Locating A Family Member

George6307

Hi

Thank you so much for allowing me into your Group. I hope you might be able to point me in the right direction.

I have a family member John Macfarlane who was born in 1858/1859. According to two different U.K. Census (1881 & 1911) he was either born in Rhadd Island or State Penncity. I'm assuming Rhadd is Rhode Island and State Penncity is Pennsylvania. Sometime after his birth he (with or without his parents) emigrated to Scotland.

Could someone please offer me any clues as to where I can begin my search for his Birth Record? Or is it an impossible mission without further information?

Apologies for my ignorance of the records in the USA, I live in Australia

Thanks

George

MikeLongSr

@George6307

I could only find the 1911 Cen. it has his wife Elizabeth and Children Helen and Danial. I did not find any other Cen. for him. If you could provide his mother and or father it would help.

If, you do not have them. I would 1st make sure you have the correct person as there are many John Macfarlanes' around that time (both in the UK and the US ).

Then I would look for a marriage record. It may have his parents on it. Then I would look for Cen. on his parents to help verify his birthplace. A death record on him may be easier to find and have more information on it. That would probably be in Scotland for both as his wife was born in Scotland.

any other information you could give would be a big help. Just a name alone with nothing else to verify, is tough to work with. However, Not impossible.

You may look at the top of the community page, at the search websites list.

Please let us know if you can give us any more information and let us know if this is any help.

One last item I would also recommend that you join the Scotland community as well to help find records in that country for him.

I will keep on the lookout for more information for you

Michael

George6307

Thank you so much. I didn't expect you to do the actual searching.

I don't believe that is him. I managed to obtain a copy of his Marriage Certificate. My John Macfarlane was married in Scotland in 1878.

I did manage to get his parents names from this certificate - John Macfarlane and Lily Wilson. Both were deceased at the time of his marriage in 1878. I'm assuming that his parents emigrated to America, died there and he then moved back to Scotland for whatever reason. Hard to fathom why as he was American.

I can find no trace of a Lily Wilson in the Scotlands People site and the John Macfarlane's are too numerous. Perhaps Lily Wilson was American?

Macfarlane is a very common name especially when you then take into consideration the other variants such as Mcfarlane which I notice is used on the Marriage Certificate.

Thank you once again for your help.😀

MikeLongSr

@George6307

Thanks for the added info. I did a quick check on the name Lily. It was commonly used as a short version of Lillian and Elizabeth. If his parents were dead when he was married. He would have probably given the name he knew she was called by. and not her birth name. I would check on births with some of these names and see if I could get some point matches. depending on the type of info, you get.

There is also the chance that she used her middle name, which would be much harder to find.

So I would look for census records . if you can find siblings you could look for other records that may yield more information on parents that you could then use to pinpoint his records.

Let me know if this is any help for you.

Michael

George6307

Thanks Mike

You've given me some good ideas to continue my search. I've got a funny feeling it will take some time.

Have a great weekend

George

George6307

Hi Mike

I eventually found out after a lot of searching that he died in a T.B. hospital Scotland and that his Father was a Seaman. This may explain why he was born in the U.S.A.

His Mother was in fact Lillian (Lily) Wilson.

I'll keep on the trail!!

Regards

George