McFedries family in Ayrshire (and Eaglesham)

McFedries was my mother-in-law's middle name so I was interested in where it came from.
It was her maternal grandmother's maiden name. Interestingly, it was also her paternal grandmother's maiden name. Could her parents be cousins? Oh yes. Isabella McFedries b 1839 and Marion Mcfedries b 1842 were both born in Dailly to David McFedries and Isabella McJannet.

David was born in Eaglesham, in Renfrewshire in 1803 to David McFedries of Girvan (not so far from Dailly) and Margaret Hunter of Eaglesham. The couple were married in Eaglesham in 1800. What David was doing in Eaglesham which is a fair distance (50 miles) from Girvan is a mystery. He was a cotton weaver; presumably he was there for work.

Girvan David's father was David born in Dailly about 1757 and I think, by process of elimination, his father was Gilbert born Dailly 1725.  There was another David born in 1759 but I traced him. He was an unmarried shoemaker and died in Kilmarnock in 1868.**

The name McFedries had a number of variant spellings:  McFedreis, McFedris, McPhedris, McFaedres, McFeadrie, McFaries, McFadrish, McFeatherish, not to mention bad transcriptions of bad handwriting: McLudres, McFeddelo, McFedrio even McJedrics!


Eaglesham David McFedries here


Any McFedries researchers/descendants, please get in touch!

** a reader has pointed out the discrepancy here. The David who died in 1868 was born in 1790 - maths was never my strong point - so back to the drawing board re David's birth somewhere around 1758. It's quite possible that it was never recorded!

Henry Wilson, grain miller and son William

I thought I would have trouble with my husband's Wilson ancestors, but in fact, by following the usual principles of working back from what you know, I have got there.

All I knew was his grandmother's name Mary Cowan Wilson who married a Fleming. From her marriage certificate I got her parents' names William Wilson, carter and Isabella Mcfedries. I found them in a census in Tarbolton. On his marriage certificate to Isabella he is 42 in 1872 so he was born in Lanark about 1830. From the marriage certificate I got his parents - Henry Wilson corn miller and Janet Ewart. But I still couldn't find his birth.

Since 1830 is before statutory recording, it is possible there is no record. You can search the family search (church of the latter day saints)for free, good for up til 1875. Old Parish records can be searched for free on Scotlandspeople but you need to pay to see the results!

I found Henry Wilson and son William both at Cambuskeith Mill on the river Irvine outside Kilmarnock in the 1861 census.

I got stuck at this point for a while. A good piece of advice I got when I was starting out is to publish your tree on several sites and I now have 3 online trees. I put what I knew on the Ancestry site and a gentleman in Australia got in touch. It seems that shortly after 1861 Henry and his second wife went to Australia. From Australian certificates it turns out the mother's surname was Jean Dewar not Janet Ewart! William's marriage to Isabella was his second, she was much younger, and he lied about his age. Or maybe he truly didn't know how old he was and presumably he had only heard his mother's name. He was actually born in 1822. The morals of the tale are keep your search wide and don't believe everything you read on certificates!

Cambuskeith Cottage (pictured) is up for sale. The mill ruins are in the garden.

Link to Henry Wilson on my tree