James Traill Calder, Scottish poet.

[ozgirl]

I am trying to determine whether there is a link between James Traill Calder, b 1794 in Stangergill/Olrig, Caithness and OH's Calders from Olrig. James parents were George and Janet Reid. They had 4 other children the last one being born in 1806. Janet must have died as George remarried in 1809 to Henrietta Bain. She and George had 2 further children. (Peter, 1817 and Marcus, 1810)

Small bio of James is here: https://archive.org/details/sketchci...e/n22/mode/2up

Henrietta in the 1841 is here: https://search.ancestry.co.uk/cgi-bi...=try&h=1729833
It looks like she is widowed, but I have not been able to find any death for George.

In OH's line, I have a George Calder b.1771 in Dunnet, son of Donald Calder and Jean Forbes. Dunnet is only 3 miles up the road; the Calder family seem to be divided between here and Olrig. He looks like he could be the right age. I cannot find any trace of a marriage to Janet but his marriage to Henrietta is on Scotlands People. Would this have the information of Georges parents or his age on it?

Thanks

[herky]

As there was no statutory records in Scotland before 1855 I expect the index you have found is an OPR or old parish record of Banns and marriages. I am afraid the details on OPRs are not standardized and some have very little information and others a little more. Quite often they list the cautioner and that may be a father or and uncle, for example, and the relationship isn't usually listed.
However......you have me fascinated as I am from Caithness and couldn't resist a wee peek.

here is a transcription- but some words I am unsure of- "?W. George Calder in Castletown of the Parish of Olrig & ?wife Henrietta Bain in ? South Dun of thisParish were contracted in order to marriage & after the usual proclamations & no objections offered their marriage were solemnized on the 18th Feby 1809"

The parish of the above was Watten which is about 16 miles from Castletown.

Edit - sorry if you already have this...i sometimes get carried away when I see research that is from my area...doesn't often happen!!!

[herky]

Just to add - here are the dates for parish records that exist for deaths in the Caithness area -
Olrig - nil. Dunnet - 1751-1756, Watten - nil, Wick - nil, Latheron - nil, Halkirk - nil, Canisbay - nil, Thurso - 1671, Reay - 1783-1791...not great.

[GallowayLass]

Assuming you have this death certificate from SP?

CALDER

JAMES T

65

mmm REID

1864

028/ 3

Shapinsay

[ozgirl]

Thank you both for your answers - shame the wedding info wasn't more detailed. There is a fair bit about JT in the papers, with quite a long obituary, but no further info on his parents. I wonder what happened to all the deaths in that area, maybe they will appear one day. I would think that there is some connection to OH's family, it's just a matter of finding it!

[cbcarolyn]

Does the middle name of Traill take you anywhere? is it a surname back in time?

[cbcarolyn]

I assume that you saw Peters obit, not any help really other than to say George was a farmer, and does have a will to match

Screenshot 2021-01-21 at 22.43.46.png

[ozgirl]

When James was born, his father was the gardener for Mr James Traill, and he was named in honour of him. The name crops up quite regularly through all the families in the area, and , for OH's line, I have yet to find any blood link to this family.

Thanks Carolyn, yes I had seen that and also Marcus's obit in 1881. He also lived in Orkney. It doesn't look like either Peter or Marcus had any children, and James never married. I think another brother, George, b 1803, died in 1841, and the final brother, William b 1806 lived with his step-mother Henrietta on her farm, but I lose track of him after the 1861 census. Henrietta died in 1867. In the 1861 census, she has a Grandson, also William b.1835, but I haven't pinned him down either.

[cbcarolyn]

that is interesting that he took the name, was that the same for Peter's name?

are the wills available same as England?

[kylejustin]

I wonder what happened to all the deaths in that area, maybe they will appear one day.

as a rule, scots didn't record burials. Same in ireland. No idea why. Very rare to find a burial record, and if you do, majority of the time it's the hiring of the cloth that draped the coffin at the funeral.

FMP does have some headstone transcripts though. I don't know if caithness is included.

[GallowayLass]

as a rule, scots didn't record burials. Same in ireland. No idea why. Very rare to find a burial record, and if you do, majority of the time it's the hiring of the cloth that draped the coffin at the funeral.

FMP does have some headstone transcripts though. I don't know if caithness is included.

That's an old hoary joke that one LOL. The attitude of The Kirk was basically you can't commit sin once you're dead so all they were interested in was how much they got from the hire of the mort cloth and fees for buying the lair etc.

[ozgirl]

that is interesting that he took the name, was that the same for Peter's name?

are the wills available same as England?

Peter was Peter Anderson - no idea where the Anderson comes from. Marcus was just Marcus Calder and the new sister I just found was Jane Mary Trail Calder,

I found the wills on Scotlands People for Marcus and Peter. Peter left everything to his housekeeper/wife, but Marcus's beneficiary was his niece - the daughter of his sister Jane, who I had not found earlier, b 1814. By this time it was late, so will be looking into Jane and her descendants today, and see what that brings forth.

Interesting if frustrating information about the lack of burial records from Scotland. I have looked at a few sites with MIs from Caithness but not seen George yet.

Thanks again to all

[ozgirl]

Sorry, double posted!