hopefully one of our members is tracing the same lines and will welcome you with open arms. Alternatively search engines like Google often draw people to TalkingScot when a family name crops up. Fingers crossed they may come along soon
Russell

Thanks for the insights into your searches Russell. Hopefully somebody somewhere will connect here via a search.

Terry