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Hi Jen

Yes, I know, you start going round in circles, don't you, when you are stuck.

In my post I meant to say re. the 1851 census return 'and she was married to William but she says she was born in Peterhead'.

This would fit with Ann's post re the Peterhead marriage and therefore Peterhead being Christian's parish. However, I note that there is a big gap in the Peterhead OPRs of 32 years of marriage records, from 1764 to 1796, so no sign of James & Margaret's marriage.

There is one birth to a James Robertson in Peterhead: Margarita Anne Robertson Jul 1799. A little sister? Margarita! A bit exotic for Peterhead, but if mum's name was Margaret....

Now, if you could find Margarita's Death Cert...

Trish

Hello Lil

I've noticed that in my part of Scotland (the North-East) middle names didn't become popular until the1850's onwards. There might be one or two instances in e.g. the 1820's but in the main, middle names were just not given. In fact, if ever I see someone claiming to have an ancestor with a middle name pre-1850 I become highly sceptical, if not downright suspicious! (Sometimes you see this on the submitted info on the IGI.)

I wonder if middle names were seen, with typical Scottish pragmatism and dislike of 'put-on' or getting above your station, as an affectation? There may have been a feeling that only posh folk had middle manes and ordinary folk didn't need such nonsense?

Just a theory!

Trish

A 'stone wall' it was, then!

Trish

I have been mulling over your McDonalds because they (obviously) would originally have come from the Highlands and Islands, particularly the Western Isles. There wouldn't have been many in Ellon at this time, so you could be pretty confident the McDonalds mentioned in the IGI would be 'yours'. I note that a John McDonald was having children around the same time as Alexander so I guess there is a possibility they were brothers.

In the 1696 Poll Book for Ellon there are no McDonalds - indeed there are only a handful of people with any Mc or Mac surname. (However, I should also say that this doesn't mean they weren't there at the time, as people in my tree who should have been in a certain Parish in 1696, were not always in the Poll Books.)

There were Donaldsons in Ellon at that time.

I have a book 'A History of the Burgh and Parish of Ellon, Aberdeenshire,' by James Godsman which has a chapter 'A short record of the tenantry'. It isn't particulary short and it's not indexed, but knowing the comparatively early date was helpful. However, there was no mention of any McDonalds as tenant farmers. I had been hopeful as Godsman does mention quite a few non-tenants who had Jacobite sympathies, but no luck.

One last thought : Eleanor would have been an unusual given name in Ellon at the time, so perhaps was a McDonald family name?

Also, if you wanted to know where in the Parish Alexander was when the children were born, it would be worth buying a few credits on Scotland's People to look at the originals.  Often, although the mother wasn't important enough to be mentioned when the baptism was recorded, the farm was eg Alexr McDonald in (wherever) had a son baptised...etc. Marriages tend just to say 'of this Parish', but you never know. Or maybe someone here with a few spare credits could look for you?

Trish