Thoughts welcome on my brickwall!

[GordonD]

I've hit a brickwall with one of my ancestors John Tripney. A cousin that I've recently found through GR also has the same problems with this ancestor and came to basically the same conclusions as me. I was wondering if anybody had any thoughts concerning what  we have came up with and if anybody can think of anyway to firm up our conclusions!

(The surname has been spelt Trippany, Trippaney and other variants so being searching it as Trip*n*y as think that this covers most of them).

He married Janet Mirrlees (or the banns were read out) on the 2nd November 1850 in Slamannan.
I cannot at present locate them on the 1851 census although their eldest son was born/baptised on 14th February 1851 in Slamannan so would have thought that they may be in Slamannan.
In 1861 I have him in Summerhouse, Polmont with his wife and 6 children. His age on this census is 37 and his birthplace is Polmont. Therefore birth possibly around 1823-4.
John died in April 1866. He fell down the embankment onto the railway near Falkirk. The death certificate gives the parents as John Tripney and his age is reported as 37. A newspaper article about this "melancholy death of a miner" and the RCE give his age as 36- suggesting a birth around 1829/30.

Cannot find a birth around the time frame indicated by this time period with the parents indicated on the birth certificate. There is however a John Tripney and Mary Johnston who had four children. These include a John in Muiravonside in 1813 as well as Mary in Bathgate in 1809 and Isabel and Thomas in Muiravonside in 1811 and 1816 respectively.

I also have a possible match 1841 census in Polmont where there is a John Tripney aged 18 living with a William Tripney aged 14. The John on this was a stone miner and later evidence for my John says that he was a coal miner. This ties in closely with the age from the 1861 census but not from his death certificate.

The conclusions that we have reached about him are:

1.  The birth of John to John Tripney and Mary Johnston in 1813 is too old to be our John by at least 10 years. He could have died in infancy and therefore our John was a later child and given a name that had already been used without being baptised.

2. John was really the grandson of John Tripney and Mary Johnston with John being an illegitimate child of one of their daughters and raised by her parents. I don't know what happened to Isabel but I know that Mary married William Anderson in Polmont in 1833. This theory I think ties in better with the age data from the death certificate rather than the census data.

Obviously he could have lied about his age but 10 or 16 years is a big difference. Any thoughts on this would be greatly received!

Many thanks in advance

Gordon

[apanderson]

Hi Gordon,

I'm afraid I can't help you out on any of your above theories.

In the pre-1855 MI Book for East Stirlingshire, there is an Ann Tripney listed as being buried in Polmont Old Churchyard (I don't know whether the stone still exists or not). She is stated as being the wife of an Adam Turnbull and her date of death is given as 14.4.1908, no age given. There are also details of her husband Adam, who died 30.12.1893 and their two sons John, who died 21.7.1850 aged 2 months and James who died at Barton on the Sound USA on 9.12.1881 aged 28 years.

Tripney isn't that common a name - maybe this Ann was part of one of your families?

Perhaps a wee bit of research on her might turn something up?

Anne.

P.S.  Have you found any Tripneys listed in thr BVR's? I have the CD set so I could do a wee look-up for you.

[GordonD]

Thanks for the information Anne. While have a look for the death certificate on Scotlandspeople to see if I can see which Tripney family she is from and try to follow a connection through.

Not looked at the BVR. I know there are only 88 Trip*n*y baptisms in the OPRs from Scotlandspeople and there are only 21 instances of male marriages. Think that I might leave trying to pin down the birth for John for a while and try to follow the different family groups that are there.

Not got a marriage date for his parents (John Tripney and Mary Johnston). From the birth of the first child that I have it is in Bathgate. The Bathgate/Linlithgow areas are where the late 18th century Tripneys are concentrated. A high concentration then turn up in the parishes of Stirligshire near to West Lothian in the early 19th century. (My lot eventually went into New Monkland, Lanarkshire which neighbours Slamannan).

Should be some interesting stuff that I can do with the Tripneys due to its uncommon nature even if I can't pin down John further. Was wondering if there was an obvious method that I wasn't seeing or just looking on confirmation that my theories were plausible!

Gordon

[apanderson]

Gordon,

I'm sending you a PM with some Tripney details.

Anne

[andrew shanks]

Not sure whether this is relevant but I have a Mary Tripney who married a John Peebles in Bo'ness in 1898.

I don't have her parents unfortunately.

 

[GordonD]

Thanks coonwarra. Have got a Mary Tripney born in 1857 in Polmont who was the daughter of the John with the elusive birth. Prob bit too old if it was her first marriage. More likely to be a daughter of one of his children. At the moment only looked at his son John Tripney but did have other sons who could have a daughter of a younger age. Will look into it and keep it in mind when look at braches from the direct line.

[Kizzy1]

My Tripney line is Thomas born 1816 he was possibly the elder brother of your John. Thomas also married a Janet (Janet Tassie Donaldson) making things very confusing.  I’ve also found 9 different ways to spell Tripney

John Tripney and Mary Johnson possibly had 2 children named John, therefore I’d suggest John born in 1813 to have died and a 2nd John born 1829 to be yours.  In saying that there is a 13-year-gap between their first 4 children and last two children.

I’ve added my 1851 census notes hopefully spelt as it was transcribed

1851 Summerhouse.  John Trippaney aged 37 born abt 1824 Head occ Coal Miner wife Janet Trippaney 32 born Falkirk, John Trippaney 9 born Slamanan, George Trippaney 8 born Slamanan, Janet Trippaney 6 born Slamanan, Mary Trippaney 4 born born Polmont, Margaret Trippaney 2 born Polmont, Jean Trippaney 1 Months born Polmont

Kizzie

[DDJJake]

This may not be too relevant ... a picture of Willie Tripney of Banknock, by Bonnybridge .... a school pal of mine in 1948 there where my father was the village 'heidmaister'.
Aye
DDJJAKE

[DDJJake]

1851 Scotland Census
John Threepenny a Coal Miner aged 27 of Snowhill Falkirk
Head of household and married to Janet born in Falkirk c. 1828
John born c. 1823 in Polmont, Stirling
Ancestry's OCRing is hilarious sometimes !

DDJJAKE