st vigeans a photo if possible

[hdw]

Try the Auchmithie Roots Forum as mentioned by Kev above. There are some very knowledgeable and helpful people there.

I agree with what you say about the naming of children in Auchmithie families not seeming to follow any logical pattern, particularly in the case of Wm. Swankie and Mgt. Lawson. They called two of their daughters Campbell (my ancestor) and McKay. What was that all about??

Compare this to the naming of children in, for example, my home county of Fife, where the children's names are usually a good guide to the names of grandparents, aunts and uncles. Especially among the fisherfolk. My father was the youngest of 10 children, comprising 8 boys and 2 girls, and from my study of the extended family I can see exactly where they all got their names from.

Harry

[swankie]

Thanks for your reply,  I'll email the spink ancestors website I think, their information seems pretty accurate from what I've researched so far.

[Kev61]

There's a bit of discussion going on regards Margaret Lawson on the Auchmithie Roots forum just now...http://www.invisionplus.net/forums/index.php?mforum=auchmithieroots&act=idx

[eeat]

looking for some help from anyone on the below?
just starting out doing a family tree and got to finding out my great grandmother Isabella Cargill resided at 61 Auchmithie when she married my great grandfather Charles Coupar Eaton.
Her mother and father were John and Maggie Cargill (nee Spink) and she may have possibly had a brother called Harry? wondered if you could provide any further info on what kind of life they led, would they have had to continue the tradition of the fisher wedding (1915) and had to possibly travel to chase the herring in England, possibly before she was married?
my great grandmother was listed as an outworker when she got married, any ideas what this may have involved in Auchmithie? on looking up the word it mentions cotton working or working the fields or working from home??
appreciate any help you could possibly provide
many thanks
From Eric

[hdw]

Hello Eric. I strongly advise you to join the Auchmithie Roots forum mentioned above by Kev61, where you will find separate threads for the Spink, Swankie, Cargill and Eaton surnames as well as very useful transcripts of the various censuses. And lots of distant cousins among the people who post there!

I can tell you that Isabella Ritchie Cargill who married Charles Coupar Eaton was born in 1891, the illegitimate daughter of Margaret Spink, who however married the girl's father John Cargill in 1895. Margaret Spink and her siblings were 2nd cousins of my own great-grandmother, another Margaret Spink.

You are related to what is probably the best-known of all Spink families, as they produced Robert Ritchie Spink, founder of the fish-merchants R.R. Spink whose products can be found in the best supermarkets, as well as the royal kitchens, and this man was also Provost of Arbroath in his time.

If you search for 61 Auchmithie in the 1891 census on Auchmithie Roots, you will find Henry Spink and his wife Isabella Ritchie living there with their children Margaret (your ancestor), Isabella, Henry and Robert  (aged 6). This Robert Spink married an Elizabeth Cargill, and they were the parents of the abovementioned Robert Ritchie Spink, who married Euphemia Carstairs Brown of Anstruther in Fife.

Harry

[Kev61]

Hi Harry and hello Eric. Just to let you know that the Auchmithie Roots forum has now moved, due to technical difficulties to http://www.auchmithieroots.freeforums.org. Eric, I have sent you the link by email.

[hdw]

Eric, I've done some further research on your family with the help of Scotlandspeople. Auchmithie was such a small inbred community that anyone with ancestors from there can find links to just about every other family, and I've found a few links between your family and mine. I'm afraid it gets complicated!

As you know, your Isabella Cargill who married Charles Coupar Eaton in 1915 was the daughter of John Cargill and Margaret Spink, married in 1895. Charles was born in 1890 to David Eaton and Isabella Cargill, who were married in 1881. David was the son of Robert Eaton and Margaret Coull; Isabella was the daughter of Robert Cargill and Agnes Swankie.

At the time of David Eaton and Isabella Cargill's marriage in 1881, Isabella was actually a widow, called Isabella Shepherd. She married widower David Shepherd in 1873 (he had married a Margaret Cargill, daughter of James Cargill and Ann Spink) in 1871, and obviously she died soon thereafter.

Five years later in 1876, David Shepherd was "Drowned by the running down of an open boat. Body not found". This happened "Eight miles south-east of the Red head off the parish of Inverkeilor".

The Register of Corrected Entries changes David's age from 30 to 31, and adds, of his place of death, "In the Sea about five miles in a northerly direction from the Bed(?) Rock and nine miles from the shore at Auchmithie".

I'm not sure yet, but I think these Eatons go back to a family that was intermarried with my Spinks in the early 1800s.

Harry

[Forfarian]

place of death, "In the Sea about five miles in a northerly direction from the Bed(?) Rock and nine miles from the shore at Auchmithie".

Probably Bell Rock. This is a dangerous skerry with a famous lighthouse, about 12 miles offshore from Arbroath. See http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bell_Rock_Lighthouse

[hdw]

Yes, of course it's the Bell Rock, I should have seen that. Thanks!

I was correct in my supposition (see above) that the Eaton family under discussion go back to the Thomas Eaton drowned in 1814 along with his three Spink brothers-in-law, incl. my 3 x great-grandfather David Spink.

The David Eaton who married Isabella Cargill in 1881 was the son of Robert Eaton and Margaret Coull (from Ferryden), who were married in 1855.

Robert Eaton was the son of David Eaton and Jane Spink.

David Eaton was the son of Thomas Eaton (drowned in 1814) and Jane Spink (and David's wife Jane Spink was the daughter of John Spink (I think he also drowned in 1814) and Jane Eaton).

The mind begins to boggle at the repetition of the same names. How did they manage to avoid committing incest?

Harry