Alexander Lightbody, Carluke

[Forfarian]

Can I ask if you know if a woman is called Margaret, can she also be known as Marrion or are there any other names she might call herself?  I can't find a birth record for Margaret Gilchrist or a marriage record for the Margaret Gilchrist Alexander Lightbody realtionship.  I wonder if they weren't officially married?

The most likely explanation is that the marriage record, if it ever existed, has not survived.

I've never come across a Margaret being known as Marion. Pet names for Margaret include Daisy and Peggy, but the parish registers usually use the formal name.

I think there is at least one baptism of a child of theirs. Have you looked at the original image? Because it will make the parents' marital status clear.

[teilujnitram]

Hi Forfarian,  Thanks again for your help.  No, I've not looked, but I will, as I have found several children.  I was trying to work out what each of their parents would have been called from their children's names, going by the naming tradition, and their children (the ones I have found) were: Alexander, John, Marion, Andrew and Archibald.  I sort of assumed that the grandparents would be Alexander (father's side), John (mother's side), Marion (mother's side), but of course this could be nonsense.  That hasn't helped me much either.  I'll let you know what I find out.  It doesn't help either, that the likely census has her age at 1841 as 50 and also his, but at his death in 1846 he is given as 64 which makes his birth 1782 ish, and at her death the age is given as 59 (1850), which gives her a birth date of either 1782 or 1791.  Could be a transcription error in the census perhaps, as the death ages I have seen the actual record. I can't find anything just doing a very broad search across Scotland and England.  If they were very poor, perhaps they didn't have enough money to pay for any church interventions.

[Forfarian]

Bear in mind that adults' ages in 1841 were supposed to be rounded down to the nearest 5 years. So an age of 50, if accurate, means a DoB between 1786 and 1791.

An age of 64 in 1846, if accurate, means a DoB in 1791 or 1792, and an age of 59 in 1850, if accurate, means a DoB in 1790 or 1791.

If they were very poor, the parish would have borne the cost, for example, of funerals. It is far more lkely that, for whatever reason, they did not have their children's baptisms recorded in the Church of Scotland's parish register.

Maybe they belonged to some breakaway church or sect whose records, if any, have not survived. Maybe they just never got round to having the children baptised? Maybe the clerk forgot to write them down?

It is possible that there might be something in the records of Carluke Kirk Session that might shed some light on them. The KS records are only available in the Historical Search Room in Edinburgh and one or two other local archives at present, but there are plans to put them online at Scotland's People.
 

[teilujnitram]

I'll try to persuade my relatives in Edinburgh to do some sleuthing for me.  I already want them to look up the Railway employee records (which have been transposed incorrectly on Ancestry). I'm up there next week for a couple of days but visiting relatives rather than having time to go record hunting (sadly).  I am a bit torn, but have to put the living relatives first - the others will wait!

[RJ_Paton]

You might want to get a hold of the Carluke Vital records DVD from http://www.carlukehistory.co.uk/ which has the MI inscriptions for the area, photographs of the stones and mortcloth records.

Re Alexander buried in 1784 - all other entries which refer to children describe them by age or as a son/ daughter of  or child of and then give the fathers name (although as forfarian says you have to be careful regarding the description of a "child" which has changed over the years)
for example

James son to Alexander Lightbody in Carluke aged 3 years and 3 months December 1787

PS another possible reason for no records is that from 1783 to 1794 there was a stamp duty of 3 pence to be paid on every Registration

[jenski]

Hi - I have family based Carluke / Lanarkshire / Lesmahagow which has Alexander Lightbody 1790 marrying Margaret Gilchrist who was born about 1800 - they had a child John Lightbody in 1821 approx. (marrying Elizabeth Hastings) and one son was Alexander Lightbody. This son Alexander Lightbody (latterly became an artist) married Janet Brown and the family eventually moved from Lanarkshire to Glasgow.
Does this sound like the same family ? I have other information - not sure if its possible to find out each other's emails to pass documents to you etc

[Forfarian]

Hi jenski, and welcome to RootsChat.

Once you have made 3 posts on the forum, you will be able to use the Personal Message (PM) system to exchange e-mail addresses privately.

[HayleyRobbo]

Hello teilujnitram, I believe that Archibald Haldane Lightbody is my great-great grandfather. Not sure how to message you privately, as I am new to this.. I was doing some research and saw this post. I would be really keen to speak to you as I am researching with my grandmother, who's grandfather is Archibald.

Thank you!

Hayley.

[Forfarian]

Hi Hayley, and welcome to RootsChat.

Once you have made three posts to the forums, you can use the Personal Message (PM) system to send a private message to another poster.