The Proverbial Brickwall

BarbaramT · Post by **BarbaramT** » Wed Jan 09, 2008 8:16 pm

Hi Everyone
I came across TalkingScot purely by accident and it struck me what a helpful & informative bunch you are and maybe someone might just be able to help me break through my brick wall. With the excellent SP site and the Berwick record office I have traced my Gx4 Grandfather (James Blackie/Blaikie back to the 1770's but I am unable to locate his marriage to a Janet Allan

James was born approx. 1773 (calculated from his death record) and he and Janet had 10 children, all born at Coldingham & Leitholm, the first being born in July 1798.

James death record was crammed with useful additional information ie confirmation of his wifes name, his parents names (John Blackie and Cecillia Melville) also the names of all their children, unfortunately it didn't give the date James and Janet married!!!!!!!!!

To date I have printed off every marriage for every name variation (Blackie/Blaikie and Allan) in every districts from 1780-1820. I have spent hours scrolling through the IGI for Scotland & Berwick-upon-Tweed, all to no avail. Janet Allan was more difficult as I do not know her parents names and she inconsiderately died before 1855 -so no lead there.

I have the death records for 7 of their children and marriage records for 6 of them, none of which give me any useful information, this expensive exercise proved only that James & Janet were their parents.

I tried looking for any siblings to James but could only prove that a John was his brother (born Jan 1789) son of John Blackie & Cecil Melvil at Eyemouth. Any other possibilities were discarded as they only quoted the fathers name. I did follow up a Thomas Blackie who married another Janet Allan in December 1800 but again was thwarted at every turn -Thomas was born to a John Blackie but again no mother was mentioned. I even tracked 2 of their daughters and this exercise also drew a blank.

I have actually found Johns parents marriage -John Blackie & Cecily Melvan married on 5/5/1772 at Eyemouth. This is a great discovery for moving onto the next generation but I would rather finish one before I start on the next.

Can anyone "see" if I have missed something? I consider myself very lucky to have got this far without setting foot in Scotland (I live on the South Coast of England) and have managed to prove everyone of my ancestors until I got to James so I don't suppose I have too much to compain about -but this tiny gap is really beginning to irk me.

I would be interested to hear from anyone who also has been researching the Blackie/Blaike family in Coldingham, Eyemouth, Eccles, Edrom area.

Here's hoping someone can see if I've missed something.

BarbaramT

Thrall · Post by **Thrall** » Thu Jan 10, 2008 5:55 pm

Hi Barbara, and a warm welcome to TS.

Like you, I have been delving into Blaikies/ Blackie in the south east of Scotland, Swinton, Eccles, Abbey St. Bathans and other neighbouring parishes. I'm afraid however that you have got further back than I have; my wall is with William Blaikie, m. Isobel Dyet/Dyer 1823 in Bunckle and Preston, Berwick. Two of their bairns married into my Duncan family, Thomas, b.1823-4 and Maria b.1835-6. They weren´t much for recording births; "common" or agricultural labourers didn´t have pennies for that sort of luxury I´m afraid.

As you will have found, a lot of Thomases and Williams in the area, but difficult to arrange them correctly; if you recognise "my" Blaikies, I would of course be most interested.

Sorry not to be more helpful,

Guid hunting,

Thrall

BarbaramT · Post by **BarbaramT** » Thu Jan 10, 2008 7:18 pm

Hi Thrall

I do recognise the name Isobel Dyet/Dyer and of course one of many many Williams! I don't think Isobel belongs to any of "my" William's though. I have a pile of papers which aren't relevant to "my" Blackies but I will have a look and see if any of it refers to "your" Blackies/Blaikies. I'm afraid I won't be able to sort it until the weekend, but I will look and let you know either way.

Barbara

BarbaramT · Post by **BarbaramT** » Sat Jan 12, 2008 2:11 pm

Hi Thrall
The following are all in my "don't know where they fit in" file and maybe of some use to you.

1824 Thomas born to William Blaikie/Dyet Abbey St.Bathans
1825 Isabel " " " " Chirnside
1827 Robert " " " " Chirnside
1829 Helen " " " " Chirnside
1833 Margaret born to William Blackie/Isabel Dyet Fogo
1831 William " " " " " Edrom

1794 Isabella Blackie m David Smith Foulden
1823 Isabel Dyet m William Blackie Bunkle & Preston
1872 " " m William Carston Coldingham
1873 Isabella Blackie m John Wallace Lauder

1864 Margaret Dayer D maiden Bowmaker Fogo
1869 Isabella Blaikie D " Patterson Duns
1915 " " " D " Duncan Greenlaw

I hope this may of some use to you, but I suspect if you trawl SP like I do you probably have this info already! As yet I haven't connected any of the above with the folk I'm interested in.
I'm also beginning to suspect that Blaikie and Blackie are pretty much the same family. My Mother always referred to her Mother inlaws family as Blaikie (as in hake) and not Blackie (as in mac), even some of my records for the same family contain both spelling! And as for them all being called William, George, Janet, Elizabeth John and Agnes it tends to make research just that bit harder.

Regards Barbara

Thrall · Post by **Thrall** » Sat Jan 12, 2008 6:10 pm

Hi Barbara, and thank you for your list. I have some but not all of these, so you have saved me time and perhaps also some pounds!

My grandmother´s elder brother Thomas Blaikie Duncan b. 1873 should have been easy to trace with that distinctive middle name; unfortunately he dropped the Blaikie on crossing the border south, so I have given up looking for his family, and wait patiently for the 1911 census as I´m told his children had fairly uncommon names!

Hope you have success with your Blaikie/Blackies.

Guid hunting,

Thrall

Spacot · Post by **Spacot** » Fri Jan 25, 2008 12:19 pm

I do not know if my Blaikie is related to your family, but I have a Thomas Blaikie Born 21 Jul 1880 to Thomas Blaikie and Margaret Swanson?
Marries Margaret Wood Sanson 1907 South Leith
Spacot

Thrall · Post by **Thrall** » Sat Jan 26, 2008 6:23 pm

Hi Spacot, no, I don´t think your Thomas Blaikie is closely connected to my lot, but perhaps if you went back far enough................

Guid hunting,

Thrall

Thrall · Post by **Thrall** » Wed Dec 29, 2010 3:20 am

Thrall wrote: My grandmother´s elder brother Thomas Blaikie Duncan b. 1873 should have been easy to trace with that distinctive middle name; unfortunately he dropped the Blaikie on crossing the border south, so I have given up looking for his family, and wait patiently for the 1911 census
Thrall

Well, with the publication of the 1911 English census, I have drawn a complete blank. Distinctive children´s names yes,
not a single real hit, but my mother spoke to two of the children about 60-90 years back so they did exist, even if their parents, dare I say it, were not married, and the records don´t seem to reflect a family with the right names.
Obviously a real challenge!

Guid hunting,

Thrall

affleckdna · Post by **affleckdna** » Mon May 25, 2015 9:07 pm

Re : Thomas Blaiklie Duncan and a connection to the Blaiklie family.
I stumbled upon this old post and am wondering if you are still interested in the connection that does exist between the Blaiklie and Duncan families of Berwick. You may already have this information so please forgive me

William Blaiklie and Isabel Dyet's youngest daughter Maria Blaikie b. abt 1836 in Fogo, Berwickshire, Scotland married John Duncan b. 17 Oct 1834 in Alness,Ross and Cromarty [although they were Berwickshire Duncans]. They had a daughter Hellen 'Nellie' Blaiklie Duncan b abt 1875 Eccles, Berwickshire

John Duncan [ the father of Hellen 'Nellie' Blaiklie Duncan] had a younger brother Alexander Duncan b.18 Jul 1840 Coldstream, Berwick. It was Alexander who married Annie McFarlane from Port of Montieth, Perthshire. Alexander and Annie named their second Thomas Blaiklie Duncan. Thomas Blaiklie Duncan and Hellen Blaiklie Duncan were first cousins.

If you wish to know anything about the Gideon Duncans I have a considerable amount of research showing their relationships

Kind regards
Charles Affleck
New Zealand

Thrall · Post by **Thrall** » Wed Jun 24, 2015 3:47 pm

affleckdna wrote:Re : Thomas Blaiklie Duncan and a connection to the Blaiklie family.
I stumbled upon this old post and am wondering if you are still interested in the connection that does exist between the Blaiklie and Duncan families of Berwick. You may already have this information so please forgive me

William Blaiklie and Isabel Dyet's youngest daughter Maria Blaikie b. abt 1836 in Fogo, Berwickshire, Scotland married John Duncan b. 17 Oct 1834 in Alness,Ross and Cromarty [although they were Berwickshire Duncans]. They had a daughter Hellen 'Nellie' Blaiklie Duncan b abt 1875 Eccles, Berwickshire

John Duncan [ the father of Hellen 'Nellie' Blaiklie Duncan] had a younger brother Alexander Duncan b.18 Jul 1840 Coldstream, Berwick. It was Alexander who married Annie McFarlane from Port of Montieth, Perthshire. Alexander and Annie named their second Thomas Blaiklie Duncan. Thomas Blaiklie Duncan and Hellen Blaiklie Duncan were first cousins.

If you wish to know anything about the Gideon Duncans I have a considerable amount of research showing their relationships

Hi Charles, thank you for that. Annie McFarlane was my grandmother, so I am with you on this. The 1911 census proved to be the key to Thomas Blaikie Duncan's family, which turned out to have moved temporarily to Leith, where his mother and sister in law were also present, the latter a "golf ball painter" which is my most unusual occupation to date. I have since found and met most enjoyably one cousin through Thomas Blaikie Duncan, in England who visits TS.

I have seven Gideon Duncans at least, so no shortage there.
Are we related?

Thrall

TalkingScot.com