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im doing research on my tree and have come up stuck I can seem to find any birth info or marriges regarding the maccallum clan .this is what I know there was ian maccallum born 1950 born annbank Ayrshire Scotland to William fern maccallum and Catherine but I cant find any info William fern died in Nottingham in 1971 but theres nothing before than catherines still alive but ill so cant ask they also had children called Florence peter brian and William but as I say I cant find anything

You need to buy credits on Scotlands People website, to research the Maccallum family.
http://www.scotlandspeople.gov.uk

SP isn't a subscription site, so you won't get a huge amount of help from helpers here, at least not until you've traced the family back to the 1901 census or earlier, from which point census and some other records appear on Ancestry and other sites to which helpers do have subs.

To start you off, here's William's birth:

1923 MACCALLUM WILLIAM FERN M AYR /AYR 578/01 0083

If you buy a copy of the birth cert, it will tell you his parents' names, and the date and place of their marriage. Than you can use that information to search further back.

With older records, you will be able to use credits to view / print the images of the original documents, which is much cheaper than having to buy copies of the certs.

Deaths Sep 1971 (>99%)
MACCALLUM William Fern -Ja1923 Nottingham 3c 738

I don't see their marriage in Scotland - at least not with William's middle name.
Without that, the names are very common.

What was Catherine's maiden surname, please?

thank you for your help im unsure about catherines maiden name that's why im getting stuck she is definatly from annbank though and that's all I know and ian was born there in 1950 but cant find him either

You'll find Ian's birth record on SP, and if you buy a copy, it will tell you Catherine's maiden name.

There's only one Ian Maccallum born in Ayrshire in 1950, per SP.

Presumably that's him - unless you've already done that, and found it to be someone else's birth record?

ok thanks ive just registered and yet again im getting nowhere cus it keeps saying the passwords wrong lol

ive looked and came up with a marriage Catherine m grindlay married a William maccallum 1945 and she was born 1929 so im unsure it maybe right

That William's surname is spelled McCallum , and the marriage was in Glasgow - but that doesn't necessarily rule it out.

However, you need to get Ian's birth cert first, to be sure of Catherine's maiden name.

Take it a step at a time, and make sure of your facts, or you could end up going off in completely the wrong direction, and wasting time and money.

Catherine M Grindlay was born in West Calder, Midlothian - so not your Catherine, - at least if you're sure she was born in Ayrshire.

Get Ian's birth cert! Don't just guess.

OR -

are you in touch with Ian? I expect he would know his mother's maiden name.

i will do then i can be sure then xx

Aha! I was assuming that Catherine was Ian's mother, and was looking for a marriage approx. 1940-50.

But it appears that Ian's mother was Kathleen Millar , and then William remarried in 1966, to Catherine.

I won't post the details here, as Catherine is alive, but if you search for a marriage for William Fern MacCallum, you'll find the two records. Don't enter any dates, and don't enter a wife's name - just William's name - and you'll see them.

Then you can find Catherine's birth record, if you're researching her ancestry as well - only one person of that name born in Ayrshire, 1855-2014.

wow thank you that's strange one for me but that might be why they moved to notts then so they could pass Catherine off as mother

I'm not sure what you mean by "pass Catherine off as mother", which sounds as though they had something to hide.
They may simply have moved because of William's work.
Or the move to Nottingham may have been before the (guessed at) breakup of William & Kathleen's marriage - unless you know the move wasn't until after 1966.

Ian would have been 16 when his father married Catherine, and would know who his mother was - as would the other children.
William & Kathleen were together in Ayrshire until at least 1953.

I'm guessing that William and Kathleen divorced, possibly in the 1960's, as I can't see a death record for her , and there's a marriage in 1966 which may (or may not) be Kathleen remarrying in Ayr. I won't post that, either, as both she and her husband may still be alive.

Florence, Peter, and Brian are also Kathleen's children - all their births registered in the same district where their parents married. Not sure about William - there are lots of William
M(a)cCallum births in Ayrshire - as well as other places - but not in that particular district.

If you look so n the online catalogue of the National Records of Scotland you will see a record of a divorce of a William Fern McCallum and a Catherine in 1971. The record is open so you can probably view it or obtain a photocopy of it.

The record gives Catherine's maiden surname.

That's the second wife, and the divorce was in the year William died.

It doesn't look as if you can open the record online.
You could order a copy, which will cost something, the amount to depend on how big the record is.
Or you could see it in person in Edinburgh. You need to order an advance copy, so that it will be ready for your visit, as the record's held in a different building. You would also need to apply for a reader's ticket, which you can do on their website.
Instructions are on the website.

Could this be William, I wonder?? In Nottingham in 1954?

Sgt W F MacCallum
in the British Phone Books, 1880-1984

Name: Sgt W F MacCallum
Address: 54 Loughborough rd W.B
Exchange: Nottm
City/Town: Nottingham
Directory Title: Chester / Shrewsbury / Stoke-on-Trent / Birmingham / Coventry / Nottingham / Leicester / Peterborough Jun
Publication Year: 1954
Directory County: Cheshire, Shropshire, Stafford, Warwick, Nottingham, Leicester, Northampton
Page Number: 162

You are a star and helped so much ive asked about and the William fern maccallum married to Catherine is William and Katherines son born 1947,From the site you have given me and a bit of noseing about ive found out William fern maccallum and Kathleen millars children are William fern 1947 Kathleen millar maccallum 1948 Florence porter maccallum 1949 ian maccallum 1950 peter millar maccallum 1951 and brian maccallum 1953-2009 .so I am getting there thanks to you xx

also the british phone book records are more than likely to be William fern maccallum as he is buried in Wilfred hill cemertary that's the same area as loughbourgh road west bridgeford don't know why it says sgt though does that mean he was in the army ????

From what you say, the 1966 marriage I found, which I thought might have been William's first wife Kathleen remarrying, is probably actually that of his daughter Kathleen.

The phone book record certainly looks as if he was in the army.
As you have a copy of his death cert (or could order one), then you can apply for a copy of his army records.
EDIT: No, sorry you can't - you would need to know his service number.

As I can't see a death record for Kathleen (the mother), it's possible that's she's still alive. She would be approx 93.
Or maybe she died somewhere other than Scotland or Nottingham, which is where I've looked.