Hi bob thanks

well your no to far away i am in stranrar brave n often i have a sister lives in glasgow, barrhead love getting over when i can will be over in august at the world pipeband champion ships in glasgow . thanks for the offer of help as i will need some help i think.

Thanks Bob.  Good to have authentic information.  So kind of you to pass it on.  I will continue searching for the parents of William, who married Janet Witherspoon c 1695.  I may never be able to identify them of course -  I have been lucky to get as far back as this.  Thanks again - Julie

Thanks Bob for replying.  Its taken some time to work out some of the Douglas families in Penninghame, or Glasserton. 

The family you suggest that might be the one I am looking for, connected to the Kennedy family, might be the line but probably further back.  Sarah Kennedy married to William had sons but they seemed to have gone to America.  You may well be correct with the link between Gilbert and William being uncle and nephew.  Quite a while ago I came across a reference giving Gilbert's mother as (I think) Mary Wilson married to William Douglas but he had been married before to Isobel Kennedy and they had a son William.  There was a family story of Helen Gray married to Hugh Douglas being a Kennedy heiress.  This is quite wrong but was Isobel the heiress of Bargany.  She apparently died at Penninghame.  I think I found the connection through something I read regarding the Cathcart family.  I have read so much and as an afterthought should take notes.

Regards

Helena

Bob: Thanks for getting back to me. Happy to pay for some genealogical research if you accept fees for same.  I am going to a session on Scottish genealogy here in NYC on Monday night; would prefer to work with someone with knowledge of the area my family is from and of the Douglas line. So, please let me know if that's a possibility.  Yes, we have a lot of snow in New York today- but I'm from Canada originally so I am startled that banks are closing etc.  And Central Park is beyond beautiful in the snow!  Best, Beverly

OK.  Let me know if you can help at all.  Thank you!!  I seem to be hitting walls going beyond James Douglas and would dearly love some assistance to break through.  Cheers!

Hi, Bob!  Here's the gravestone:  PottsGravestone.jpeg  It is in St. Ninian's Priory churchyard in Whitehorn and bears the name of my grandfather in Edmonton and great-grandmother, Margaret Douglas (wife of Wm. Potts, the deceased).  Here is Margaret's birth certificate.  MargaretDouglasBirthCert.pdf And this is her father, William's William.pdf. HIs parents were James Douglas and Margaret McKie.  In a census, I find her mother, Janet McKie, living with them. Helpful at all????

Hi, Bob! Managed to do some more research last week.  Am quite convinced that my James (m to Margaret McKie) was B 1808, son of James Douglas and Isabella Smith but can find nothing on them except that they had 4 other children:  George B 1798, Isabella B 1800, Elisabeth B 1803 and John B 1805. I did find a grave of a James Douglas in Kirkmadrine Church in Sandhead - he died June 4, 1816 at 49 (B 1767).  Notably, the gravestone states "John Douglas, Son of James and Isabella Douglas" is also interred with him; I therefore concluded that he may be James' father (the boy's grandfather). I also found a birth cert for a James Douglas dated 1767 in the Sorbie OPR. His father is listed as Georg Duglas.  No luck on him; there is a grave in Kirkcowan for a George Douglas who had a son named James but he died in 1826 (10 years after the guy whose grave contains the son of James and Isabella) so I don't think that's right. 

Also found another tree on Ancestry where someone else was claiming that James Douglas (B 1808, son of James and Isabella) was married to their ancestor Janet Hall (not my ancestor Margaret McKie).  However, that person had the death cert of their James and it showed his mother's surname as McRobert, so he is not the son of Isabella Smith. 

No luck finding the death cert of James (husband of Margaret McKie) between 1841 and 1851 - he surely died at that time, as he is in the 1841 census and she is head of household in 1851. 

Anyway, I think I've made a bit of progress here but am now stuck on George.  Any help you can offer is GREATLY appreciated. Many thanks again Bob!

Bev

Hi, Bob!  James, who married Margaret in 1834 seems to have died between 1841 and 1851 because he and Margaret are together (and both listed as 30 years of age) in the 1841 census along with their 2 boys.  By the 1851 census, Margaret is "head of household" and the boys and her mother, Janet, are all living together.  Sincere thanks again!

Beverly

PS:  The census of 1841 suggests James and Margaret would both have been born in 1811 but I know census data was typically "rounded" five years. Interestingly, she was born in 1808 and they are both listed as being the same age. So I strongly believe that record of the birth of James Douglas in 1808 in Garliestown is the right one for this James Douglas!  What I wish I could find is his death record circa 1841-51 but no such luck.

Bob:  One other thing - Margaret McKie Douglas I have a death date (but no death record as yet) of Sept 27, 1905 for her. She appears in the 1901 census living in Sorbie with her eldest son John, his son James (B 1859) and spouse Isabella as well as their 4 children (Margaret's great-grandchildren).  Hope that's helpful. Sincere thanks again for all your help!

Beverly

Thanks for all the additional detail, Bev.   Will keep plugging away.

Bob.       

I sincerely appreciate all your help and guidance, Bob. Thank you! 

Beverly