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Scotland (Counties as in 1851-1901) => Scotland => Banffshire => Topic started by: maxin on Thursday 07 March 19 13:24 GMT (UK)
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Hi all
I've tracked some c18th births in Mortlach recorded at 'Shenlachie' but the only reference to this I've found is on the banks of the Findhorn ('Shenachie') further south west. ( Could also be me doing a bad job superimposing the parish maps onto OS Landranger).
Anyone know where this might be in Mortlach?
Cheers/Max
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If they are in the Mortlach parish register, and they don't say 'Shenlachie in the parish of ....' then you are looking for a place in the parish of Mortlach. It will not be the one on the river Findhorn, which is several parishes away in a different county.
Can you post one of more of the extracts so that we can look at the originals? And what dates are they?
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Yes it's unclear to me too why people would trek that far afield from the local parish church. The spelling 'Shenlachie' in the register and 'Shenachie' the place name may not be interchangeable (the word's origin is slightly ironic too... (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Seancha%C3%AD https://www.scottishfield.co.uk/culture/the-story-of-the-scots-storytellers-the-shennachies/ ).
My current thinking is that there is a another place Shenlachie in Mortlach. Either that or there's an interesting historical reason to make the journey. It could be somehow referring to a Gaelic meaning of the word which seems unlikely.
I attach images of three Mortlach parish registers below citing Shenlachie from parents William Roy and Jane Robertson:
* George Roy: 1 May 1 1749
* John Roy:
* Peter Roy: 6 Jan 1751
I think there are likely to be more because Shenlachie is cited in Mortlach in other genealogies, eg https://www.werelate.org/wiki/Family:James_Mitchell_and_Isobel_Baillie_(1).
The place called Shenachie may have been better known as Pollochaig in the past:
http://www.heritagepaths.co.uk/pathdetails.php?path=326.
http://catalogue.nrscotland.gov.uk/nrsonlinecatalogue/details.aspx?reference=GD176%2f1453&st=1&tc=y&tl=n&tn=n&tp=n&k=shenachie&ko=p&r=&ro=s&df=&dt=&di=y
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Yes it's unclear to me too why people would trek that far afield from the local parish church.
They wouldn't. It's over 40 miles each way (depending slightly on where Shenlachie was, of course) so it's not a journey you would readily undertake in the 18th century, not long after the upheavals of the 1745 Jacobite rising, and when the only power available was muscles. (Unless it was possible to do part of the journey by water on the River Spey, but I have never heard of that being customary.)
Occasionally you do find an out-of-parish baptism but only when the kirk in the next door parish is more convenient than the kirk of your own parish. This obviously does not apply to Mortlach and the Shenachie, which aren't even in the same county.
The spelling 'Shenlachie' in the register and 'Shenachie' the place name may not be interchangeable
Probably not. And I'd be surprised if either name has anything to do with storytellers.
My current thinking is that there is a another place Shenlachie in Mortlach.
Yes, that is absolutely the right conclusion to draw.
It could be somehow referring to a Gaelic meaning of the word which seems unlikely.
Both names do seem to be Gaelic in origin. 'shen' is usually from 'sean', meaning 'old, but I can't hazard a guess about the rest of either name.
The place called Shenachie may have been better known as Pollochaig in the past.
Yes. The first edition of the six-inch Ordnance Survey map shows it as Polochaig. See https://maps.nls.uk/geo/explore/#zoom=16&lat=57.3905&lon=-3.9469&layers=5&b=1
An earlier map shows it as Pulochaig, with links to the south-west rather than in the direction of Mortlach. https://maps.nls.uk/view/74400177
However the second edition of the six-inch map names it as Shenachie
https://maps.nls.uk/geo/explore/#zoom=17&lat=57.3912&lon=-3.9510&layers=6&b=1 so the name must have been changed during the second half of the 19th century - long after your Roy baptisms in the middle of the 18th century.
So I am confident that Shenachie in the parish of Moy and Dalarossie, county of Inverness (three counties away!), is a complete red herring, with nothing whatsoever to do with Shenlachie in Mortlach.
I have been through the OS Name Book for Mortlach, but found nothing that looks even vaguely like Shenlachie, so I am no nearer knowing where it was.
The answer is probably in estate maps, if they have survived. However most of Mortlach was part of the estates of the Duke of Richmond and Gordon, and their muniments are not readily accessible as far as I know.
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Thanks for looking into it.
Found a few more references in FreeReg so must have been a reasonable settlement at some point. Shame no one has used it to name their AirBNB cottage, it's helped me find a few other places.
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Found this map, will proceed to ruin my eyesight:
https://maps.nls.uk/view/00000356
Also a big document dump here for the next time I'm down south:
http://discovery.nationalarchives.gov.uk/browse/r/h/fbba1ba4-6c87-41e3-a346-b54e7ce6a50c