Barr family again

[AnneMT]

I have, in my tree Peter Barr who married Helen Inglis on 3rd August, 1793 at Cadder. Assume they were born around 1775.

They had children Margaret(1796), Euphan(1798), Peter Barr (1800), Robert Barr(1806-1860), from whom I am descended, Helen(1810), John (1813), Thomas Barr (1816), and three others, whose details are, as yet unknown. They seem to have been born in Calder/Cadder.

Peter Barr's parents could have been Peter Barr(1731) and Margaret Wright, married December 1752. They also had Janet (1769). and Alexander(1758). All children were born in Cadder.

Robert Barr and Helen Little were married in Barony, Glasgow in 1728, and along with Peter (1731) were Robert (1729) Helen(1733) and Jean (1735), Alexander(1738). All were born in Barony, Glasgow.

Due to the similarity of names, there could be a connection, but I am loathe to add them to my tree, withouth more proof. I am totally confused,so hope you can help.

Any ideas as to how I can confirm these possible connections.

[Anne H]

Hi Anne,

Did you get your information on the families from the IGI or SP. They look like good candidates to be connected, but like you, I wouldn't add them to my tree unless I had something definitive to go by. If you haven't already looked at the official records, I would recommend that you do so. I know...you don't always get much in the way of hints from the OPR's, but every so often you do get lucky and find something that will eventually tie everyone together. Good luck

Regards,
Anne H

[Currie]

Hello Anne,

If you don’t get any further you might end up having to rely a lot on traditional Scottish naming patterns to help you make up your mind about whether to add or not to add. But if you’re going to add someone doubtful you should indicate somewhere that the doubt exists and your reasons for adding the person. Those reasons should also be communicated to anyone to whom you send the tree. Where you can easily get into the realm of fantasy is when you start adding doubtful parents to doubtful parents and it just snowballs. It’s possibly better just to add mention of them to the notes.

There’s a big gap 1793-96 that could well have been filled by a missing daughter with mother’s mother's name and that set of possible parents shows promise. If you knew the mother’s (Inglis) parents names it might help.

Peter Barr appears to be a fairly uncommon name and you can weigh up the odds in relation to Cadder but things get a bit greyer when you start looking at people in other villages even if not a great distance away. On SP on the Birth/Baptism OPR’s there are only 60 Peter Barr’s for the whole of Scotland of which half are Lanark. The IGI has higher numbers probably inflated by duplication. You can get a bit of a handle on the location and timing of these Peter Barr events within Lanark by studying what’s on the IGI.

You may end up finding that there’s nothing available to confirm anything. The people who get furthest back in time in their research are most often those with famous families, those with strangely named ancestors living in isolated villages where all the records have been preserved or those with vivid imaginations.

But remember, it’s your tree and you’re the only one who has to be reasonably satisfied about what you end up doing.

Just a few thoughts on the matter,
Alan

[AnneMT]

Thanks for the advice. Sorry I have not answered sooner. Been mopping up after 3 bad leaks in house. Now back to normal(I hope), and can get back to genealogy.