Hi Nancy,

I'm glad that you've got a lot more info. and it would certainly help if you could post it online. In particular I would be very interested to see your version of the 1503 document, we've found about six different versions so far, only slight variations between each, but "Ewe Hill" instead of Greenstone hill is a big variation that we haven't come across yet!

If you look at the 1815 Gravestone record on Find-a-Grave for William Drysdale you can see that he was 'late of Belville in Berwickshire' - Belville was a farm in Eccles parish so he was probably a farmer there and the owner/tenant of Belville Farm.

Best regards

Hi Nancy,

I've just about finished sorting out the records on Family search for early Drysdales in Haddingtonshire, Berwickshire and Roxburghshire.

As far as I can tell, your William Drysdale + (Barbara Walker) has three possible fathers, all other 'Williams' in that area & time period married someone else:

1. - James Drysdale from Alloa - with William born 1748 - (a possible Walker family connection could explain migration from Clackmannan to the Kelso area,
also a birth date of 1748 is indicated by William's grave memorial)

2. - Robert Drysdale From Dunbar - with William born 1750 - (some confusion over William's father) - his father is recorded as a William on the 1750 Birth record with Alison Mather as mother, however Alison Mather was married to Robert Drysdale in 1746 and had at least four children - in 1750, 1752, 1754 & 1757 - my conclusion being that William was recorded as the father by mistake - should have been Robert.

3. - William Drysdale from Langton, Berwickshire - with William born 1745 (this family had lived in the area (Eccles, Kelso, Coldstream) for some time before William's marriage there to Barbara Walker in 1778 in Eccles).

All three fathers have documented source material that takes their family lines back to the very early Drysdales noting that before 1610 parish records are few
and far between and thus earlier relationships before then are often a best guess.

Father 1. - family line goes to Ingebald in 1150s (Father 1. family search ID 2SH9-9VX)
Father 2. - family line goes to Ingebald in 1150s (Father 2. family search ID 992L-Q6P)
Father 3. - family line goes to Drysdales of Dollar (& thus Douglas) note there is also possible connection to the Bruce family line & thus Robert the Bruce - I am still working on this - (Father 3. family search ID KH3K-C83)

If you have any suggestions based on the info you have I can modify the family line on Family search to reflect either father 1. 2. or 3.

I have already sent you an image of the family tree for William with father 1.

Images of the other family trees from Familysearch

Father 2.

Father 3.

Finally the Scotlandspeople image for Patrik Drysdal + Nance Wryght marriage in 1618

As you can see it's difficult to read- a transcription of the relevant bit:

x of Maij 1618 (= 10th of May 1618)
Patrik Drysdal in Dolor and Nance
Wryt in forest etc. before [ ] [Drysdal]
and Jhone Reid younger

Best regards

Hi Nancy,

I think that as far as the parish records are concerned I've come to the end of my travels. There is no
record of a William Drysdale being born in that area in the year 1748. The closest I could find are the three fathers detailed in my last post. The three brothers, William (b. 1748), John (b.1743) & Alexander (b.1742) don't exist in the records for that area, the nearest I could find was with father number 3 who had two sons - William born 1745 and Alexander born 1733.

I have checked on ScotlandsPeople, Familysearch, Findmypast and Freereg who all rely on Parish records for their data, and drawn a blank, this doesn't mean that William (b. 1748), John (b.1743) & Alexander (b.1742) didn't exist, it just means that their records don't exist. Following on from this, may I ask where your researcher/relative got his information from, or is this unclear?

I'm sorry that this has not been resolved, but from my point of view it has been a very useful exercise for filling in a lot of blanks on the Familysearch family tree and also turning up a previously unknown Patrick Drysdale of Dollar who, may have links to the Bruce line (still under investigation).

Best regards and good luck with your continuing research

Ron