Part 893s – Smith Robertson Genealogy – GGG-Grandfather James Smith – The Continued Search

Good Day,

I'm back.

The search never, ever ends. I am still looking for the possible origin of my 3-times great grandfather James Smith.

In the past couple of weeks my cousin made a fantastic discovery. It was a letter penned by a great-aunt to his mother. The discovery is a possible measure of luck which may or may not provide a clue to the search of the origins of our great-great-great-grandfather James Smith. The last sentence of the note/letter is what has definitely piqued our interest.

As transcribed, (thank-you David) –

“Your great grandmother (Ella) Granny Smiths was born in Eng. (York I think) he was an Anglican priest; Rev Alexander Scott- he married Sarah Ann Roseta McKowen, whose father was an Irish D; Mckowen-Mrs. Mckowen was the daughter of a Mrs. McEwen they came from Aberdeen Scotland. Granny Smiths; father & mother went to Nassau when they married. Their children were born there. They then went to Jamaica, where grandfather Scott died & Gran Scott came back to Grenada with 3 children. Ella, Hubert & Percy. Ella (your gran) Hubert lived in Trinidad and died there & Percy died at the age of 92 and is buried here. Ella my mother, & your Gran (Scott) married William James Smith my father whose Grandfather came from Glasgow.”

It is great-aunt Olive’s last sentence

“Ella my mother, & your Gran (Scott) married William James Smith my father whose Grandfather came from Glasgow.”

that provided me with the impetus and motivation to check another path of research.

From my previous research and write-up, Part 347s – Smith Robertson Genealogy – Indenture Research – 1842 James Smith – LWT – Distribution ggg-grandfather James Smith in his last will and testament mentions his sister Betsy (née Smith) La Grenade two times.

Given this fact, ggg-grandfather James had a sister Betsy, and that grandaunt Olive mentions that her father, my great-grandfather William James Smith’s grandfather came from Glasgow, I thought that I may search the FHL Scottish Parish Records for the birth and/or christening records of a brother and a sister born in the area of Glasgow. I increased my search to include the county of Lanarkshire as on older maps Glasgow is found within the area pre-1975. As ggg-grandfather James passed away in Grenada in about 1843 I set the range of my search for the siblings’ records to 1760 through 1800.

These are the parameters of my search –

1. The years 1760 – 1800, first pass.
2. All birth and christening (baptism) records as indexed in the Scottish Parish Records LDS database.
3. All birth and christening records specific to the county of Lanark.
4. All birth and christening records record for a male child named James.
5. All birth and christening records record for a female child named Elizabeth, Elisabeth, Betty and other variations. I did not find a record for the spelling of Betsy. (I did find a site which very nicely charts out names that may be related to that of Elizabeth – Behind the Name ).

To date I have found 72 Elizabeth, et al, records and 146 James records. Now the matching to same/mutual parents begins, if possible.

Here's a sampling of the records I have recorded.

If you have and comment, question, thought, idea please feel free to contact me via email at A Genealogy Hunt.

Regards,

Jim