Hello again, Bones,
I will refer to the interest that you have shown on this thread to the connections to the TRAILS. You stated, (and I quote):
"I know Elizabeth Trail was the daughter of David as he appears on the marriage certificate for her second marriage"Now, I did have a look at
Extracted birth/christening records for not only Elizabeth, but also her sisters, Grace and Agnes, as well as her brothers, James and Andrew.
As we can see from those extracted records, we're looking at a time period of around 1828 - 1839.
I have always maintained an interest in legal matters and so, a while ago, I was looking for some information about an early form of Legal Aid and appear to have found it when the Sheriff Courts in Scotland appointed a Procurator for a woman if she couldn't afford the cost of an action against the father of her illegitimate child.
Knowing your interest in the TRAIL family, (sometimes spelt TRAILL), I had a look at a couple of TRAIL lassies and read about Grace TRAILL, who was residing at Auchtermuchty taking action against an Alexander PEDDIE. She had an illegitimate baby girl born 3rd August, 1848. Then there was a Jemima TRAIL, who came from Largoward, (not all that far from Scoonie). She took action against an Andrew DOWIE, a farm servant. She gave birth to a baby girl on 23rd April, 1836.
I'm sure that you're not all that interested in the source of information, but it is possible to look at the Extract Decree Books of various Fife Sheriff Courts such as Dunfermline and Cupar. These are held at the Scottish Record Office in Edinburgh. I obtain many pieces of information from sources like that, as well as Fife newspapers going back over the years. Indeed, it was in the Dunfermline Press that I read about the death of my Grandfather at No. 2 Pit, Bowhill. Not the kind of stuff that we get from certain sources, but certainly very informative and enjoyable.
If you really want an interesting read about Aliment Decrees, then it's no big secret as to how to do it. I spent quite a few pofitable hours reading about people who lived in the same streets or Wynds as members of my family, people who worked shoulder to shoulder with them, and so on and so forth.
Although it may not be copies of documents obtainable from sources such as Ancestry, S.P., the IGI, it certainly does provide names and dates that assists me in establishing various details about my ancestors. I'm not, for one moment, decrying those sources, I'm just trying to indicate how I utilise other resources to obtain information.
I feel that maybe I should be communicating with you on another Thread, Bones, even though you have referred to the TRAILS's and MELDRUM's on this one. However, I gave my word to Pam, the Fife Moderator, some time ago, that I would try to keep my postings in the appropriate Thread, and I'm honouring my word.
If there are people out there, including you, Bones, who want to get back to details about the various branches of your family, then maybe you would care to select an appropriate Thread, or create one of your own. That way, other people who share your interest in a particular family can supply you with information quite openly. However, when information about a family becomes "sensitive", I personally choose to work in a different way, so as not to offend other family members. I think that's perfectly reasonable, don't you?
Kind Regards,
Tom.
