Thomas Hetherington Glasgow/Rutherglen

[crankyannie]

I posted a previous request for help about this fellow [Orphan rutherglen 1851] in March & received a suggestion about Poor Relief sources but that has been a dead end - my request to the archives met with no result, although someone searched for me, which was great. 

By one of those impulses one sometimes has to look for something known to be impossible, I checked the 1841 Census for Thomas Hetherington.  He was supposed to be aged 7 in April 1851 but I found a Thos Hethrington aged 0 - actually 7 months , so born Nov or Dec 1840 - in a household with no other Hetherington.  This is my transcription:

1841 Census
East Clyde St, Bridgegate, Glasgow, Lanark
Household:
Robt Russell 25 Plumber b Lanark;
Elizabeth Russell 20 b Lanark;
Robt Russell 15 mo b Lanark;
Sarah Ross 30 b Outside Census County;
Sarah Inglis[?] 20 Fur Cap Maker b Outside Census County;
Elizabeth Murray 19 Fur Cap Maker b Lanark;
Thos Hethrington 7 mo b Lanark;
Anne McNab 19 [?can't decipher?] Hat Maker b Outside Census County

The census taker in that area seems to have been an orderly person - other families I look at around this address have father mother & children in order of birth, so I'm inclined to think that his mother was Elizabeth Murray.  However, can anyone suggest how I can find out what was in the Kirk Sessions perhaps, or about her death before 1851 perhaps, or .....  I can find no birth record for this boy.

In 1841 there were only 59 other variations on the name Heaterington, soundexed, in Lanark.  By 1851 there were still only 94 recorded.  It's not a common name [like some of my others - Simpson & variations for example has 2361 in 1841 in Lanark] & I am hoping that this 7-month-old is my ancestor, the first sighting thereof.

Any clues anyone?

Thanks
bh

[shaigh]

Don't know if there's any connection but I have the following:

Janet Russell   death 10/5/73 aged 77 widow of James Russell farmer and daughter of  Matthew Kirkland master shoemaker and Janet P(?)ratt   Robert Hetherington son-in-law present 


I have a digital copy of this entry if it's any use.
Sue

[Bearsden Boy]

Are you still trying to trace Thomas?

I have him entering the United States on the ship UNDERWRITER on 28.10.1863, age 19 at that time.  This would suggest he was born around 1844, which is consistent with later records relating to him.

Allegedly, he married in New York on 12 Oct 1864, but I have never been able to find any evidence of the marriage, nor evidence of  the birth of his son Thomas, supposedly born in U.S. around 1866.

BB.

[crookedtail]

Hi,

How did you know he married? and had a son? do you have
the name of wife and the area where they were living...
Possibly i can help...but need more detail if possible...
Crookedtail

[crankyannie]

Sorry, I meant to get back to BB yesterday - but yes, Thomas married Janet Hynd Bainbridge & I have found her as Janet Bassage arriving in New York on the 3rd October 1864. 

They subsequently reappear in Rutherglen in Scotland, in the 1871 & 1881 Censuses, with children including Thomas b 1865 in New York. 

Janet died in 1882, aged 40, & Thomas Snr remarried in 1883 but then died 1884.  On his marriage certificate with Annie Barbour who, it seems, dropped her age by 10 years when she married, his parents are "Unknown". 

But I guess I keep hoping that the marriage to Janet might turn up & have more information.  And what I wonder is whether he went to live with the Craigs & shows as an orphan in the 1851 Census because they had some connection with his parents - or was it just chance?

BB, I am still looking but haven't found any ways to discover more.  Thanks for pursuing him to the Undertaker [no pun intended!]

Cheers
broome heather

[sancti]

This is the only baptism record I could find on SP


07/11/1844 HETHERANGTON THOMAS son of THOMAS HETHERANGTON and JANET MCGRIGOR AT  Falkirk /STIRLING

[Bearsden Boy]

Thomas Hetherington and Janet Hyde Bainbridge are my Gt Grandparents - I have a lot of information on both, particularly Janet.

However, Thomas has become a bit of a mystery. 

They had 5 children (possibly 6), of whom the first, Thomas, was apparently born in America around 1866 (no exact location).  The rest of the family was born in Rutherglen, beginning with Elizabeth on 11 Oct 1867.    According to my Grandfather's birth cert ( Andrew Simpson Hetherington b 16 June 1877), Thomas and Janet were married on 12th Oct 1864 in New York, but I have never been able to verify this.

So, I have him arriving in US on 28th Oct 1863 and being back in Rutherglen  by 11th Oct 1867, apparently having married and having had one child.  I wonder if  they ever actually married?  It would have been quite a convenient explanation on their return to avoid questions being asked!!

The lack of information on Thomas is understandable - Janet died on 18th March 1882 and he married Annie Barbour in August 1883 (cynically, I suspect he married so that Annie could look after his young family).  He was only married to Annie for 7 months before he died, so it is hardly surprising that Annie knew little about him when she registered his death.

I have concluded that Thomas probably never knew his parents and I have been pursuing links with other families in the Rutherglen area where Hetheringtons appear - no definite success so far.  The closest I have come to matching a birth for Thomas is in Falkirk in 1844, with parents called Thomas and Janet it is a "possible", but as Hetherington is a name from the south west of Scotland / north west England I haven't ruled out an Engish birth.  And what brought him to Rutherglen?  It may have been that his "foster" family moved from elsewhere for work, so I am continuing to work on the linking of family names for clues.

And on it goes............

BB

[crankyannie]

This is a reply to BB - I haven't had a chance to get back here for quite some time & have just read your last [14 December 2008] response about Thomas Hetherington & Janet Bainbridge.  You & I are related - Andrew Simpson Hetherington was my great granduncle.  His brother George Brown Hetherington b 1872 was my great grandfather.  I have six children for Thomas & Janet - aforesaid Thomas b 1865/1866, Elizabeth Brown b 1867, Mary Reid b 1870, George Brown b 1872, Andrew Simpson b 1877 & Janet b 1880.

I'd love to discuss this further. If you're still out there somewhere can we please somehow communicate further?

broome heather aka crankyannie