STEVENSON of Glasgow and Stirlingshire

[NadineS]

I'm searching for my husband's ancestors, but I don't know where to look for information.
I would like to find the parents of my husband's GGgrandfather, Alexander Stevenson b. about 1806, Glasgow.

Alexander married Janet Campbell 6 Nov 1825 in St. Ninians, Stirlingshire.
Their first two children were born in Stirlingshire:
Robert Stevenson b. 17 July 1827
Alexander Stevenson b. 17 Oct 1833
The family moved to Canada in 1834 and the other children were born there.

There seems to be no info in the IGI or on scotlandspeople that I can see except their marriage.

Thank you for any help,

Nadine

[Russell]

Hi Nadine
Welcome to TalkingScot. You'll find fairly quickly that we are a very 'Talky' lot too.
We try to help folks to help themselves rather than be purely a source of information so sometimes our answers may be a list of questions for you
When I saw the name Stevenson my first thought was "Oh Oh, how many variants of the name have I seen". Have you used a variety of possible spellings to locate him ?
What way have you arranged your wildcards to help in the search?
Stephenson/Stevenson/Stevieson/Stevanson/Stevensen are all possible variants but Ste*ns*n would catch most of them without bringing up too many other names.
Have you found the OPR marriage for Alexander ? There is always a chance that the part of Glasgow he came from may have been mentioned.
There are 3 Alex* Ste*ns*n in Barony, Glasgow which covered a large part of the North East side of the city then (there are 8 in the whole of Lanarkshire).
It might be worth a look at these three, then trying the IGI parent search to see if any names pop up which might be family names.
Do you have any clues as to Alexander's ocupation before he left Scotland. Sometimes that can indicate where he might have lived e.g. Calton was a weaving area while Barony was more linked to mining.
Lots of questions but no clear answers yet.

Russell

[NadineS]

Wow! Thanks for the tips. I'm new at this and I will definitely try the wild cards.
I do have the OPR marriage for Alexander and Janet. It has "StN" at the end after both their names. Can I assume that this applies to both of them, and does this mean that they lived in or were born in St Ninians?
I have no idea of his occupation. He farmed when he came to Ontario.

Nadine

[paddyscar]

Hi Nadine:

In the OPRs there are matches for the names you give, which are more likely to be baptismal, rather than birth records.

Robert Stevenson born to Alexander Stevenson - all records, all parishes between July 1, 1827 - Sep 30, 1827
Alexander Steveson son of Alexander Stevenson - all records, all parishes between Oct 1833 and May 31, 1834

The OPRs also give up 4 records for alexander stevenson b. Jan 1 1805 - dec 31, 1806 Glasgow

Frances

[LesleyB]

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

I would like to find the parents of my husband's GGgrandfather, Alexander Stevenson b. about 1806, Glasgow.

Have you tried looking for his death in Canada? That may give his parents names, but I'm not sure what Canadian death records contain - I'm sure someone can tell us!

Alexander married Janet Campbell 6 Nov 1825 in St. Ninians, Stirlingshire.

It's a pity the OPR marriage does not give you an occupation - some do, some don't! I'd guess that the "St N" you refer to may indicate they are both living in St Ninians parish at the time of their marriage. It doesn't tell you where they were born, unfortunately.

Their first two children were born in Stirlingshire:
Robert Stevenson b. 17 July 1827
Alexander Stevenson b. 17 Oct 1833

If you could find an OPR entry for the children, that may give a few more clues about the family - sometimes an occupation and/or place of residence are given which can add to what you already know about them. However, I'm not seeing anything obvious for Ste*s*n/Cam*bell children on Scotlands People..... where did you find the dates? Are they in a family bible or some similar source?
Frances - was the data you found on SP? if so, I must be having a dense day!!
(also, just as a passing observation, two children b. 1827, then 1833 is a big gap for those days.... )

Best wishes
Lesley

[NadineS]

Hi Frances and Lesley,

Frances, thank you, but the Robert and Alexander you mentioned aren't the ones that I'm searching for. They were still in Edinburgh in 1839, and the ones I'm searching came to Canada in 1834 "when Alexander was a few months old" according to the family bible.

Alexander Sr.'s DC has no parents and only states that he was "born about 1806, Glasgow, Scotland" . Would he have just said he was born in Glasgow , but was actually born near there instead
I did find an Alexander born in St. Ninians to a James Stevenson and Mary Cowan. Have to look deeper into that one cuz a lot of the names are the same.
All other documents just say he was born in Scotland. Not much help.
Robert and Alex Jr's birthdates are taken from their tombstones and the family bible.

Lesley, I think you may be right about the gap in birthdates. Robert's obit says that he was the eldest of 12 (I only have records for 7). Maybe some siblings died young...

I think I may just focus on my own ancestors, Burnfield, Ross, McQueen, Buchanan. lol

Nadine

[Russell]

Hi Nadine

You said your dates were from the Family Bible.
Could I be a little contentious and suggest that you consider all the dates given there as approximate rather than specific. The person recording the information was sometimes entering it at a later date than the actual event and days, months, even years, can be 'mis-remembered (if there is such a word!)
My wife and I have Family Bibles from both sides and there are more errors than accurate dates in each. My g-g-grandfather married three times and the dates for two of the marriages are wrong.
My wife has a list of siblings for 2 generations back and in the middle of the list is the name of a cousin. Correct forename - wrong surname

Use it as a guide but seek corroboration from Birth, Death, Marriage entries. Even the census entries should be treated as approximate.
Once you have two records which agree you are getting there but keep an open mind, and an eye out for additional evidence.

It's good fun though, even in the frustrating times. All of a sudden Bingo another idea or source pops up.

Russell