Mary (Hastings?) Waugh - Troqueer/Maxwelltown

[Waughhunter]

My brick wall on my direct ancestral line is John and Mary Waugh.  Mary was possibly born Mary Hastings, although evidence on that is patchy, but she is definitely known to have been born around 1818 based on the 1861 census for Troqueer, at which point she was a widow and a washerwoman living with her sons John (b c1836) and Andrew (b c1840) and John's son, another John (b 1857).  I have found some records to indicate Mary's late husband was also a John, although I have no idea of his dates of either birth or death and very scant information on Mary's life before 1861. 

I do have lots of info on their descendants, who mostly stayed around Troqueer/Maxwelltown area for most of the 19th century but at least some of them, including my own grandfather, had relocated to Glasgow by the early 20th century.   

Any additional light any of you can shine on John and Mary as a couple in Kirkudbrightshire around the 1830s, particularly if it helps me to go back another generation, would be greatly appreciated.

Gerry Waugh

[Forfarian]

1841 census, Gorbals: John Waugh, 40; Mary Waugh, 25; John Waugh, 7; Andrew Waugh, 3.

1851 census, Troqueer. Mary Waugh, widow, 33, born Dumfries-shire; son John, 17, born Troqueer; son Andrew, 12, born Glasgow; daughter Sarah McKie, 2, born Troqueer; and four lodgers.

1861 census, Troqueer: Mary Waugh, 43, widow; son John, 25, widower; grandson John, 4; son Andrew, 21.

John Waugh, mother's surname Thomson, born Troqueer 1856.

John Waugh married Agnes Thomson, Dumfries, 1856.

Agnes Thomson or Waugh, 22, died in Troqueer in 1857, mother's maiden surname Menzies.

I suggest you take a look at that marriage in 1856. It will tell you the full names of John Waugh's parents, including his mother's maiden surname.

Baptism of Andrew to John Waugh and Mary Hastings in Glasgow on 5 October 1838.

Also John Hastings to Robert Waugh and Mary Hastings in Dunscore on 19 August 1830. Could Robert be an error for John, I wonder? Though the date is rather early, and Dunscore isn't next door to Troqueer.

[Waughhunter]

Thank you.  The marriage on 11 Jan 1856 was between my great great grandparents, John Waugh and Agnes Thomson.  She died not long after giving birth to my great grandfather, John Waugh - he is the one whose year of birth is given as circa 1856 on the census (he was actually born 9 March 1857).  Agnes' parents were John Thomson and Mary Menzies. 

Mary Hastings' son John Waugh remarried, to Agnes McKie, in Nov 1862 and had four more children (Catherine Howat Waugh, Mary Hastings Waugh (not to be confused with Mary Hastings - this is the granddaughter of the Mary Hastings I am researching, Jane McKie Waugh (later Pirie) and Helen McKie Waugh. 

Andrew also got married, only a few months after the 1861 census, to Jane Gordon, and they had six children.  This suggests Mary lived alone from late 1861 until her death.  She is not on the 1871 census, as far as I can tell, suggesting she died some time before then, although she could equally have moved away by then.

Mary's son John (b 1836) died in 1872 and her grandson John (b 1857) married Margaret Bell in 1881 and they had four children, the eldest being called (yes, you guessed it) John (1882-1942, my own grandfather)

The census information causes some confusion.  Both the 1851 and 1861 census list Mary Waugh as a widow, born c 1818, living with sons John and Andrew in King Street, Troqueer but the details differ slightly.  The earlier one gives a different place of birth for her and slightly different years of birth for the boys.  The earlier one also listens an extra child, Sarah McKie, listed as Mary's two year old daughter (if this is the case, she would have given birth aged 31, and possibly from an extra marital relationship given the differing surnames).  I can find no trace of Sarah beyond 1851, so it is unclear whether she died young or was possibly "farmed out" (sent to live elsewhere with another family), which was known to happen to children of poor families in that era and in that region as I know it did happen with other ancestors, but cannot prove in Sarah's case. 

It is possible, but seems unlikely, that there could have been two different Mary Waughs with sons of the same names and similar ages living in the same street ten years apart.  Discrepancies between the censuses may well be recording errors.

The 1841 census is an interesting one.  1882 John did move from Maxwelltown/Troqueer to Glasgow sometime around 1900 but I had never considered before that ancestors several generations earlier could have originated from there, so will look into that.  Thank you.

[Forfarian]

he is the one whose year of birth is given as circa 1856 on the census (he was actually born 9 March 1857). 

No. The available UK census never, ever , gives a year of birth.

It states the age the person claimed or was said be on census day. Any 'source' that gives a year of birth has 'calculated' it by subtracting the person's age from the census year. As the census is normally taken about the beginning of April, a quarter of the way through the year, some three-quarters of people have not yet had a birthday in the census year, so they are recorded as a year younger than they would be on the last day of the year, therefore subtracting the age from the census year gives a wrong answer three-quarters of the time. Even assuming that the person's age was accurate in the first place.

Either of John's marriage certificate, or Andrew's, will confirm the names of their parents, including their mother's maiden surname, and will say whether or not the parents were living (though of course you already know from the 1851 census that their father died before 1851.

John's death certificate should also tell you if his mother was alive or dead in 1872.

Discrepancies between the censuses may well be recording errors.

Absolutely. They might be because Mary and her sons were unsure of exactly when and where they themselves were born.