Smail Family

Kate · Post by **Kate** » Sun Oct 15, 2006 1:57 am

Hi this is my first time on this site,so hope i am doing everything right.
My 3xgrandparents were David Smail/Smeal and Janet Sharp i have not found any record of their marriage but their firat child was born in 1806 Stow if any one has any more info on this family it would be great to hear from you Thanks Kate

LesleyB · Post by **LesleyB** » Sun Oct 15, 2006 12:33 pm

Hi Kate
...and a warm welcome to Talking Scot

The IGI has these two extracts: (Which you probably know of already!)

Scotland, British Isles
Father: David Smail, Mother: Janet Sharp
Exact Spelling: Off

International Genealogical Index / British Isles - 2
1. ARCHIBALD SMAEL - International Genealogical Index
Gender: Male Birth: 25 APR 1809 Stow, Midlothian, Scotland

2. MARGARET SMAEL - International Genealogical Index
Gender: Female Birth: 10 JUL 1807 Stow, Midlothian, Scotland

Best wishes
Lesley

Kate · Post by **Kate** » Sun Oct 15, 2006 7:20 pm

Many Thanks for the welcome Lesley yes they are part of my family hoping to find parents for David or janet now Thanks again Kate

LesleyB · Post by **LesleyB** » Sun Oct 15, 2006 9:48 pm

Hi Kate
If you have a list of their children (they may have had more than the two above?) then that may give you some clues as to their parents' names if they used the Scottish naming pattern which many families did. This can give you a starting point from which to work...
http://talkingscot.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=3973

Are they still around for the 1841? If so, you may be able to get some rough idea of ages and whether born in, or not in, the county they were living in at the time.

Best wishes
Lesley

Russell · Post by **Russell** » Sun Oct 15, 2006 11:52 pm

Hi Kate

Just had a quick look at the counties IGI search and found another daughter
Betty SMEAL born 2nd March 1806.
There are several other couples with similar name in the parish but only the three children with David and Janet as parents.

Since there are only three children born in Stow and larger families were the norm I wondered if they had moved on from Stow.
I would suggest widening your search to include Small/Smeal/Smail/Smael/Smeal. Spelling was very informal back then and a name could be spelt three different ways in the one sentence.
I have one with four different spellings and that was in the 1840's

Russell

Kate · Post by **Kate** » Mon Oct 16, 2006 3:40 am

Thank you both for your replys Yes the Smail family moved on from Stow to Temple going by the scottish naming patterns David Smail's parents would have been Archibald and Margaret i have found them but not sure how to prove they are the right ones Many Thanks Again Kate

LesleyB · Post by **LesleyB** » Mon Oct 16, 2006 8:59 am

Hi Kate
Have you looked at the OPR for the births of the three children we know of so far? Just sometimes these can give small clues - occupation, place the family lived etc. Once you are back this far the clues become thinner on the ground and it can take quite a bit of rummaging around, picking up small bits of information to piece together what you can.

Content of OPRs as follows:
699. STOW
699/1 B 1626-1721 M 1641-1721 D -
699/2 B 1722-83 M 1721-82 D -
699/3 B 1783-1819 M 1782-1819 D -
699/4 B - M - D 1722-1819
699/5 B 1819-54 M 1819-54 D 1820-54

700. TEMPLE
700/1 B 1688-1780 M - D -
700/2 B 1781-1819 M - D -
700/3 B - M 1688-1819 D -
700/4 B - M - D 1697-1815
700/5 B 1821-54 M 1819-54 D -

It also helps to know things like what other Smail families were in the area, as they may be related. Best way to do this is to trawl through a census film for the area, starting with 1841.

If, for instance you can indentify a younger sibling of your David, they may have lived until after 1855 and so with any luck provide you with the parents' names on the death entry. (I'm making the assumption here that David didn't live till then, but I might be wrong!)

You can order films of both OPRs & census years from your local LDS family history centre for a small fee.

Also monumental inscriptions are worth checking, just incase there are some clues there.
Best wishes
Lesley

Kate · Post by **Kate** » Mon Oct 16, 2006 11:58 pm

Thanks for all your help Lesley when i get to towwn i will be going to the LDs family centre finding out more may give us a clue to Janet Sharp's parents etc with a 6th cousin i found in Edinburgh we have managed to put together quite a good tree of the Smail's and in doing that i even discovered some that had been living in NZ just about 300 miles from where i was brought up.One of the exciting things finding my 6th cousin was he came out to NZ in February bringing his family we had a great time Thanks again Kate