Part 294s – Smith Robertson Genealogy – 1769 Birth/Death John/James Smith - Confusion

Afternoon,

The beat goes on, as well as the confusion… sort of. This family tree and genealogy thing can certainly get my dendrites and synapses traveling and sending messages in every-which-way-direction.

As I began discussing in my previous Posting, Part 293s I was trying to determine which James Smith was the Weaver from Logie, Perth in Scotland. I am also somewhat perplexed as to what James Smith, Junior’s wife’s name was; Isable or Margaret McFarlane. (Believe it or not I have also found a 1762 Marriage Registration of one James Smith to one Janet McFarlane only about 12 miles away… but that’s another Posting and discussion.)

No sooner into my search for the answer I come upon another confusing idea. As shown and created from the Logie Parish Records, the Descendant Chart presents that James and Isable (née McFarlane) Smith may have had seven children. They included: James, John, John, William, George, Margaret, and Helen. I have discovered from the Old Parochial Registers the baptisms of all seven children, and my first remark was that as there were two Johns more than likely the first John may have passed away at an early age.

Here is copy of the baptismal registration for the first John Smith, downloaded from the microfilm FHL [1040124].

Transcribed –

85 1769

April 16 Bap: John lawfl Son to James Smith Junr. and Isable McFarlane
in Logie in presence of the Congregation.

Mr. Jas Wright Minr

John Smith’s older brother James was baptized two years earlier on 19 April 1767. And here is the image of that page and entry from the Old Parochial Register.

Transcribed –

61 1767

April 19th Do. Bap James lawfl Son to James Smith and Isable
McFarlane in Logie in presence of the Congregation.

Mr. James Wright Minr

And now the confusion begins.

I decided to look for the Death Registration of the James and Isable’s son John, the first John. Instead I discovered a burial entry for a son James. I was able to pull the page of the Registration from the Old Parish Register of Logie as presented by ScotslandPeople.

And my transcription –

1769

April 27 Buried James Son to James Smith Junr in Logie of Age
about Ten Days.

If this was the burial of James the son of James Smith, Junior, the Weaver, I then could say that there goes the possibility of a definite connection to the son James of James Smith, the Weaver of the Record from the Grenada Registers of Records, the one entered 7 June 1803, and discussed and transcribed in Part 178s.

My issue – If son James was baptized 19 April 1767 he would have been about two years old at the burial, not 10 days old. Son John, the first son John would have been about 10 days old, based on and calculated of the dates of the baptismal record, 16 April 1769 as compared 27 April 1769 of the burial entry.

And what does this mean? It means that not all documents are succinctly correct.

It still doesn’t answer the issue that James Smith, Junior’s wife’s name may have been Isable, Isobel, or Margaret. And it definitely does not provide me a confident answer to an ancestral connection to ggg-grandfather James Smith. It does however, not eliminate the Smiths of Logie from a chance possibility of being a part of my genealogy. It just means that I’ve got to keep searching.

Enjoy,

Jim