John McEwan marries Isabella Smith in Troqueer, 1846 - Help!!

[climbingthewalls]

I also noticed the Mary Bridges name. Which seems odd. I am wondering if Mary Grierson died and Mary Bridges was a later wife , or that it has been transcribed wrong?

This is the death record of Janet Smith who you have as the 9 year old. As you can see, Hugh Smith and Mary Grierson were her parents.

[climbingthewalls]

This is the only one that mentions a James Smith, but interesting that wife was a Reed/ Reid
 
476.   Erected by Agnes SMITH in memory of James SMITH her father and Catherine
REED his spouse who died of choleria 1839. Also Thomas SMITH their son who
died at Summer Hill March 18th 1836 aged 16 years.

I noted this and not sure if it is relevant but there is a James Smith, Agnes Smith and child Catherine living on Glasgow Street, Maxwelltown in 1841. The same street Isabella and Hugh were living on in 1841. I wonder if they have some relevance?

[Neale1961]

Hugh Smith’s death certificate should name who he was married to at the time of his death.

A Mary Grierson Smith did die in 1889 in Dumfries.

The name Bridges may have been an error by who ever ordered the memorial inscription, which might have been many years after,    or it could be that the inscription on the grave stone is hard to read, and the transcriber deciphered that way.

[climbingthewalls]

I've just had a closer look at the death certificate and in fact he is put down as being married to Mary Bridges - not a Mary Grierson. Which is a puzzle.

Also I think you found that he was down as 73 when he died on the Grave Inscription, but on here its showing 64.

[Neale1961]

Yes, ages on memorial inscription might differ from certificates depending on the memory of whoever ordered the grave stone.

[Forfarian]

I've just had a closer look at the death certificate and in fact he is put down as being married to Mary Bridges - not a Mary Grierson. Which is a puzzle.

Indeed.

I wonder if Bridges might be Mary Grierson's mother' maiden name? There are 4 baptisms of children to John G and Agnes Bridges in Tinwald between 1810 and 1818. And a grandmother's maiden name instead of a mother's is probably the most common error I've seen in death certificates.

In 1841 Hugh is 22, so born 1818/1819
In 1851 he is 34, so born 1816/1817
In 1861 he is 46, so born 1814/1815
In 1871 he is 55, so born 1815/1816
On the death certificate he is 64 so born 1821 (or, just possibly, 1820 but the death date is so close to the end of the year that it's unlikely)
On the stone Hugh is 73, so born 1812 (or, just possibly, 1811)

1811/1821 is quite a span of years! Especially between the certificate and the stone.

[climbingthewalls]

I've just got Mary Grierson death certificate. On this she dies in 1889, and is the widower of Hugh Smith, Flesher) . She is recorded as being 67 at time of death, so born approx 1822. She has father as Thomas Grierson (farmer) and mother Janet Smith. So no link to Bridges as I can see.

[climbingthewalls]

The only match I am getting on a Thomas Grierson is this from St.Mungo so not a million miles away from Dumfries. But it has marriage down as 1835. Which would be 13 years after Mary was born??

[Forfarian]

The plot thickens .... but if these are Mary's parents, perhaps there is something in the Kirk Session records?

Though I suppose, really, that tracing Mary's antecedents is a bit of a red herring when it comes to Isabella's forebears.