Cabrach

[ysabeau]

Good morning....

Firstly, thank you for your comments re my website...

Secondly, have death certificate for Alexander Scott (c1785), he died @ Keig (29/03/1881) - son-in-law Angus McDonald registered the death.

Have found various MIs relating to both the Scott families mentioned - @ Auchindoir and Keig - and can/will forward transcriptions, if interested......

Ysabeau

[etakathy]

Researching Isobel (Isabella) STRACHAN, born 1771-1773, CABRACH, Banffshire.  This is the place she listed on 2 later census'.  She married William Patrick 20 Mar 1803 in Cupar, Fife.  I am looking for her birthdate and parents and any other ancestors.  Isabella is my husband's 4th Great Grandmother.
Kathy Dunn
Reno, Nevada, USA

[threestones]

my grandfather was a James Gordon, son of Isabella McDonald and John Gordon born in Gaugh or is it Gauch or Daugh in 1895. How do you pronounce this place name?

Hi, I'll attempt to give you some sort of pronunciation (as to how me/my family say the name):

So two parts: Gau - ch

Gau = pronounced like the "Ja" in Jack
ch    = pronounced like the "ch" in loch ( and just to be clear loch doesn't sound like lock when spoken )

I'll add the following -

I've had a quick look at how you're supposed to represent pronuciation - so according to http://www.scots-online.org/grammar/pronunci.htm - what I should probably be telling you is:

ja/x/

So good luck with that - if you're wandering around the Cabrach please feel free to practice on my folks who'll take great delight in telling you exactly how it's done

[dkpeddie]

Hi, I'm researching the PEDDIE/PEDIE/PEDDY family who lived in the Cabrach, in Belcherie/Bellcherie and Findouran, in the 18th century.  I wonder if anyone knows anything about them?  Based on all the posts in this thread, I'm wagering someone does.

The family seems to have left a pretty light mark in the parish records, though intriguingly there is a Peddie's Hill just a few miles to the east in the direction of Craig's Castle, and just south of Whitehillock, Longlands, and Tolophin.  A family member has speculated that one of our ancestors met his (un)timely end there, hanged for illicit whisky distilling or some other crime.  I haven't been able to find out anything about this toponym, apart from its name, location, and elevation.

I hope to figure out where the Peddies came from before they started to appear in the Cabrach OPR (see below), and also to determine whether they were in fact the progenitors of the Peddies who were crofters of Forgue in the 19th century--my established, documented  line.

Here in chronological order are the entries from the Cabrach OPR (paraphrased by me):

1 Jan 1727 -- John bapt., son of John PEDIE in Belcherie
1 Jan 1727 -- [same event apparently, as recorded in the extracts] -- John bapt., son of John PEDDY in Bellcherie

12 Dec 1758 -- Alexander FIFE m. Christian PEDDIE (both of Cabrach), after regular banns

10 Dec 1759 -- Theodore PEDIE (of Cabrach) m. Janet BREMNER (of Strathdon), after banns

16 Apr 1762 -- John bapt., son of Theodore PEDDIE in Findouran & wife Janet BREMNER; witnesses John TAYLOR of [Milltown] of Lesmurdie & John Douglas in Findouran

18 Oct 1767 -- William bapt., son of Theodore PEDDIE in Bellcherie & wife Janet Bremner; witnesses William Smart & Robert Chrystie [sic] both in Bellcherie

4 Dec 1791 -- Theodore PEDDIE m. Jean MEARNS (both of Cabrach), after banns

31 Aug 1792 -- Margaret bapt., dau. of Theodore PEDDIE and Jean MEARNS; witnesses Margt. Smith in Bellcherie & Margt. Roach [?] in [Gris Hoane???]

Does anyone know anything about this family from monumental inscriptions,  parish lore, etc.?  The first Theodore, who is either the father of or the same person as the second one, is currently assumed to be the earliest known ancestor of my family, though the evidence is thin and in fact the name Theodore is never again repeated as far as I can tell.  My best guess is that the family left Cabrach for Drumblade and Forgue near the end of the 18th century.

And if anyone can shed light on the aforementioned Peddie's Hill, that would be a bonus.

Thanks,
Daniel

[Stuart P]

Hi, I'm researching the PEDDIE/PEDIE/PEDDY family who lived in the Cabrach, in Belcherie/Bellcherie and Findouran, in the 18th century.  I wonder if anyone knows anything about them?  Based on all the posts in this thread, I'm wagering someone does.
I don't have much to add except the origin of the name Theodore may have been Theodore Gordon who was minister at Cabrach between 1731 and 1739. For nearly all of his tenure the baptismal and marriage records are missing.

[dkpeddie]

Thanks so much, Stuart; that may be a helpful lead.

It brings to mind a question I've had while trying to make sense of these Cabrach Peddies.  Based on your research experience, is it possible that what I'm seeing in the parish records is a 'village name' or nickname of an ancestor, as opposed to his original baptismal name?  I've often wondered whether 'Theodore' was another name (maybe even a middle name that 'took over') for the John son of John b. 1727 (see list in my original post).  I'm trying to think of all the possibilities as I reconstruct the chronology.

By the way, there's another Peddie-Gordon connection--tho' it probably doesn't mean much, this being Gordon country after all.  My 4x ggf John Peddie, perhaps the son b. 1762 to Theodore and Janet in the list, later married Bessy Gordon 12 Mar 1786 in Drumblade. 

I say 'perhaps' the son of Theodore because, although most genealogies have him as such, for some reason the Pedigree Resource Files want him to be the child b./chr. 9 Apr 1735 to a John Peddie in Drumblade.  I haven't been able to find such an entry in the Drumblade OPR.  Maybe I missed it.  But at this point I have no idea where that PRF is sourcing from.

Finally, can we confirm that Peddie's Hill has always belonged to Auchindoir and Kearn, or did the boundary with Cabrach around those parts change dramatically?  Do you think there's historical info. about this in a gazetteer or other source?  I haven't been able to find anything yet, but I may not know all the good materials.

Thanks again.

Daniel

[Stuart P]

Peddie's Hill definitely well inside Auchindoir. The Cabrach borders never really changed apart from the union with Strathdoveran well before any genealogical records, and are all defined by hills except the boundary with Glass.
Definitely no "village" or nicknames in the Cabrach OPR,  or anywhere else I have looked at.

Theodore Peddie was at Nether Ardwell in Jan 1764, as baptismal witness for the birth of Elizabeth Grant daur of James Grant & Isabell Robb at Upper Ardwell. In Feb 1768 he is at Bellcherie.

Origins - if there are no clues from baptismal witnesses in the OPRs, and no graves, then one possibility is a mention in the Kirk Session. Unfortunately not available online, but can be viewed on intranet at the National Archives in Edinburgh. These are especially useful for identifying the parents of illegitimate children, where the parents are "encouraged" to marry. Also there, post 1855 baptismal records (as opposed to birth certificates).

[dkpeddie]

Great info ... thanks so much!

[dkpeddie]

A quick follow-up for anyone interested in the history of a toponym 

There's an entry for Peddie's Hill in John Milne's Celtic Place-names in Aberdeenshire (1912).  I haven't read the description in full--it's shown only as a snippet at Google Books--but according to Milne, the name comes  from the Gaelic "Tom Paite," or "hill of the hump," which later, through anglicization, I guess, was taken or mistaken to be a personal description, i.e. Tom Paite's hill.  Apparently this evolved into Peddie's Hill--maybe because of the presence of the family in the area. 

Google Books = fantastic