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Hi. Does this name ring a bell with anyone? This Jessie Gordon, who was 14 at the time of the 1851 Census, was staying on census night with her recently widowed aunt Margaret Gordon in Glasgow Jessie's uncle, John Gordon, who had a school in Glasgow and had previously taught in Moffat, died in October 1850. He was my ggg grandfather and Jessie Gordon may be my only way of tracing his family. This family also has a connection to a James Gordon, described in 1850 as "Manager, Kirkcudbright". I would be very pleased to hear from anyone who might recognise this Musselburgh/Kirkcudbright link!
Anne

Hello anndra. Thanks very much for the Shirilaw information. They are probably at least close relatives of the ones I am after, who are a Margaret Shirilaw, married to John Johnstone (who had children between 1711 & 1725) and her father who may have been named Robert.

Interestingly, I'm descended from their son James who married an Isobel Dickson in Coldingham. I wonder if we are distant relatives, anndra? After finding out that patonia and I are fourth cousins, little would surprise me. I'm also trying to trace the Dicksons of the Coldingham area as far back as I can.

Clazey and I had an exchange a little while ago about teachers recurring through the generations and about people following unwittingly in the footsteps of forebears, and I remember noting by way of apology to you when I got Scougall generations so chronologically wrong that whatever my forebears taught couldn't have been mathematics. I've just found out courtesy of the Glasgow 1849-1850 Postal Directory that the gggg grandfather John Gordon to whom I was referring (the Johnstons, Shirilaws and Dicksons above are in his wife's line) taught English and history, which are my passions. It's nice to find a link that matters, and also nice to know that I don't represent a mutation in a numerically competent genetic line.

Anne

The school connections are interesting indeed, clazey. I've also found school teachers among the Steele family into which John Gordon married. It is his line I am trying to trace, and in its more recent form of my grandfather's generation included three lecturers or teachers of adults that I know of. My father has been a visiting lecturer, my deceased aunt was a teacher, my first cousin (through the same line) is training to be a school teacher, and I worked as a tutor while I was studying.

Re: I think that John m. Mary Steele 27/12/1825 Selkirk/Edinburgh is one of them but can’t find the link. I think this is the line that emigrated to Australia.

Hello anndra. I'm not sure if this information will assist you with sorting out the John Clazey/ Clezy & Scougall links but here it is for what it's worth.

I've been watching this page because I am trying to trace the parents of my ancestor John Gordon, who married Margaret Steele in Selkirk in 1838. John Gordon was a schoolmaster in Moffat at that time. I had hoped that the cautioners at the wedding of John Gordon and Margaret Steele might assist me by having been Gordon family members, which they were not, but they might be relevant to you.

The cautioners are recorded as John Clozy/Clazy/Clezy and James Scougall.

This John Cl*zy married Mary Steele, Patonia's ancestress and the elder sister of my ancestress Margaret Steele (at whose wedding Cl*zy & Scougall served as cautioners), and they did emigrate to SA. Margaret Steele died there in 1857.

That at least places a John Cl*zy and a Scougall in Selkirk for at least a visit in 1838. I wondered if your James Scougall might also be a schoolmaster? I ask because Patonia notes that John Cl*zy was the rector of the Selkirk Academy, while my John Gordon was the rector of the Grammar School in Moffat. They seemed to socialise, marry and emigrate in packs.

Good luck,

Anne