Scottish census records?
Are there Scottish census records from the mid 1800's?
I have been searching for my great, great grandfather's siblings. But with such a common name as Angus McDonald and his father is Alexander McDonald, I haven't been able to sort out which McDonald's in my family are related to others.
My Uncle even went to Scotland, years ago, to the parish where Angus was born and they couldn't find any records. The parish priest referred him to the Family History Library in SLC--my uncle lives in UT and had already checked there haha.
Angus joined the church in the mid 1850's, married another member of the Church and immigrated with other Saints to UT. His family disowned him when he joined the Church.
I have found lots of Angus McDonalds and Alexander McDonalds--just none of the dates or birth places ever seem to match up. Any ideas where I go now?
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Censuses were taken in Scotland in every year ending with 1, starting in 1801. However, only the censuses from 1841 onward contain useful genealogical information such as names of household members. So you might be able to find Angus in the 1841 and 1851 censuses (maybe even 1861 depending on when he emigrated). I would check there and see what you can find.
As for your conundrum in general, I can see why it's giving you a headache. If you're very certain as to what parish Angus was born in, one thing you might want to try is to broaden your search of the parish records by 10 years either side of the birth date that is currently accepted for Angus. In the 1800's, birth dates were not as vital of information as they are now, so it was quite common for people to lose track of how old they were and forget when they were born. Even if someone consistently gave a certain year as their birth later in life, that does not guarantee that is when they were actually born.
This especially holds true for immigrants who did not bring family records with them, and if Angus was disowned some time prior to leaving for Utah, it is unlikely he would have had access to any family records (such as a family Bible) to take with him to America or at least copy the information out of. Without documentation, it would have been easy for the facts to get muddled over the years.
I actually have two cases in my family tree of immigrants getting their birth year wrong by what would be a rather alarming value in the modern day. My great-grandfather Tito Arispe Garcia consistently gave his birth year as 1914 in all documentation after he emigrated to Texas from Mexico as a young adult. But then I found his birth registration in Mexico, which clearly states he was born in 1909, but his parents did not register his birth until 1912 (getting around to the civic office was not really a high priority in rural Mexico in those days). I believe what happened was that somehow, his registration date got confused with his birth date in the family, and then to make matters worse, by the time Tito emigrated, the year had been further forgotten as 1914 instead of 1912.
And, in a case much closer to yours, we thought for years that my 4th-great-grandfather Joseph Maitland was born in Glasgow in 1826. That is the year on his gravestone. It matches up with the age his wife gave for him in the 1870 US census. But I could not find a Joseph Maitland born in 1826 anywhere in Glasgow. There was, however, a Joseph Maitland born in 1819 in Glasgow, and who seems to disappear from Scotland records after young adulthood. This was exactly the time when my ancestor became a merchant marine, traveled to Australia for the gold rush, got married, and ended up living in California for the rest of his life. I find it very easy to imagine that amidst all that intercontinental adventuring, Joseph simply forgot how old he was, gave it his best guess when he got married in Sydney, and that was what he and his wife went with from then on.
So as you can see, it is entirely possible that what is given as a birth year later in life can be way off from the actual birth year. It's always best to take birth years with a grain of salt when there is no actual birth documentation. And when searching for someone in records where you're not 100% sure of their birth year, I think it's a good idea to leave a lot of flexibility in the year field.
Sorry that was a bit long-winded, but I hope it helps! Please let us know if you need any more research assistance, and I hope you're able to find your Angus and Alexander!
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ScotlandsPeople is the go-to web-site for Census (1841 onwards), (pre-1855) "parish" registers and (post-1855) Civil Registration records. Nothing else has the images.
There may be a chance that the marriage is 1855 or later - in which case, it should be in the Civil Registration records and will have all 4 parents' names (if that helps).
The issue about pre-1855 records is that Scotland has a number of non-Church of Scotland denominations - the Church of Scotland (CofS) is the Established Church.
ScotlandsPeople should have all the pre-1855 CofS registers (Old Parish Registers, they are called) - Errors & Omissions Excepted, as usual. However, a number of non-CofS churches - non-conformist, in other words - have no (known) surviving registers. The fact that the (presumably CofS) parish priest couldn't find any records might suggest the family was non-CofS - but the CofS priest would only have been looking in the CofS books, so all is not lost.
At some point, perhaps in 2021, ScotlandsPeople intend to start releasing the Kirk Session records - these are records of the CofS parish's council of elders who dealt with, amongst other things, church disciplinary matters. it might be that any LDS recruiting was discussed at the local Kirk Session and you might find a clue there. Maybe. Possibly.
Good luck.
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Thank you, that is a great suggestion!
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Thank you. I am registered with ScotlandsPeople and have searched for records there. I just have a hard time sorting out if the records I find are actually my Angus McDonald or someone else! ha! I will keep an eye out for the Kirk Session records, that may be a great place to look! I can't wait!
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Happy to help!
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