Hello BELLEMORE72,
I am also researching the Gold family in Douglas, Lanarkshire… While I’m not sure I can help, I can provide you with some background on my research…
I am a descendant of an Andrew Gold (Coal Miner) and Elizabeth Weir b.1749 d.1823 who married in the parish of Douglas on Sep 12, 1789.
While I have uncovered a small amount of information for Elizabeth Weir, her husband Andrew Gold remains elusive.
I originally had narrowed my options for Andrew Gold (Coal Miner) down to the following:
- Andrew Gold b.1757 in the Parish of Douglas in the County of Lanark.
Father: Peter Gold
Mother: Christian Calbreath
Siblings: Marion b1746, William b.1748, Janet b.1750, Mary b.1751, Christian b.1762 and Rebecca b.1765
- Andrew Gold b.1760 in the Parish of Douglas in the County of Lanark.
Father: Andrew Gold
Mother: Agnes Shankland
Siblings: Jean b1761, James b.1765 and Joanna b.1767
- Andrew Gold b.1769 in the Parish of Douglas in the County of Lanark.
Father: William Gold
Mother: Mary Crawford
Siblings: Peter b.1767, Christian b.1771, John b.1782 and Mary b.1786
Originally I was leaning towards Andrew Gold b.1760 as my Andrew; however, as I was researching the Gold family in Douglas, I found it strange that there were no Gold’s born prior to 1746 in the parish of Douglas. So I got to thinking... perhaps Gold was not the original name. After performing a few searches I discovered the surname Guil. Oddly enough it seems as though the surname Guil died out just as the surname Gold was growing in popularity. I decided to create a spread sheet of the O.P.R. births/marriages under the surname Guil and matched these up with the O.P.R. births/marriages for the surname Gold… much to my surprise the family groupings for the surname Guil nicely linked into the early family groupings of the surname Gold as some of the children were born under the surname Guil while the other half of the same family were born under the surname Gold. Soon after I came into contact with another researcher from Australia who also came to the same conclusion… so, it would seem very plausible that the surname Guil and Gold were used synonymously in the parish of Douglas. Perhaps an illiteracy issue on the part of the registrar?
Taking this into consideration, I came up with two additional possibilities for my Andrew Gold (Coal Miner).
- Andrew Guil b.1724 in the Parish of Douglas in the County of Lanark
Father: John Guil
- Andrew Guil b.1739 in the Parish of Douglas in the County of Lanark.
Father: Andrew Guil
Mother: Marion Gamble
Siblings: Hugh b1726, Peter b.1728, Bessie b.1730, James b.1732, Hugh b.1734, John b.1736, Mary b.1743 and William b.1747
I am now leaning towards Andrew Guil b.1739 for the following reasons:
- Andrew Gold married Elizabeth Weir in 1789. This would make Elizabeth Weir 40 yrs and Andrew Guil 50 yrs at the time of their marriage. The other options would make Elizabeth Weir 8 to 20 yrs their senior. While this doesn’t seem strange in today’s world, it would be strange in the 1700’s.
- Andrew Gold b.1790 d.1857 was Andrew Gold and Elizabeth Weir’s only child. If Andrew and Elizabeth kept with Scottish naming conventions it would make sense that Andrew Gold’s father was also named Andrew Gold (or Guil)
I am now focussing my attention on the latter theory and the possibility that Andrew and Elizabeth both had previous marriages.
If you have any questions or are interested in additional information please feel free to drop me a line.
Happy hunting!
Arthur R. Gold
