Que: Changing Religion in Scotland

[troublemywit]

My husband is descended from West Calder Linds. Thomas LIND (b c1809) m. Margaret BRASH (b c1815). They both died within 1 month of each other in early 1884 in West Calder. They had 9 sons born in West Calder: James b. c1835, Thomas b. c1837, Andrew Steel b. c1840, John b c1842, David b c1847, Robert b. c1849, William b. c1851, Adam b. c1854,  George Ferguson Maitland b. 15 Apr 1857. Andrew Steel Lind was my husband's great grandfather. He also had 9 children born in West Calder. His youngest, George Ferguson Maitland Lind b. 22 Aug 1886, immigrated to Canada in 1920. In Canada he spelled his name LINN. This was my husband's grandfather. Any of this familiar?

Pam: 
Better late than never?   Had a similar problem with my West Calder Lind lines -- they just disappeared from the OPR records in the same period you are struggling with.  Some -- but not all -- popped up in the Associate Session records, I believe at Kirknewton.  Some earlier records suggest the family had Covenanter sympathies.  Another clue is in the West Calder OPRs circa 1800 -- several Lind siblings/cousins are listed together, out of sequence, I think at the end of the 1800 pages.  No baptismal dates for the children, several children of same parents listed consecutively.  So the minister was keeping a tally of the children in the parish who had not been baptised in his church.    I suspect the Howison women who married Linds were part of the Aitken family through their mother, but have no proof for that view.    Good luck!  Tutu Bonnie

[luckydog]

Just came on this post but find it interesting . I have ancestors who were married in St Patricks Roman Catholic church in the Cowgate in Edinburgh . To put it mildly this was a fairly fundamentalist church in its approach to religion . The church also served the largely Irish community of the Cowgate . Edinburgh was then and well into the 20th Century a notoriously anti-catholic place especially when it came to employment . The children of my family married in St Patricks mostly married in the Protestant Church of Scotland but I don't think this was out of religious conviction but because they were trying to escape poverty and the desparate housing in the Cowgate . They had all moved into better parts of Edinburgh and were in more well paid employment . This may not have happened if they had not changed their religion . People will do what they must to improve their lot in the world .