Jessie Cousin, Born 1875, My Grandma, in of near Cadder.

[TrvlWmn]

Happy New Years from The Sunshine State, Port Charlotte, Florida!! Trvl_Wmn AT hotmail.com
My name is Debbie (Deborah) Orgill Davids. I am the daughter of Douglas Haig Orgill and Doris Estelle Fraley Orgill. My dad’s father was John Orgill, born in Lattimer, Pennsylvania (PA), and then moved to Scranton, PA, where I am guessing he met my grandmother, Jessie Cousin(s), apprx birthdate is January 31, 1875, and I did find the possibility of her being born in Cadder and they were married in Scranton Methodist Church in apprx 1895. My dad was the youngest of 6 children, 3 boys and 3 girls. The girls birth year apprx Agnes Moffett Orgill (1886), Margaret Moister Orgill (1897), Ruth Isabel Orgill (1908) and boys Thomas William Orgill (1899) John Cousins Orgill (1903) and at the age of 48 years old , my grandmother gave birth to my dad, Douglas Haig, making his siblings quite a bit older than he, and when they all married and had children, they all had boys which were all more my dad’s age, and making my cousins more like my dad and when they did have children, I was still a bit older than them. My grandfather passed away when my dad was about 12 years old, so it was his siblings that help my grandmother raise him. In 1961 at the age of 86 when I was 9 years old she passed away,. Being at such a young age, no one talked about family and where they came from, brothers, sisters, family stories etc. My dad’s sister Ruth told me that she kept in touch with family in Scotland, but never shared the info before she passed away and I was so young, never asked any questions about extended family, and I don’t even think my dad knew his mom’s birth city exactly in Scotland. We would take my dad to the Scottish Games when they came to a town near where we would be living as he really enjoyed that. My Aunt Ruth gave to me when I became a young teen a porcelain doll that I have sitting right here in my bedroom, since I was the only granddaughter. I was also given some cut glassware, a vase, pitcher, bowl, etc, that she brought back with her. I know she came as a child (6-8), and then I know she made another trip after marrying my grandfather (his surname was Orgill and although he was born in the US, his parents were born in the UK). I was taken once by my Aunt Agnes to New Jersey to meet Aunt Annie whom I was told was my grandma’s sister. I have some old photographs that were taken in the US and on the back it has Grandma and Grandpa Cousins on some, another says George Cousins. My Grandma Cousin Orgill is buried in the Dunmore Cemetary after passing away on May, 31, 1961.
I am hoping that someone will recognize names and dates and will be able to share information on any family in Scotland, where my grandmother was born in Scotland, family we might have here in the US so that I can pass it on to my children and they know something about my side of the family. In undertaking this project, I was shocked to find out that my father’s father, were from the UK. My husband is retired US military and then joined me in working overseas at embassies, but it was 17yrs in Africa, and before leaving our last post was Kenya. Any and all help appreciated.

email address altered by Admin to avoid being picked up by spammers

[StewL]

Hello Debbie

I am hopeful that others on the forum will read your message, and be able to help you.
They are a great lot on TS for searching for ancestors

[carolineasb]

Hi Debbie,

I happened to have a few credits on the Scotlands People website so I had a look for Jessie's birth.

There is indeed a birth for a Jessie Cousin born on 31st January 1875 in Cadder, Lanark. So if you have further info from family stating this date, it looks like it might be her. Her father stated is John Cousin (an Iron Miner) and her mother is stated as Agnes Moffat. Their date of marriage looks like 1st January 1872 in Auchinairn. If you register with Scotlands People and purchase some credits you can have a look at this Certificate and start working backwards in your family.

You may wish to amend your post too to remove your full email address as apparently spammers can use this online.

Hope this helps,

Regards

Carolineasb

[SarahND]

Hi Debbie,
Following from Caroline's find, this looks like the family in 1881:

Davidson's Land, Cadder, Lanarkshire
John Cousin, 42, head, born Cadder, Lanarkshire, Ironstone Miner
Agnes Cousin, 36, wife, born Old Monkland, Lanarkshire
William Cousin, 8, son, born Cadder, Lanarkshire, scholar
Jessie Cousin, 6, daughter, born Cadder, Lanarkshire, scholar
James Cousin, 3, son, born Cadder, Lanarkshire
Agnes G Cousin, 1, daughter, born Cadder, Lanarkshire

and it ties in with this family in 1910 who are living next door to the Orgills:

Scranton Ward 1, Lackawanna, Pennsylvania
Cousin, John, Head, 73, married 40 years, born Scotland, came to U.S. in 1882, Own income
--- Agnes, wife, 64, married 40 years, 6 children born, 5 still living, came to U.S. in 1883
--- William, son, 37, widowed, born Scotland, came to U.S. in 1883, Coal miner
--- James, boarder, 32, born Scotland, came to U.S. in 1883, Coal miner
--- Agnes, boarder, 29, born Scotland, came to U.S. in 1883
--- Isabel, boarder, 26 born Scotland, Winder in Silk Mill

Some odd things, e.g. they are all noted as Gaelic speakers, whereas Jessie Orgill is supposed to be an English speaker, but I have learned never to trust information from the census without another backup source!

All the best,
Sarah

[TrvlWmn]

Thank those for the quick response, and I am sure it was obvious I am very new at this! I will purchase the credits and try researching on the Scotlands People website and see what I can come up with. The home in Scranton, PA, was my birthplace, and my dad told me it was built by his dad and upon my dad's marriage to my mom, my Grandma Cousin Orgill sold it to him for USD 1 (a gift). It was a large duplex home for at least 2 families. While I was young, we lived on one side and my mom's brother's family lived on the other side. Scranton, PA, was before I was born a coal mining town, and my dad's oldest brother Tom was killed in the mines before I was born.
Is there another area on talkingscot or somewhere else you might suggest to search for family members still living in Scotland? My sons purchased Ancestry.com for me for Christmas, but I was having all most no luck with the Cousin Surname. I am really sorry I have waited so long to do this, but I was either to young or the resources were not available were we lived. I mentioned I have my Grandma's bisque doll sitting right here and the cut glassware she brought with her and I have 1 granddaughter and would love to tell her a little about my grandma when I pass it on, and who knows, maybe even get to visit.

[SarahND]

Hi Debbie,
Since you have Ancestry, you can search the censuses for John and Agnes before their marriages and get information about their siblings. It looks as though All of John and Agnes' children went to the U.S., so none of their descendants would still be in Scotland (unless they went back, of course, but you can check that in the U.S. censuses on Ancestry).

If you want to find relatives in Scotland, you'll have to see whether or not John and Agnes had siblings and then trace their families forward. Again, I would suggest you do this by trying to find them on the censuses on Ancestry, then using Scotlands People to get the birth, marriage and death certificates to verify your information.

Scottish certificates from 1855 onward are very informative, giving parents' names and occupations. If you download Jessie's birth you will have the names of her parents. Then John and Agnes' marriage will give you the names of THEIR parents and so on. If John and Agnes' parents lived past 1855 their death certificates will tell the names of their parents and you can go back even further. Before 1855 it will not be so easy, but first get all the information you can from the "easy" records.

You should also learn to use wildcards in your search, to allow for different spellings and/or mis-transcriptions. There is a post in the Talking Scot Library about this: viewtopic.php?f=39&t=10334

One last thing about searching censuses on Ancestry: The search is very picky about how you word the birth place, so I would just leave it blank. You can then scan through the results and see if a birthplace matches, but often when you put that information in the search box it will come up with no results, even though the results are actually there…

Happy hunting!!

Sarah

[trish1]

Hi Debbie

If you are new to family history - I thought to mention there are many index records for Scots families on the family search (LDS church) website
https://familysearch.org/search

Civil records for scotland from 1855 to 1874 & a couple of other years which I never remember are there - so in relation to the information from caroline

John Cousin, "Scotland, Marriages, 1561-1910"
Name: John Cousin
Spouse's Name: Agnes Moffat
Event Date: 01 Jan 1872
Event Place: Cadder,Lanark,Scotland

There is also the birth of a brother of Jessie

John Cousin in entry for William Cousin, "Scotland, Births and Baptisms, 1564-1950"
Name: William Cousin
Gender: Male
Birth Date: 28 Sep 1872
Birthplace: CADDER,LANARK,SCOTLAND
Father's Name: John Cousin
Mother's Name: Agnes Moffat

It takes awhile to get used to using the site (Sarah is much better at this than I am) but there is no charge & much data on there. Some data sets have images/details as well as the indexes. There are not alot of death/burial records available - mainly birth/baptism/marriage

If you use the information from the 1881 Census - and search for John Cousin on ancestry in the earlier census records - this is probably 1861 (ancestry has a few transcription errors but you can search with 1st names only, surnames only, search in specific counties or parishes)
1861 Scotland lanark Cadder
Agnes Cousin 47 head
John Cousin 21 son Iron miner born Cadder
David Cousin 18
William Cousin 12
Elizabeth Cousin 9
Mary Cousin 6

So Agnes is John's mother & probably a widow - 1871 is there with John still at home. There are also some children surname Muir - one listed as grandchild - the others boarder - probably all related - so more clues

I'm having trouble finding the family in 1851/41 - although there is a possible in 1841 Father William who is a cotton weaver in Cadder . this fits with the Scottish naming patterns as John named his first son William & 2nd daughter Agnes. The naming patterns could also lead to John's wife having parents James and Jessie

There seems to be much to find

Trish

[TrvlWmn]

Thanks everyone for clues and hints, I am hoping the old saying "you can't teach an old dog new tricks" will not apply here and I will find information on Cousins of the past and hopefully some of my time. You have given me a reason to push on, so again many thanks to all!!