Hitting A Brick Wall With Logan family

[Alan of Kaslo]

She has quite a grand name...

Unfortunately the marriage doc is from 1853 ... and not after 1855 where they have more parental info. You can get lucky with a pre-1855 wedding doc in that regard but odds are it will not mention parents.

[Alan of Kaslo]

There are some clues on their wedding doc from 1853 but no parents are listed.

Andrew Logan -combmaker of Garden Nook Close , Upper Donburn marries Mary Ann Knight Erskine Rae of 115 Close Wayend. Both of the parish of Old Machar. Witnesses: James Sheriffs and William Williamson.

[Alan of Kaslo]

Looking at the 1851 census we see combmaker Andrew Logan , single , living with his parents George and Margaret Logan and his siblings.

https://www.freecen.org.uk/search_records/5902685ae9379091b1d0c0c6/andrew-logan-1851-aberdeenshire-old-machar-1829-?locale=en

[Alan of Kaslo]

The wedding doc lead to the combmaking clue which helped identify his parents in the census. Based on what's in the census there is one George Logan marrying a Margaret in Old Machar in the proper time period.

GEORGE LOGAN
MARGARET DONALD/
16/10/1826
Old Machar

It's quite possible it is not the correct George Logan of Old Machar... but I am quite confident that it is and will keep digging.

Andrew Logan's birth is on SP site as follows:

ANDREW LOGAN
   
GEORGE LOGAN/MARGARET DONALD
M
30/08/1828
168/A
220 54
Aberdeen

--------------------------------

In 1861 Andrew Logan and family lived at 130 Chapel Street , Old Machar

https://www.freecen.org.uk/search_records/59026beee9379091b1df86ea/mary-ann-logan-1861-aberdeenshire-old-machar-1831-?locale=en

George and Margaret Logan lived at Upper Denburn in 1861
https://www.freecen.org.uk/search_records/59026be2e9379091b1df557e/george-logan-1861-aberdeenshire-old-machar-1797-?locale=en

George Logan does not appear in 1871 census from what I can see which would indicate death occurred between 1861 and 1871.

Looking at deaths in Old Machar between those dates I see one that fits the bill...

GEORGE LOGAN
68
Mother's maiden name:
COWIE
1864
168/2 527
Old Machar Aberdeen Burgh

Census said George Logan was born very similar year (1796). I believe this is him but will double check.

Margaret Donald passed away in 1884 at age 78 in Old Machar.
The document is on Scotland's site as shown above... even without buying it there is a clue:

MARGARET DONALD
78
Mother's maiden name:
GILLAN
1884
168/2 945
Old Machar

Way I do it is ... do the math 1885 minus 78 which gives you 1805 or 1806. Go and search that for a Margaret Donald and come up blank. Take away the Margaret part and you see 3 of her siblings. Some records are missing, non-existent or hidden because of butchered spelling.


JOHN DONALD
Parents:   
DAVID DONALD/RACHEL GILLAN
   
M
26/07/1809
168/B
50 295
Old Machar

There are two more at least similar to above but I won't bore you by pasting them here. At any rate now we know the parents of Margaret Donald are David Donald and Rachel Gillan...

[Alan of Kaslo]

Regarding Mary Ann knight Erskine Rae    ...

What I would is go to the free census site and start with something simple like Mary Rae. We know she was born around 1830 as a guess based on her marriage in 1853 so we put between 1828-1835 in the birth column,

https://www.freecen.org.uk/search_records/5a1405f6f4040b9d6eeac892/mary-anne-rae-1841-aberdeenshire-old-machar-1831-?locale=en

We know she's in Aberdeenshire specifically Old Machar ....so we scan for that. Now we find her , her parents and siblings and glean clues.

So then we break it down:

Alexander Rae -Journeyman Machine Maker lives with wife Janet (note OUC which in this case means not from Aberdeenshire) and children. All living at Woodside.

Mary Ann Rae and Andrew Logan have a son Alexander born 16 Nov 1855  ...so that adds credence.

Next i'd nip back to SP site and plug in Alexander Rae under old parish marriages.... change it to search Old Machar and add spouses name Janet:
   
ALEXANDER RAE
   
JANET MCDONALD/
17/07/1824
168/B
160 137
Old Machar

Now you know Janet Rae's maiden-name (though this is preliminary and needs judicious scrutinizing) 

To find either of the parents birth I would start by minusing 20-35 years off the date of the wedding and look on SP site set first for Aberdeenshire. Then watch for Old Machar but they could also be close by. Some names are harder to find because they are so common.

His census age said 35 in 1841 so born about 1806. This is just a guide as census ages are often wrong, sometimes badly. So I'd start looking for Alexander Rae in and around 1805/1806. You can search between two ,so I'd set this back a bit on each side ... 1800-1810 (ten year blocks are good). There we see one in Old Machar...

ALEXANDER RAE

father:   
JOHN RAE/
M
09/01/1803
168/B
110 244
Old Machar

Then comes the fun part of cross-checking everything.

Hope this was somewhat helpful!
 

[Alan of Kaslo]

We catch up to David Donald and Rachel Gillan in 1841 and see they live at #8 Ann St. Old Machar.

https://www.freecen.org.uk/search_records/5a140598f4040b9d6eea58dd/david-donald-1841-aberdeenshire-old-machar-1776-?locale=en

[marklogan]

Blimey I've just had a quick glance on my dinner break at work and never expected the thread to keep going. Thank you all so much. I'll take a proper look when I get in tonight and hopefully have a gold mine of info to add to my tree.

You are all very kind to take the time to look into it in such depth for me. Thank you

Mark

[Alan of Kaslo]

Regarding Janet McDonald who married Alexander Rae...

The census says she was not born in the county of Aberdeenshire ...OUC. So the two entries from there we will set aside for now. One is even in Old Machar but for now we will discard them and search outside Aberdeenshire. With a surname like McDonald it will be near impossible to pick one from the 4 pages that show up on SP site search.

Normally I'd go to the next census up...in this case 1851 and search for them. I'm having a hard time finding either just yet in 1851 (haven't given up) which usually tells me either they moved or they passed away in between.

Sometimes the free census site shared does not have the records. You go to scotland's-people site and search their census and many more often pop up. Then you either do slick deductive detective work or start hitting the "buy" button to reveal their contents.

[Alan of Kaslo]

Regarding Rachel "Gillan" ... I could not find her under that spelling but instead under similar:

https://www.familysearch.org/search/record/results?q.givenName=rachel&q.surname=gellan&q.birthLikePlace=aberdeenshire&count=20&offset=0&m.defaultFacets=on&m.queryRequireDefault=on&m.facetNestCollectionInCategory=on

Rachel Gellan
Christening  9 Aug 1775
Old Machar
Parents: John Gellan and Margaret Duguid

David Donald
Christened:  14 Jan 1774
at: St Nicholas, Aberdeen, Aberdeenshire, Scotland, United Kingdom
Parents: Andrew Donald and Mary Sutherland

https://www.familysearch.org/search/record/results?q.givenName=david&q.surname=donald&q.birthLikePlace=aberdeenshire&q.motherSurname=sutherland&count=20&offset=0&m.defaultFacets=on&m.queryRequireDefault=on&m.facetNestCollectionInCategory=on

You can see how the family names are passed down.