The following links may prove useful to anyone embarking on further family history research. Please let me know through the “Comments” section below if any of these links is not working correctly:
- Cumnock Connections: An online public genealogy tree containing close to 50,000 names and relationships of people who lived in the town of Cumnock, Ayrshire. It is administered by the Cumnock History Group.
- Cumnock History Group: An active group of family history researchers providing online information, photos, maps and historical information on the town of Cumnock, Ayrshire.
- National Library of Scotland Maps: This excellent site has many town plans for Scotland (and some for England as well) spanning the period 1580–1940. These maps are vital for finding streets and places that are no longer found on modern maps.
- Archi Maps: Old Maps of Britain: This is an excellent resource that has stitched together late 19th-century maps of almost the entire landmass of the United Kingdom. The maps are contiguous, so you can examine rural areas as well as cities, towns and villages. There is a slider control that will allow for a viewer to overlay the modern map so that changes can be seen.
- Streetmap UK: This is an online mapping website that allowed anyone to view detailed Ordnance Survey maps for free in their browser. Unlike a simple road map, it showed proper OS detail: footpaths, bridleways, contour lines, woodlands, field boundaries and little cartographic features.
- Date Calculator: A site that will allow you to calculate the years/months/days between any two dates, or calculate the day of the week for particular dates. You can also add/subtract various periods of time to a particular date.
- ScotlandsPeople: The online resource for the National Records of Scotland. It provides indexes and downloadable images for all births, marriages and deaths for surviving Old Parish Records and the Statutory Registers from 1855 onwards. There are also census records from 1841 to 1921, and other records like Kirk Minutes, wills, valuation rolls, poor relief and migration. Charges are administered via purchased points, and the current charge for most downloads is about £1.50 (6 points).
- Scottish Places: This is a vast geographical encyclopaedia, featuring details of towns, villages, bens and glens from the Scottish Borders to the Northern Isles. It includes tourist attractions, industries and historical sites, together with histories of family names and clans, biographies of famous Scots, and descriptions of historical events.
- Mull Families: An online database for researching families that came from the Hebridean islands of Mull, Tiree and Coll. This site has over 124,000 names and is a member’s only site. The present membership fee is £20 for a life membership.
- Queensland Births, Deaths & Marriages: This is the Queensland government’s online service for family history research. Searching is free but, to view a document, you must pay $23.90 to download the PDF.
- Family Search (LDS): This is a free genealogical search facility run by the Church of Latter Day Saints. This site has access to a huge range of records from many countries. Although free, you must register as a member to gain access to its search facilities. Once you have an account, you can upload your own family tree data (gedcom file).
- Queensland Family History Society: The QHFS an incorporated body with its own library and resource centre located at 46 Delaware Street, Chermside, on Brisbane’s north side. Access to the library and online services is restricted to members. The QHFS has several active interest groups, and regularly runs lectures for both new and advanced researchers. The current new-membership fee is $90 for a single, and $130 for a dual (renewals are slightly cheaper).
Hi Craig,
Old Cumnock and Auchinleck are two different parishes, and if a marriage is recorded in both, it usually indicates that the bride and groom are from the different parishes, but have their marriage registered in both – I have quite of few of those in my tree.
I’ve had a look at Cumnock Connections (https://cumnockconnections.tribalpages.com/tribe/browse?userid=cumnockconnections&view=9&ver=208472), which is run by the Cumnock History Group. I couldn’t see a match for a Jean Watson and a John Geddes, but you could always look at that site and see if you can identify those people from their very large index.
None of my “Craig” relatives ever migrated to Canada, as far as I know – in fact, my mother’s family mostly went to the US or Australia, but my paternal relatives just seemed to stay in Scotland (i.e. until my mum and dad dragged me out to Australia in 1950!)
Glad you enjoyed the story!
Good luck with your research,
Alan
Interesting reading but you seem to have concentrated on maternal surnames to the exclusion of the patriarchal Dubickas in this article. I’m a Dubickas by marriage. My son has just spent six years studying in Vlinius and undertook masses of research into the family name, There’s a sizeable number of Dubickas still in Lithuania since our branch of the family had 13 sons. The Lithuanian government archives in Vilnius have extensive records and is cheap to do family research. Our branch of the family migrated to Scotland in 1905 to Carfin and then eventually to Newtongrange outside Edinburgh. We live in Brisbane.
Yes, the Dubickas name is not in my direct bloodline. My grandmother’s older half-sister (Annie Simanavičiūtė) was widowed in 1921, and I am in touch with many of her descendants (some of them here in Brisbane). In 1938, Annie re-married to a Vincas (Willie) Dubickas, and my mother and her cousins remembered him quite fondly. I understand his parents were Juozas (Vincent) Dubickas and Eva Sankiūtė. Annie and Willie had no children together, but Willie had divorced his first wife, Ona Stanoniūtė in 1930, and they had one boy: Juozas Dubickas, who I think lived in Leeds, England.
Hi Craig,
Just came across this page referencing the Galt family. We are actually heading back to Ayrshire this year in an attempt to see some of the family’s roots prior to emigrating to the US. I was wondering if you had any Scotland based contacts that may be able to help us find areas that were important to the family. James Galt (1695 -1778) would have been my 7th GG if that helps. Our branch moved to WI > MN > North Dakota and Montana.
Hello Darren,
I’ve written to you directly about your query – hopefully we can find a connection to our Galt line.
:-)
Alan
Alan, I too am heading to Drongan, Ayrshire where my grandfather Henry Strachan was originally from before migrating to USA.
I’ve only just begun diving into some records I found after my mother’s passing.
Hi Peter,
My Aunt (dad’s sister), married James Strachan in Glasgow; he was a successful bookie. The Strachans (originally Stranachan) came from County Down, but settled in Maybole, Ayrshire by the early 1800s. You can find out some of their story from the the bottom link in my “Craig” menu: https://www.craig-galt.info/craig-brown/strachan-connection/
My aunt and uncle have passed on now, but their sons and grandchildren live now in the USA.
Cheers,
Alan
Hey Alan! Any way to contact you directly? I understand you may not want to give out an email publicly, for instance. Kind regards, B. Brand.
Hi Bradley,
Check your email … 😉
As a Yow descendent, thank you for such thorough research and documentation.
I hope you found the story of Hannah Hardman and her descendants useful. I found her story fascinating, and it was completely unexpected. Which of her children are you descended from?
The only information I can find is that my grandfather, Charles’ dad’s name was Cecil.
This is all so interesting to me considering there are so many unknowns! My grandfather passed when I was very young, so I never had the chance to ask the questions I now have.
My family also knows very little, men of that generation rarely spoke of themselves let alone their family.
I’ve kept my mother’s maiden name, carrying the Yow. Somewhere along the line we dropped the “Dung” which I think was a smart move.
Okay, so knowing that my grandfather was born 1920, and his father’s name was Cecil.
I can assume that he’s Stanley “Cecil” Yow’s son?
We don’t know who my great grandmother’s name though.
I am in awe of the work you have done for this site – I have all my info but I would be totally lost putting it together so well done – and very interesting too!!!
Hi Margaret,
Thanks for those kind words! 🙂
Neither of those seem to be related to the John Fullarton that married 1st Mary Johnston, 2nd Catherine Ferguson. And none of that family ever lived in Glasgow as far as I can tell.
Hello Alan
I’ve been doing some research of my own on my family, unrelated to yours but I did notice that there was a Robert Craig from Beith working as a seaman on the same ship as my ancestors in 1857, sailing from Liverpool to Sydney. I noticed this because my husband is from Beith, so it caught my eye. He was 20 in 1857. The ship was the John Bunyan. No idea if he’s part of your story and that is all I know about him.
Cheers
Caroline
Hi Caroline,
I do have a Robert Craig in my family line of the right age, but I he was born in Rutherglen, was a stone mason and a miner, and died in Paisley in 1902.
The family I have from Beith are on my great-grandmother’s side: Millar, Love, Brown, and Wyllie. Most of these ended up in Kilmarnock before drifting into Glasgow. Your husband might be related to one of those. :-)