Tinkers and Travellers

[cairnie]

My ancestors were from the travelling community. Mainly McCallum, Stewart, McLaren, Campbell., Adam. Some lived in bow tents near Black Hill Helensburgh others around Drymen and Balfron, and some around the Stirling area. The men worked mainly as farm labourers and ploughmen and the women were hawkers. As I have only recently been told this I was wondering if anyone could help by guiding me as to where I could find out more about tinkers and their way of life, especially my own family.

[Hibee]

Hi Cairnie

Have you looked in here?

http://www.rtfhs.org.uk/

Hibee

[annie1]

Hi Cairnie,

I have just finished reading Jess Smith's Tears for a tinker, which gives a great understanding about a travellers way of life, her books are funny, sad and have many interesting tales, although its about her own life as a traveller, it sums up the life they led.
She has her own website, just google jess smith and you can see all the other books she has written.

Ann

[cairnie]

What a fantastic help. I will certainly be doing a lot of reading in the next while. These were just the sort of websites I needed to find out more about the life of the travelling people. Many thanks.

[carlineric]

Hi

I have a couple of photographs taken at the Folk Museum at Newtonmore of their tinker/traveller encampment would you like copies?

Eric

[cairnie]

Yes that would be great. Thanks Eric with all this help I will be able to build a picture of my ancestors way of life.

[carlineric]

I came across this in Vital Registration which was the handbook for registrars

Gypsies' and Tinkers' Children

A large portion of these are entitled to be registered as Legitimate. A Date and Place of Marriage must be stated

Not a few of the parents are married in the ordinary way. Others, by living together and holding themselves out as married persons, have sufficiently declared their matrimonial consent possible even without specific promise or de proesenti acknowledgement, thus constituting a marriage by "habit and repute."

Generally, where marriage is alleged, even although it may be irregular and unregistered (as just indicated), the children may be recorded in the usual form for legitimate children. And special research has shown me that most of these itinerants' offspring are registered in that form. But in one or two very rare instances where the alleged marriage was attempted to be qualified as being a union only "for the time being," the child has had to registered by one or both parents as illegitimate.

.

Eric

[cairnie]

I came across this in Vital Registration which was the handbook for registrars

Gypsies' and Tinkers' Children

A large portion of these are entitled to be registered as Legitimate. A Date and Place of Marriage must be stated

Not a few of the parents are married in the ordinary way. Others, by living together and holding themselves out as married persons, have sufficiently declared their matrimonial consent possible even without specific promise or de proesenti acknowledgement, thus constituting a marriage by "habit and repute."

Generally, where marriage is alleged, even although it may be irregular and unregistered (as just indicated), the children may be recorded in the usual form for legitimate children. And special research has shown me that most of these itinerants' offspring are registered in that form. But in one or two very rare instances where the alleged marriage was attempted to be qualified as being a union only "for the time being," the child has had to registered by one or both parents as illegitimate.

.

Eric

Trying to unravel the family tree is quite a nightmare as cousins married cousins almost never marrying outside the familes They also seem to have followed the old practise of naming their children after parents, grandparents etc. meaning each generation had the same first and last names as the one before. I have found on children's birth certificates date of the parent marriage, only I can to find no marriages to match on SP or elsewhere. Baring out above. Most of the children are registered. Is it true that this was so they could receive poor relief in the parish? I find tinkers a fascinating subject but know so little about their way of life. My grandfather was born in a bow tent to a tinker family married my grandmother who was illigitimate and had been adopted. They had six children and the many offspring are today accountants, lawyers etc. Surely with all the inbreeding and our heritage we should be layabouts with health problems.

[Tracey]

Not knowing what a Bow Tent was i googled it and found this site http://www.ambaile.co.uk/en/item/item_p ... tem_id=388 that may be useful.

[cairnie]

Not knowing what a Bow Tent was i googled it and found this site http://www.ambaile.co.uk/en/item/item_p ... tem_id=388 that may be useful.

Brilliant site. with excellent photo's. Learned a lot today. Thanks.