Hi @marilyndozier3, are you able to provide anymore information on William, Charles or Rosina? Did they emigrate, if so, when? Do you know what denomination they were?

I've done a broad search of Scotland's People and nothing is giving an obvious match, so if you can share what sourced information you have already found, it could help provide further parameters to narrow down the search.

Thanks for the extra information. This one's a bit of a tricky one, even with those details.

There are no existent marriage records between 1840 and 1872 for a William Downie and Rosina Fraser.

A search of the statutory registers, births, between 1867 and 1872 for Charles Do*n* (to capture variations) returned no results in Inverness. Widening the parameters to the whole of Scotland produced only one result with the mother listed as Fraser.

DOWNIE, Charles b.1867 Kirkintilloch, Dunbartonshire. He can be excluded as a match, as he also died in Kirkintilloch.

There is a a DOWNIE, Charles b.1869 Strathdon, Aberdeenshire, no mother's name listed, and a further ten results for "Charles Downie" within those broad parameters, but none that match the location or mother's maiden name.

Scotland's people don't hold baptism record for CoS after 1854. They do however hold Catholic baptism records.

There was only one match within the above parameters.

DOWNIE, Charles parents: William Downie/Christina Fraser born 14/10/1870 baptised 25/5/1871 Inverness, St Mary's.

Of course it's possible that his birth was registered late, not registered, he wasn't baptised or he was baptised into CoS and so that record isn't available, but even so, I suspect this is the Charles you're looking for.

Looking at available records after Charles emigrated, the majority actually give his date of birth as 1870/1. Crucially, these were records where he would have been the informant, rather than a secondary individual after his death. Both records which list his full date of birth say he was born on the 14th of September, not far off from the 14th of October.

I've also looked at Scottish Census records for 1871 and 1881. Both years only have one match for a Charles Downie born 1869 +/-2 years in Inverness.

1871 Household

Robert Fraser 65
Janet Fraser 65
Christina Fraser 25
James Fraser 14
Alexander McDonald 7
Charles Downie 4 months

1881 Household

Jessie Fraser 61
James Grant 22
Alexander MacDonald 17
Charles Downie 10

I don't have an active Ancestry subscription to see full details including relationships. But what's really interesting here is Alexander. Going off his estimated birthdate I did a search of the Catholic records.

McDonald, Alexander parents: Alexander McDonald/Christina Fraser born 11/1863 baptised 26/9/1864, Inverness, St Mary's.

So, question: in the article you have from 1935 does it say Charles's brother "Alexander" or "Alexander Downie". This might be crucial to creating those family connections and tracing next steps, because a search of the 1930 and 1940 US census doesn't show any Alexander Downie, born between 1850-70, Scotland, living in Connecticut, but there is an Alexander MacDonald (GN11-KDG).

His age is a little off (1867/8) but not wildly and he doesn't seem to have been great with dates - he gave his date of immigration differently on three separate occasions. Unfortunately I wasn't able to find original records of his marriages or his death, which may list his parents, but I think it would be a promising avenue to explore.

If that relationship can be confirmed then it looks like both brothers were born out of wedlock and you also have a maternal family to trace through Christina and her parents Robert and Janet.

Given that Charles went to America when he was about 17 and he wasn't living with his mother by age 10, it's possible she died young and he was misremembering her name or even that Rosina was a pet form of Christina.

For reference here is Charles Downie (L21K-TBR) in the tree.

Bonus: there is also an Alexander Downie (MZQS-MMC) living a short distance from Charles in Kansas. I wasn't able to directly link them but he may be an uncle or other paternal relative and may explain how Charles ended up in Kansas. Of course that's just supposition, but I would be trying to trace wills and probate records for all three individuals to see if there is any explicitly stated relationships that could give you more avenues to explore in Scotland.

No worries at all. Alexander McDonald died 15 June 1944 Stratford, Fairfield, Connecticut, United States. If you visit the PID I gave you for him above, you'll see his Find A Grave entry. I've also added his census entries and application for naturalisation index entry.

The Alexander Downie I mentioned isn't Charles's son, he was born in 1849, Scotland. Which is why I suggest he may be a relative such as an uncle (William Downie's brother). Census records between 1900 and 1930 only have two individuals named Downie living in Kansas and born in Scotland - these two, so it's not improbable.

Sometimes to find credible connections back its necessary to go forwards or sideways, which is why I suggested looking into Alexander Downie and Alexander McDonald. If you can confirm those relationships it may give you more information (names, locations) to help uncover details regarding William Downie and Rosina/Christina Fraser and their families.