RootsChat.Com

Neale61, I don't think that the Jean Irwin you found working as a servant is my Jane. I think that even at 15 she would have been the teacher or dressmaker that she was later. I saw a Miss Irvine listed as a teacher in the period in a Postal Directory but cannot tell if it was her. She may have been visiting or working in her father's birthplace of Ireland at the time of the census.

I really need to see the Paisley Holy Trinity Registers  and Minutes that are in the Glasgow City Archives at the Mitchell Library or what the local studies library and Heritage centre at Paisley Central Library have. There is a register at the Church itself but there are some missing records. I can't easily travel to Scotland though from Australia.

Hi,

I have seen that the Glasgow City Archives section of the Mitchell Library hold the Holy Trinity Paisley registers 1817- 1984 and minutes for 1839- 1973. As I live in Australia and can't easily come myself is there anyone doing research there who could check for mention of my Irwin family for the 1839 - 1851 period?. They were :
William (George?) Irwin/Irvine, a School Master
Jane nee Erskine Irwin
Their children:
Jane
Olivia Mary Smith Irwin
Sussannah Irwin
William Erskine Irwin
Cecilia Irwin(my g.g. grandmother)
There may have been other children I do not know about so it would be appreciated if someone could check Baptisms and Burials/Deaths in the registers and there may be some mentions in the minutes as William probably taught at the Episcopal School.
I can do some research if needed in exchange re Scottish emigrants to Australia.

Yes I would have read middle names were reserved for the middle classes in an English history book. I  don't have any primary evidence that it was law.

I believe my Irwin/Erskine family all had second names even though only two of the five children's were officially recorded. It is possible they descended from minor gentry and my two aunts dna match descendants of someone who married into the French royal family who was either Scottish or French.

I don't know if Episcopal Ministers typically only recorded one first name just that they did for this family except for the son.

Forfarian you bring up some good points. The Certificates are a lot cheaper than Australian ones even taking into a/c. conversion rates. I think that they are all sent electronically except Tasmania here.

That is interesting that Marriages tended to be performed in a home. That happened to family in Australia but is was more because some looked Aboriginal and the Priest/Minister would not marry them in the Church but would for the ones they knew were Aboriginal(they lived in a country town) but did not look like it.

I cannot find a marriage for my Jane Erskine but her husband was Irish and Episcopal with the Church not long being reestablished in Scotland where they were living in the 1820s.Also the Church records are mostly in private hands. They both died before the 1851 Census which would have given exact birth places.

The most likely parents of the Mary Erskine mentioned, Robert Erskine and Mary Leckie were married at Paisley High Church in 1820 so it may be worth buying as well. I don't know for sure that Mary and Jane are related but Jane was born in Renfrewshire and had her first known child at Port Glasgow in 1826. My Mum only has one known Scottish line and Ancestry shows that the match to Mary's descendant is on her side as do the other two relatives who match the same person.