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Grateful if anyone can help me with research or the best way to go about it. I'm looking for information regarding the parents of JOHN WESTLAND MARSHALL who was born 1843 Alva Scotland. His parents were John Marshall (civil engineer) and Anne Marshall nee Westland, born around 1820. John Westland Marshall emigrated to New Zealand approx 1875. Grateful if anyone has info on the parents. Thanks, Kaye Australia
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Alva's a village 4km N of Alloa. Alva was also a parish in Stirlingshire until the 1890s, when it was transferred to Clackmannanshire. For more details, see:
http://www.dgnscrn.demon.co.uk/genuki/STI/Alva/index.html
So how do I think you should proceed. I would look up Alva on a map, so I knew where it was, and which the neighbouring parishes were, and I would check which batch #s the IGI would use at:
http://freepages.genealogy.rootsweb.com/~hughwallis/
I would check the IGI for the marr of John M+ Ann W, and the birth of John and his sibs. You can access the IGI via:
http://www.familysearch.org/Eng/Search/frameset_search.asp
I would just specify GB+SCT, but not county, enter the bride/groom - there's only one hit for 17/8/1838 @ Alva STI. (There could have been more than one, even for the same couple, since the IGI records banns + marrs, but since there's only one, and they later live in Alva, my initial guess is they're both from this parish.) Note clicking on the hit and reading the stuff at the bottom says it's an extract from somewhere (actually the OPR (old parish register)) - this info is echoed indirectly by the presence of the batch # m114704. Click on the Source # 1041970 (so now we learn it's an OPR extract), click again, then view film notes:
Vol. 1. Baptisms, 1655-1819 -- v. 2. Marriages, 1664-1819; burials, 1726-1806 -- v. 3. Baptisms, 1820-1854; marriages, 1820- 1848. (Preferred film for viewing. Use this before ordering the other filming.) FHL BRITISH Film 1041970 This tells the coverage of the Alva OPRs (and the film #) - there's sometimes gaps - like for burials here (burials aren't transcribed into the IGI, although they can appear via (unverified) records submitted by individuals).
Repeat specifying parents=John M + Ann W, with no child's name present, and you'll get the birth/chr hits for 6 kids all in OPR batch c114704, including 2 John's, so it looks like your guy's name is recycled, and his older bro John died. We haven't used the batch #s yet - if the names were more common, and I'd gotten 200+ hits, then I might have used them, but now we repeat the search for kids, entering the batch # c114704 and just the father, then just the mother. Sometimes OPRs don't record the mother's full name, or indeed mention her at all. An illegitimate birth won't always record the father's name directly, although the kid might bear his surname. It appears neither of these happened, although there is a record of William Archibald b 11/10/1827 @ Alva, s/o James Archibald + Ann Westland, possibly a cousin, if your dob=1820 for Ann is accurate and she's not a 30+ y old widow when she marr'd John.
Next, I'd look at the actual OPR entries - either rent the film thru the LDS and look them up at the nearest FHC, or else purchase the images thru scotlandspeople, who also sell census and statutory BMD rego entry images - they can be bought online and downloaded, for $2-$3 each. (You can also buy officially certified copies of these BMD rego entries @ $25 each - that's what they have to buy in England (although it only costs $15 there).) They probably won't give you too much more, but they might. What I'ld be interested in is the names of the witnesses and the addresses. The witnesses are very often relatives.
Next, since I can guess the composition of the family on 6/6/1841 and 30/3/1851, I'ld want to see them on these two censuses.
1841 wasn't very informative - adult (15+) ages were supposed to be rounded down to a mult of 5 - but this wasn't always done, no relationships within the household are given, and the pob just says "this county", "another (unspecified) county in SCT", or the name of a country. These were all fixed in 1851, but by then some aged rellie living with them in 1841 might be dead. I would also try and track down any missing kids - maybe they're with aunts or their gran. By 7/4/1861, John would be 15 and the youngest I know of, Mary, would be 13, so they're quite likely to be working as servants somewhere, quite possibly (especially in Mary's case) with rellies, or else quite nearby.
Ancestry have partial transcriptions of the SCT censuses - in particular they leave off the marital status, and they're not viewable as a whole, just as a series of individuals. However, you do know all the individuals in the household, although not how seperate two households with the same census address are. If you have access to Ancestry, it's certainly worth looking them up there first
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Following up on Helen's post, I decided to investigate further. I repeated my search with just mother named in batches c114071/3, and c114073 yielded a Richard Elliot b 5/10/1874 @ Alva, s/o Henry Elliot + Ann Westland, which I find interesting, viewing Ann's boarders in 1881. It seems there is another Ann W knocking around, most likely some relative, but there'll only be one widow of John Marshall.
I find this 1881 census quite odd - I don't understand why Ann uses her married name, but her two daurs use her maiden name - OK, Jane I could see, depending on when Ann was widowed, but Margaret's baptismal record (b 16/2/1839, bp 17/3/39 @ Alva) gives her name as Marshall.
Dwelling: 19 Queen Street
Census Place: Alva, Stirling, Scotland
Source: FHL Film 0203536 GRO Ref Volume 470 EnumDist 4 Page 32
Marr Age Sex Birthplace
Ann MARSHALL W 65 F Menstrie, Clackmannan, Scotland
Rel: Head
Occ: House Keeper
Margaret WESTLAND U 45 F Alva, Stirling, Scotland
Rel: Daur
Occ: Mill Worker
Jane WESTLAND U 22 F Alva, Stirling, Scotland
Rel: Daur
Occ: Mill Worker
Margt. CONNELL U 21 F Alva, Stirling, Scotland
Rel: Boarder
Occ: Mill Worker
Annie ELLIOT 5 F Alva, Stirling, Scotland
Rel: Boarder
Occ: Scholar
Annie HARROWER 8 F Alva, Stirling, Scotland
Rel: Boarder
Occ: Scholar
John HARROWER W 60 M Culross, Clackmannan, Scotland
Rel: Boarder
Occ: Wool Weaver
Incidently, in 1881 there were 58 Westland's living in STI, all in Alva, and all (but 2 wives from Devon CLK) had pob=Alva. Also note Menstrie is in Alva parish. Since Ann (presumably) differentiates Menstrie and Alva, I infer her 2 daurs were born in Alva town.
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