Richard Robinson born 1851 Scotland

[JillMD]

This is my great grandfather, Richard Robinson and my pretty great grandmother, Elizabeth, on their wedding day (don't they look like a happy couple?). Richard was born in 1851 or 1852 in Scotland to a Scotsman and an Irish woman (!)  and moved to the US in 1870. From the census, it looks like they lived in NYC and finally settled in Pittsburgh, with Richard working in the steel mills. In some census, he is listed as a laborer, but later as a chemist - which would support the stories of him having a hand in process of making pig iron stronger and some of the other family stories. Their children were Abner, Richard, Webster, Bessie (my grandmother) and Mamie.
I've been told he had 2 brothers; I'm not sure if they also immigrated, but I'd like to find the connection back to Scotland. Is this an impossible task? I'm not sure where to even start looking; the few Scotland search pages I've looked at are confusing to me, since I don't know where to begin or where he might have been born in Scotland.
Thank you for any help you can supply to point me in the right direction.

[Eilleen]

I cannot  help 

but just wanted to say what a fantastic couple .

Eilleen.

[JillMD]

Thanks! I can't get over how tiny her waist is.  I can really see the family resemblance - my mother looked very much like her grandmother.

[Annette7]

Believe I have found him.  He appears to have arrived in the US 4 years later than he said - on Castle Garden site I found:

Richard Robinson (born Scotland)  23    Iron Worker arrived on 'Victoria' 23/9/1874.

I note he married Lizzie Scott 26/1/1882 Kings, New York.

Could find no birth/baptism entry for Richard in Scotland so looked at census.

1871 - shown bc.1851 Scotland and a boarder in Benfieldside, Durham, England - occup.Puddler (in manufacture of iron)

1861 - same place he is a 9yr old schoolboy with brother Robert Robinson 21 Puddler born Ireland
(cannot find rest of his family)

1851 - 55 South Square, Old Monkland, Lanarkshire

Ann Robinson    widow  38                  born Ireland
James Robinson 13                            ditto
Robert Robinson  12                           ditto
John Robinson  9                               born Old Monkland, Lanarkshire
Dorinda Robinson 7                               ditto
Andrew Robinson 5                                ditto
Ann J. Robinson 2                                  ditto
William McFadyn  30   boarder   Puddler of Iron    born Ireland
Dorinda McFadyn 35                                               ditto

One of the US census I looked at gave Richard's birthdate as June 1851 so mother Ann was about to give birth to him.   

I then found some trees online (some of whom I could see had some incorrect information) and a synopsis seems to be:

Parents were James Robinson bc.1810 Scotland d.end 1850/early 1851.   When his daughter Dorinda married (to Isaiah Hughes) 12/8/1864 at Baptist Chapel of Highgate, Durham she states father James, deceased - he married Ann Jane Baird Farrall (or Farrell) presumably in Ireland as she and first 2 children born there.  Ann died 16/4/1859 Old Monkland, Lanarkshire - she was shown as widow of Blast Furnaceman (his name not given on death certificate which I viewed on Scotlands People).   She died of Peritonitis and shown to be the daughter of Andrew Farrall, farmer and Margaret McNee ??(hard to read).  (Civil registration didn't start in Scotland until 1855 so unable to view James' death details).  Informant of her death was son John.

Haven't followed all Richard's siblings but trees show Dorinda died 28/5/1924 Detroit, Michigan and sister Ann Jane married an Atchison Scott 5/9/1872 in USA, and died 1932 New Jersey.   So clearly, some of his siblings did go to the US too but he arrived on his own.

There is a photo of his sister Dorinda on some of the trees I looked at.  (Trees said father James died 1854 but his wife shown as a widow on 1851 census, and that Ann died 1858 in Preston, Lancs. England which is definitely wrong as she died in Scotland the following year).

As I said at the outset, there is no birth/baptism entry for Richard either on familysearch or SP, nor indeed for any of his siblings born in Scotland.  He did in fact have 4 brothers and 2 sisters.

Annette

[JillMD]

Ohhhh my goodness!  My heart's racing. That indeed has to be the right one. How can I get these links and pictures? My search so far had been limited to familysearch, and I'm new to it all; I can't believe how quickly you got this.

Yes, his wife was called Lizzie and I too found that her maiden name was Scott.
Why do I think this is absolutely correct? I have a sister, Dorinda Ann, so I'm sure it's a family name. Annette, my sister is going to be so thrilled when she sees this. She's been my catalyst to start hunting down the family and I've wanted to do this for her - she's a good deal older than me and not computer literate - I can't wait to call her!

So, how do I go about going further? What resources are best for finding more about the family in Ireland/Scotland? Is there a way to see the ship's manifest? Is there a site to look at immigration forms? Again, thank you!

[JillMD]

The stories of my great grandfather are happy ones - he  must have been quite a character. I've heard that into his 70's he'd do handstands and cartwheels. He died of cancer, having kept a small vial of uranium or plutonium (I forget which, something cancerous, anyway) on his waist for years.  He said he could get the phosphorus out of the bricks in Pittsburgh, and a load of bricks were dumped at his home. He boiled them in the kitchen, but nothing happened. When my grandmother, Bessie, got up in the middle of the night to use the outhouse, she thought the house was on fire. It was the phosphorus glowing on the ceiling. I wish I'd have met him, or heard more stories about him!

[Cas (stallc)]

Familysearch.com

Name   Atchison Scott
Spouse's Name   Ann Jane Robinson
Event Date   05 Sep 1872
Event Place   Manhattan, New York
Father's Name   Atchison Scott
Mother's Name   Elizabeth Farrel
Spouse's Father's Name   James Robinson
Spouse's Mother's Name   Ann Farrel


Looks like both mothers of couple were possibly related.  Also Seems likely that Lizzie/Elizabeth and Richard Robinson where siblings of this couple.  Also think there maybe a family connection to the 1851 boarders and also the couple in Durham

Cas

[Cas (stallc)]

This is also from familysearch, but cannot get image to load for further detail
There are also other cenus with widower, Atchinson Snr, Jnr and dau Elisabeth/lizzie, if you do not have already.

New York State Census, 1855
Event Place   E.D. 9, Ward 11, New York City, New York, New York, United States
Page   67

Atchison Scott   Head, 33   
Elisabeth Scott   Wife, 32   
Abner Scott        son, 6   
Atcherson Scott    son, 5   
Elizabeth Scott    dau, 3   
Margret Farland   Mother-in-law 70   

Possible death
Name   Margaret Farrell
Event Date   08 Apr 1859
Event Place   Manhattan, New York
Age   74
Marital Status   Unknown
Birth Year (Estimated) 1785

There is also a possible death for Elizabeth Scott b 1823, died 14 March 1869

Cas

[Annette7]

Glad you are pleased.  The sources I used are:

http://castlegarden.org  (for immigration)

http://scotlandspeople.gov.uk  (official site for Scotland - other sites have transcriptions only of some Scottish records but you can view original documents on SP.   It is not a subscription site but to view anything you have to buy credits - cost £7 for 30 credits. 

ancestry.com (I actually connect to ancestry.co.uk because of my location - if I try to connect to .com it automatically re-directs me to co.uk).     This is a subscription site and I personally have a worldwide subscription.   They have a vast array of records including members family trees.   A word of caution regarding the trees - always double check information where possible as often certain details can be wrong like I found with the death dates/places given for Richards parents.   Trouble is one person posts details and others connected to the same family come across it and blithely copy/accept the information as 'fact'.  There are 2/3 trees for Dorinda which, as I mentioned before, include a photo of her.

Ireland research I am not that familiar with so others reading this thread will no doubt have far better advice to give you.   When I 'dabble' the sites I use are irishgenealogy.ie and nationalarchives.ie (for 1901/1911 census - only Irish census available).  Both of these sites are free but there are others for which you have pay.   I have looked for James Robinson/Ann Farrell marriage there and couldn't find it on the site I use.   The problem here is that right now you do not know where in Ireland you need to concentrate on.   Irish records online are somewhat limited when you don't know where you need to be searching but more and more detail is slowly getting added so things should improve over time.

Besides familysearch another site to make a note of (in case you get any English ancestry) is FreeReg.com which as it names suggest is free.   This is for baptisms/marriages/burials.   No one site will have everything you need so, like me, you end up flitting from one to the other.   Plus, of course, there are times when you simply cannot find what you need anywhere!

Hope this helps and good luck.   Only experience will decide which sites you need.

Annette

EDIT: another site I forgot to mention is findmypast.co.uk (subscription)