Milton Family of Auchterless

[Brittaya]

Hi,

I'm looking for anyone who knows anything about or is related to the Miltons in Auchterless. I've gone as far back as James Milton (b. sometime in 1700s) and his wife Janet Wilson (b. sometime in 1700s). Here is the thread where some awesome rootschatters helped me figure this all out. http://www.rootschat.com/forum/index.php/topic,628030.0.html

James & Janet had several children:
Ann 1788
Margaret 1789
Isabel 1794
James 1795
Alexander 1796
William 1798
Mary 1799
Helen 1802
John 1804-1863

The one I descend from is the youngest: John b.1804-d.1863.

John apparently got a servant girl pregnant before he got married. Her name was Jane or Jean Duncan and their illegitimate child John (jr.) is the one I'm descended from. John JR was raised by grandfather James as far as we can tell from the census. I'm very curious to know anything about Jane/Jean Duncan. It's hard to find the right one in SP records because there are so many of them and I don't have any years to work with. I bought John JR's birth cert but it only lists their names and the Parish. No ages or grandparent names given to help. So any info on her would be greatly appreciated.

So John (b.1804) got married to Ann Shand (after fathering John Jr. with Miss Duncan) and they had several children of their own. Here are John's children:
John Jr (son of John Milton & Jane Duncan) 1827-1891
James 1829
Isabel 1831
Ann 1833
Robert 1834
William 1836
Mary 1838
Donald 1841

So John Jr married Margaret Paxton and they had my great great grandmother Mary Ann Milton who married William Black. Their daughter Maggie Milton Taylor Black is my great grandmother.

I'm hoping someone on here will have some idea about Jane Duncan or any of the other Miltons. I'd love to find a long lost cousin or two. Thanks

Britt

[Stuart P]

If you have sorted out in which parish John Milton (1827) was born then the Kirk Session records for that parish should be held at the National Archives of Scotland in Edinburgh. They have been digitized and are available on an "intranet" at local archive centres throughout Scotland.
They are not indexed except by parish and year, but Jean Duncan  is very likely to have appeared before the Session and probably accused John Milton as being the father of her child. Very often there is enough biographical detail in the Session records to identify the persons involved.
So, if you are not close to a Scottish Local Archive you need to get some kind soul to go and have a look for you.

[Brittaya]

Aww darn. My father and my nana both grew up in Aberdeen, but now we all live in Canada. Someday I'll go over there and visit and maybe do some digging in person. For now I guess I have to find someone who's close by. The parish was Newmill according to the birth record.

[Stuart P]

There is no parish of Newmill, that's a placename in Auchterless parish.

From the 1881 census of Auchterless, John Milton age 53 from New Deer parish, a married farm servant, is away from his family working at Seggat. His wife Margaret, a farm servant's wife from Auchindoir parish, is with their children at a "house on Darley".

But, in 1871 this same John Milton, with his family at Seggat, Auchterless, claims to be born in Aberdour parish.

In 1861, Ancestry has mistranscribed Margaret "Wilson" from Auchindoir at Templand, Auchterless with 1yr-old son William. John Milton age 28 is at a separate household at Templand and is said to be born in Forgue parish. This may be a "Ditto" from the previous entry. The original record can be viewed on Scotlandspeople. NEVER trust Ancestry transcriptions.

In 1851 John (cattleman age 21) appears to be working in Turriff parish, born in Aberdour parish. [Freecen.org.uk]
In 1841 John Milton is at New Mill, Auchterless age 13 born Aberdeenshire, with his grandfather.

So, it seems that John was not entirely sure where he was born, but Aberdour and New Deer are the favourites.

[Brittaya]

I'm confused as I only used Scotland's People for all the records I got. I'm not sure if you read the other thread I linked to, but it's all in there.. My ancestry account wasn't even activated when I was searching all this. I used only LDS and SP.

[Stuart P]

Sorry if I confused you.

All I'm saying is that John Milton, the illegit son of John Milton & Jean Duncan, is a bit hazy about where he was born (which would probably be in his mother's home parish).

Also that the Ancestry census transcription  for 1861 appears to have mis-transcribed Margaret Milton nee Paxton at Templand (household 5) as "Margaret Wilson". The LDS census index for 1861 Auchterless has  "Milton"

And that the 1861 census transcription on Ancestry where John Milton is a ploughman at Templand (household 1), Auchterless says he was born in Forgue, but the previous entry was also said to be born there, so the actual place of birth probably just says [" "].

The only census where John Milton is head of household, and therefore filling out the census form himself, is 1871, and in that one he says he was born in Aberdour parish.

[Brittaya]

I think I get what you are saying now, but I have his birth record from Scotland's People. I wasn't guessing from census records. Here are the images from the birth record so you can see what I'm saying. I didn't want to copy the whole record because of copyright reasons, so I just posted a couple pieces. So I hope that this isn't too big an excerpt. If it is I'll remove it.

Britt

[Stuart P]

Ok, the baptism record you attached is from Turriff parish. I'm pretty sure the Turriff Kirk Session would have had several meetings with Jean Duncan and John Milton before the baptism.
By the time the baptism record was written Jean Duncan has moved 14 miles from Laithers, one of several properties in the west of Turriff parish to one of the half-dozen crofts which made up Cummerton in Aberdour. [see http://maps.nls.uk/series/index.html ]

Is the record in sequence with other baptisms on the same page, or could it be written much later?

Most commonly the mother of an illegitimate child would go to her family home to have the child.

[Brittaya]

It appears the ones before it on the page are all from 1829 and this one is at the very bottom and says 1827. So yes it looks like you are correct.

Britt