general musing

Excuse me for using this post to just muse about some of the stuff I've found in investigating mid-18th century Scotland.

It is said in the family that they were from Ayrshire, but there are several of these towns south and west of Glasgow that would do, and I'm not sure if the borders of Ayrshire are the same now as they were then. So I'm looking into towns like Eaglesham, Kilmarnock, Craigie (Ayr), but even Cambusnethan and a few others.

Obviously it would be best to find a family with all six: William, James, Hugh, John, Thomas and Nathaniel. If we find a family with two or three we can make the other ones cousins or we can say that Thomas and Nathaniel just appeared to be family, landed nearby, but perhaps were more distant cousins like the hundreds of other Wallaces landing in Pennsylvania at the time. I'm banking on the idea that they're picking places to settle (Cecil County Maryland, Carlisle, Wallace Run) based on whether they have family already there, and I'm trying to find that family; that's why I'm suspecting Thomas and Nathaniel's involvement. Plenty came over before them and plenty would follow.

It was said by more than one genealogist that John was from Craigie (Ayr). That's certainly plausible, but when I reconstruct a family, it's a little inadequate. It makes me wonder where they got their information. Was it something someone said, in the family? Was it a document? Craigie is plausible and there are various ways to make it work, but I'm curious about the source of someone's information. And I have no doubt that it was copied and recopied.

There are three stated possibilities for his death: 1808, 1810, and unknown. The 1808 date belongs to anoother John and is usuallly accompanied by Butler PA which is that same other John. Not ours. The 1810 one is like other information: one wonders where it came from. It's not accompanied by any proof or a gravestone. I have found two relatively unmarked gravestones that attract me and make me suspect it is our John. By unmarked I mean they say John Wallace, but don't have a birth date, or death date, or any information about who they were. One is in Sinking Valley PA. If you've been following this blog you'll know that that's where a William (who would be his son) died, saving things out of a house that was on fire, the house of his younger brother; perhaps the brother and father ended up back in Sinking Valley. But the other one is in Craigie. Perhaps he went home one more time, not to Northern Ireland, but to Scotland. Went home, died, and was buried, but the marking on the headstone was either too faint, or not there at all.

I like the Auchinleck family, if only because I like the name Auchinleck, but alas, that's not a good enough reason to stick with one family. I am finding myself doubting that any family would register five babies at the courthouse, and then simply neglect to register John. In otherwords, I'm leaning toward explanations where John was born later, but at lleast born and registered like two or three of his older brothers. Most of these families have another William, a James, a Robert, possibly a Thomas. Very few have Hughs. Very few have Nathaniels too. But plenty of Williams were having. babies all over Ayr/Glasgow at the time and we will have a significant number of choices. In rural Scotland at that time they didn't register the mother's name which means we can make assumptions. Mary, Margaret, Helen, or Mary Margaret Helen, it had to be one of them. We can assume that if we have six or seven kids born in seven or eight years, there we have a family. And our odds are going up.

I definitely have enough to write a boook.