Williamson

[ankerdine]

Does the 1855 marriage give his birthplace or parish?

Just "The North of Ireland".  I am lucky to have this post 1855 certificate but it's very difficult to read.

J

[ankerdine]

Have you traced the marriages or deaths of his 2 children to confirm his 1st wife's name?

I have tried but found nothing conclusive. Emigrants with the same names are just down as born in Scotland with no actual detail.

 My gt grandmother Jane Williamson (born c1861) had an older brother John Williamson born in 1857 which is strange, if what I believed about the other family is true. Would he really have named his first born of his second marriage John too unless the first one had already died?

In the end I just get completely confused.

The family were Vagrants and Tinklers so it may well be that all events were not legally registered.

There must be an answer somewhere.

Judy

[hdw]

The Scottish tinker or "traveller", Duncan Williamson, was one of our leading traditional story-tellers.

http://www.independent.co.uk/news/obituaries/duncan-williamson-400127.html

Harry

[ankerdine]

A fascinating link. Thanks Harry.

The genes of story-telling are in my family also, especially as we had the Marshalls marrying the Williamsons. There are lots of stories told in Galloway too which have held me spell-bound for years.

Oh I so wish I could understand the "cant".

Judy

[bleckie]

Hi Judy

Try this link

http://www.arts.gla.ac.uk/STELLA/STARN/crit/langtrav.htm

Yours Aye
BruceL

[ankerdine]

A very interesting article. Thank you so much Bruce.

My Williamsons appear to have settled down c1860 but the generation before, the Marshalls mentioned elsewhere on this site, were whitesmiths and hawkers of Japanned ware.

I had a second cousin who could tell a good story too so the tradition continues.

I will try to substantiate this by attaching a newspaper cutting later.

Judy

[ankerdine]

Well here goes. I do hope you are able to read this article, the detail is towards the end of the text. Mr Ernest Deakin's obituary was also written in the same vein.

With thanks to The Lichfield Mercury who originally printed this article.

Judy

[PenniCurrie]

My Williamsons are from Ayrshire and I have no pre-1900 info on them beyond being in the Ardrossan / Saltcoats area

[42heatkool]

I just stumbled across this message board, and being a Williamson who's only the second generation to be born outside of Peebles in my family I can support some of the peebles-related links which is one of the most common origins listed for the name. It is also right that there are close ties to the Gunn and MacKay clans, but i'd never heard anything of the Williamsons before the 19th Century, and with it being a common patronymic name I doubted it went back much further!

Cheers for this,

Nathan Williamson
(great grandson of William Williamson, a great name if there ever was one!)