Hello,
I recently came across the death/burial record for Margaret MacFarlane, a sister of my third-great-grandfather James MacFarlane, in the records for Neilston.
Almost all of the other entries just give the death date, name, residence, and age, but Margaret has a long entry, presumably since her husband was the session clerk:
Deaths in 1848
May
Died on 21
Margaret Macfarlane wife of William Anderson session clerk Neilston was interred in the family burying ground in the church yard of the Parish of Neilston on the 26th of May eighteen hundred and forty eight years
aged 62
I have a book of pre-1855 monumental inscriptions for Renfrewshire, but I cannot find anything that could be this “family burying ground.” The family of Janet Anderson, Margaret’s mother, had been in Neilston for centuries and in 1680 had acquired a small piece of land called Broadlie. There are, however, no gravestones for the family mentioned in the book.
The family of Margaret’s husband William Anderson had also lived in Neilston since at least the early 1700s (I believe that William was a relative of Margaret). William, his father, and his grandfather were all teachers. William and his grandfather were both session clerk at some point (I do not know about William’s father). There also appears to be no stones for them.
Could it be the case that the “family burying ground” does not have any markers (or at least none that explicitly states who is buried there)? If so, is there anyway I could determine where it the church yard it is located?
Stefan Ramonat
