Scottish birth records

I took a little tour of Scottish birth records, for our six, James, William, Hugh, John, Thomas, and Nathaniel. Actually the more I looked into Thomas and Nathaniel, the more I doubted their involvement. Nathaniel had an interesting line; if his father William had four or five kids that would be good, but it looked doubtful. He may indeed have emigrated to PA/OH but his main connection to John was the claim that Mary Margaret Helen Muir was their mother - while that may be true, the other things about him were somewhat tenuous. With Thomas there was a Thomas in Cecil County MD but someone said his family had been there for a while, so he wouldn't then be a brother or even half brother of our four.

That leaves James, William, Hugh, and John, and there were several William-Wallace-Mary Margaret or Helen combinations, families living around interesting places.

One family lived in Auchinleck, Ayr. Cool, huh? This family had two Johns and a James, and also a Jane. The problem with having two Johns - one was 1754, the next 1763, is that it was probably the second who lived, and 1763 was too late to get passage in 1774 and marry that same year. Maybe the. first one lived? '54 we could work with, but then the 1763 would be an imposter. Also we'd still have to find a William and a Hugh. Still possible, though.

One family lived in Cambusnethen. That's not far from Cairnhill, but not really in Ayr (though I'm not sure). The Cambusnethen family had a William, Thomas, and a John. Once again there were two Johns, a 1747 and a 1754. In this case the second one would work; he'd be 20 at passage. Perfect! Their mother was Margaret Aiken, though. A stretch from Mary Margaret Helen Muir, or even from "Mary" as it is alleged his wife was.

There were possibilities in Coylton, Craigie, and Riccarton, all with good geography. See if you say their father is William Wallace and their mother could be Mary, Margaret, Helen or any combination of the above, you have a lot of choices. What we want is a James, William, Hugh, and John who coould all get impatient by 1770 & bail together. A Thomas or Nathaniel thrown in there would be icing on the cake so to speak.