Searching for Ramsays from Fife.

[David Ramsay]

I am searching for my ancestors who all seem to come from Fife.
I have only been searching for a short period, with some good results, but have hit a brickwall over two items.
1 Thomas ramsay born in baldinnie, Ceres, 1695 married Agnes Russell in Newburn 1720, she was born at baldinnie about 1699.
I am trying to trace thomas's parents and have found two entries on the IGI and SP that both had a child called Thomas, but which one is right.???

2 how would one find births after 1906 in scotland without having to travel up to Edinburgh.???
any help is really welcome
Many thanks
David

[Liz Turner]

Hi there David and welcome to TS. You'll find everyone very friendly and they'll help when they can.

There are a number of folk on this site with good knowledge of Fife and so I'm sure you'll get some suggestions very soon.

With regard to looking for births since 1906, short of going to Edinburgh I think you're reliant on someone looking up the records for you.

Which part of Fife are your ancestors from? My own come mainly from the coastal areas from Kilrenny/Pittenweem round to St Andrew's.

Good luck with your searching.

Liz

[emanday]

Hi David,

A very warm welcome to Talking Scot

On the off chance that you don't already have all these (children of Thomas and Agnes)

Robert Ramsay - Christening: 06 AUG 1721 Baldinnie, Ceres, Fife
John Ramsay - Christening: 10 FEB 1723 Baldinnie, Ceres, Fife
MARGARET RAMSAY - Christening: 01 MAY 1726 Ceres, Fife
Agnes Ramsay - Christening: 12 NOV 1727 Baldinnie, Ceres, Fife
Isabel Ramsay - Christening: 06 JUL 1729 Baldinnie, Ceres, Fife
JEAN RAMSAY - Christening: 04 JUL 1731 Ceres, Fife - Death: 18 MAY 1733
David Ramsay - Christening: 16 SEP 1733 Baldinnie, Ceres, Fife
Katharine Ramsay - Christening: 14 DEC 1735 Baldinnie, Ceres, Fife
Thomas Ramsay - Christening: 30 APR 1738 Baldinnie, Ceres, Fife
JAMES RAMSAY - Christening: 11 JUL 1740 Ceres, Fife

...do any of the children's names fit with either of the potential parent pairs if they used the usual naming pattern?

[Russell]

Hi David

The Talkingscot team welcomes you to the fount of Scottish family knowledge - Well We like to think so anyway

Seriously though we have unscrambled some very scrambled family lines but hope your searches are made that bit easier because they are in Fife. Many of mine are from just down the road in Cellardyke and the records were so much better than in other parts of Scotland.

Question 1
To find some of our early family we had to track down the children of a particular couple and look for the evidence of family naming patterns. Generally they followed the pattern in Fife and we were able to identify which line was ours. Its a slow process but once its done there are often clues to the parents in the previous generation.
Question 2
More recent records have to be eyeballed in person either in Edinburgh or Park Circus in Glasgow or be exteremely friendly and find some kind soul who will do the look-ups for you in either place.
We discourage folk from posting requests on-line about potentially still living people so a personal view of the records is as much as can be done, short of hiring a professional to do it for you.

Russell

[David Ramsay]

Thanks to Russell for your advice.
Thank you Liz, my ancesters come from Ceres, Kilconquhar and Largo
thats as much as I have been able to find out.

Emandy, Thank you very much for that information, which I have complete with images from OPRs. a few with death dates.
Its the parents of Thomas and Agnes Russell I am having problems with.
THANKS again
David

[emanday]

I know you are trying to find his parents details but, as Russell said

To find some of our early family we had to track down the children of a particular couple and look for the evidence of family naming patterns. Generally they followed the pattern in Fife and we were able to identify which line was ours. Its a slow process but once its done there are often clues to the parents in the previous generation.

Do any of the children's names, which I listed just in case you didn't have them, match with the "potential parents'" names?

[David Ramsay]

Hi Mary,
Unfortunatly I have not been able to trace any of the children of the 2 possiable Ramsays.
There is an Alexander Ramsay from St. Andrews and St leonards who is married Agnes Jacksone, they had a son called Thomas on 15/9/1695
Also a James Ramsay from Cults, who had a son called thomas on 04/04/1695
This is the year of Thomas Ramsays birth, but because I havent been able to trace any parents for either, I havent been able to see if they had children of simular names.
With regards to post 1906 I think I will have a few days up in Edinburgh, searching.
Once again Thanks
David

[LesleyB]

Hi David
...and Welcome to Talking Scot
As Russell & Emanday have mentioned, if you know all the children's names of YOUR Thomas & Agnes, you might, if they followed the Scottish naming pattern, be able to work out the likely names of the parents of both parties.

You may need to see the OPR enties - there is always a chance that your Thomas may have carried on the same trade as his father for instance, whcih might give a clue if this is mentioned in the OPR- but occupations are often not mentioned.

For post-1906 info, you can request a specific birth from GROS too. See:
http://www.gro-scotland.gov.uk/famrec/h ... flet2.html

Best wishes
Lesley

[emanday]

Hi David,

I think you might be misunderstanding what I mean about naming patterns. In Scotland families often named their children to reflect/honour previous generations. If you look at this site...

http://homepages.rootsweb.com/~scottish ... terns.html

...you will see what I mean. Basically Thomas and Agnes may have used this pattern in the choice of names for their children.

[LesleyB]

Whoops, snap Mary!!