Would the correct John Aitken step forward please.....

dano · Post by **dano** » Thu May 18, 2006 4:06 am

Hello & greetings to all.

I am searching for the parents of John Aitken b abt 1740 in Stirlingshire

John married Mary Marshall 1767 in Slamannan and they had the following children all born Slamannan

James b 1769
Thomas b 1772
John b 1773
Henry b 1774
John b 1776 m Agnes Waddell
Christian b 1779
Mary b 1781
Robert b 1784
Andrew b 1786
Agnes b 1788

There are a few couples vying to be named as parents but I need something other than my guess. They are not listed in East Stirlingshire Pre 1855 monumental inscriptions.

Could there be mort cloth records somewhere?

John b 1776 had 2 farms at the time of his death in 1842 Bellsrigg Farm Polmont & Glenrigg Farm Falkirk. These farms stayed with the family.

Could the ownership of the farms (or the lease) have passed down from earlier generation, giving me some clues?

Is there anywhere else I can look?

I am in Australia so any assistance or guidance is gratefully accepted

Cheers
Dano

LesleyB · Post by **LesleyB** » Thu May 18, 2006 9:10 am

Hi Dano
..and a warm welcome to Talking Scot

There are quite a number of Aitken wills, inventories and testaments on Scotlands People for the Stirling Courts - worth a look at the results of free search if you have not tried this already just to see if any look likely.

Certainly the OPRs would be worth a look if you have not already seen those - you can order the films from your local LDS centre. These can often contain little clues which help you build up a rounder picture of the family you are researching. e.g. a marriage may state which parish the two parties were from, children's christenings may include occupations and sometimes witnessess to the christening with their occupations which can give you clues as to other family members.
The references for these are: (though depending on the size of the parish they might all be on the one film)
http://www.gro-scotland.gov.uk/files/li ... 0to491.pdf jsp
489. SLAMANNAN (formerly St. Lawrence)
489/1 B 1681-1751 M 1681-88 D 1681-88
489/2 B 1751-1819 M 1699-1819 D -
489/3 B 1820-54 M 1820-54 D -

And any kirk session records would be worth a look, although this is not possible yet from a distance. There are moves to digitise the Kirk Session records and make them available online, but thats a while away yet. Sometimes these are in amongst the OPR film but it does not look like this is the case with Slamannan:
http://www.gro-scotland.gov.uk/files/opr_app2.pdf jsp

Best wishes
Lesley

dano · Post by **dano** » Fri May 19, 2006 1:29 am

Hello Lesley,

Thanks for your welcome & your advice. I have noted those film numbers and will see if I can get to a LDS centre.

I have looked for wills and infact have downloaded the will of John Aitken b 1776 and 2 of his sons. as well as a few odd others. But without knowing who John's parents are, that option becomes very expensive.

I will keep in searching
Thanks & regards
Dano

LesleyB · Post by **LesleyB** » Fri May 19, 2006 8:46 am

Hi Dano

There are a few couples vying to be named as parents but I need something other than my guess.

I'm assuming your guess is based on the naming of John's children, working from the Scottish naming pattern? If you have all the children (it can be difficult to be sure of this!) then it looks like the likely names for his parents are James & Mary.

I've had a situation similar to this a few times now. I find its best to pursue any likely looking couple and eventually you should be able to either prove or disprove the theory. It requires a fair bit of digging about though in MIs, OPRs, & often other records held at NAS such as Kirk Session & legal documents - just about anything you an get your hands on, immmerrse your head in that parish....oh, and a reasonable dose of serendipity helps....

Best wishes
Lesley