Hi everyone
Why is it just when you think all is going great, you come up against a brick wall?
My great great Grandad was Benjamin Bird, born, well thats a bone of contention in any case; his death record suggests 1827, but census/marriage records suggest 1834. He lived in Mid Calder and then Kirknewton.
His supposed parents were Robert Bird and Margaret McArthur, and yep, they were married in Cramond Midlothian in 1813. However, there are NO registered children of that union.
The 1871 census shows a nice little family living in Howden Smity consisting of:
Robert Bird - Head aged 70
Margaret (nee McArthur) Wife - 71
Robert son 40
Benjamin son 37
Janet daughter 36
Margaret Watt granddaughter 26 (it spells it Walt but it is Watt)
Barbar Watt 24
Robert Watt grandson 22
Margaret dies in Howden Smithy two years later and is listed as being 86 years old. Robert follows in 1875 and he's listed as being 83. OK, I can give and take a year or two in the census, but thats ridiculous.
1881 census then shows some of the family still livng in Howden Smithy;
Robert aged 51 is the head;
sister Jessie (Janet) is 45;
Barbara Watt is listed as being 28
Robert Watt is 22.
Again, the age difference between 1871 and 1881 is ridiculous for the kiddies, they would have only been 16,15 and 14 in 1871, and whose children were they?
I can't find any records of Robert, Benjamin or Janet being born to Robert and Margaret, as I said, there is NO record of them having any children, and even if they DID produce these three above, it was 20 plus years after they wed, and Marg would have been a bit long in the tooth;
I also cannot find any record of the Watt kiddies birth either. The only clue I have is when Barbara Watt died in 1908 in East Calder, she had her parents listed as being Robert Watt and Margaret Bird, then again, who is Margaret Bird.
Sigh... another family dilemma. Who am I? It seems that in the olden days they just passed kiddies on to other relatives, and they took thier names and its just about damned impossible to find out exactly who we really are!
While on my dads side we are quite happy to be Buchan's rather than Wilsons, and the McBrides were happy enough knowing they came paternally from the "Birds", well, now even thats in doubt. My mum's family on the other hand were not so happy being told that they really were not Scott's after all, but more probably thier name should be Hurston. Quite frankly, I think its got a much nicer ring "Mr and Mrs Hurston"....sort of posh really.
I digress, back to the Birds, obviously my gr gr grandfather and his sister and brother took Rob/Marg as being thier parents as its on wedding cert and death cert.
I also believe that Robert Bird senior was born Robert BURD (probably got sick of being spelt Bird, so changed it), son of James Burd and Jean Stevenson, and he had siblings: Robert, Benjamin, Catharine and Mary.
Anyone out there researching the Bird's from Midlothian? I know that my particular rels went off from Kirknewton and settled in Kirkintilloch (both lovely places I might add).
Thanks
Linda - Australia
