Nell,
Wow! You have helped greatly, you have no idea!
Andrew Reid emigrated 1860 to the US, and an old family tree listed his father as Archibald and mother J.Hardy. We knew this family had lived in Lanarkshire, but we had no parish information.
I ordered a transcription of a birth, which I thought might be my Andrew, from Scot Origins. It was indeed my Andrew and now I knew J. Hardy was Janet Hardy (or Hardie). And I then had a parish to search through. At the end of the transcription it said "5 child." I figured this meant that Andrew was the 5th child.
Anyway, I really wanted to find other siblings. And you have done just that! I always thought that Andrew didn't emigrate alone, although he was 24 at the time and didn't marry until he was in the USA. Now I have names to check for.
I didn't know what was available as far as the census, but I assumed, incorrectly it seems, it was the best place to look. I am not sure that any of this family would have been in the area as of 1841. I know Andrew's future father-in-law emigrated in 1839 to Cape Breton, Nova Scotia from Old Monkland. I have suspicions that the Reid's may have done something similar around the same time. This entire family, until ca. 1940 were coal miners in Scotland, Canada, and the USA. It has been hard tracking them down as such--they seem to have been incredibly mobile, at least in the US.
On all the other branches of my tree I can go back quite easily. But I have had a hard time with the Reid line. It has always bothered me, because I am a Reid myself.
So, thanks very much, Nell. You have helped me enormously.
Jeff
