Check out the siblings and in-laws!

I always include other members of the family, brothers and sisters, the in-laws and even check out the neighbours who often turn out to be family members.

Sometimes I chide myself that I have too much information, but often it turns out to be useful information.

Having the siblings on your tree makes it easy to find the correct family in other censuses, even with surname mistranscriptions.

When children are orphaned, which happened often enough, they are taken in by other family members, grandparents, aunts and uncles, older siblings.

Here is a recent example.

Christina Moffat Smith daughter of a Muirkirk shoemaker, married a butcher from Galashiels George Fairbairn. They had 3 children before George died in Monte Video, Paraguay in 1868. Quite what he was doing in Paraguay is still to be discovered, but another researcher found his death notice in a Gala newspaper.

The 2 oldest children were with the Smith grandparents in 1871 in Muirkirk and in 1881 she and all three children are with her family in Muirkirk. I had to search long and hard for Christina and 2 year old Agnes in 1871. It was only by going through her siblings in turn that I found her. In 1871 they are in Glasgow with 2 of her brothers and a nephew (son of another brother).

Even when you find people lodging with another family with an unknown name, check for marriages between the two names. For example, today I found Mary Oliphant and husband Hugh Philp visiting Thomas Methven and wife Margaret. A quick check for Thomas and Margaret's marriages reveal her to be Margaret Oliphant. Result!

John Oliphant & Margaret Haigs

Margaret Haigs is my g g grandfather's sister. (My grandmother has the same name.)
She was born in Cameron, Fife in 1815. She married John Oliphant (1812) in 1834 and the family flourished.

In 1841 census he is an agricultural labourer (ag lab) at Tosh in Dunino and they already have 4 children. The oldest Ann is with her grandmother and other relations nearby at Erbetshall Farm.

By 1851 census he is a farmer of 14 acres at Smithfield Farm in the parish of Crail and the family has increased to 8, as typical of the period - a child every 2 years.

In April 1855 John succumbs to typhoid fever at the age of 42 and dies at home after 10 days leaving 11 children and then his wife gives birth to another son Alexander in November.

1855 is the start in Scotland of the statutory recording of births marriages and deaths and the 1855 death certificates give more detail than the later ones. It lists all his children. One had died. So in all they had 13. I think it was a twin of either Elizabeth or Janet (who come before and after in the list), who died at birth since all the others have baptism records, but it is hard to make out the writing.



Worse is to come. The East Neuk of Fife suffered an outbreak of smallpox in 1863 and Margaret succumbs age 45 on 13 May. Scottish death certificates show 3 deaths and the other 2 deaths on the certificate are also from smallpox and another relation is one of them. Alexander Forgan, the 19 year old son of Mary Oliphant (John's sister) and Alexander Forgan. Further investigation shows his parents had also both died of smallpox the previous month, within a day of each other.

I wonder what became of the Oliphant children. There were plenty of relations nearby to help out. It was my gg grandfather George Haigs who registered the deaths of both his sister Margaret and her husband. Another Haigs sister married another Oliphant - Thomas Oliphant and Christian Haigs and they were at Erbetshall Farm although Christian was also a widow by 1852.

You can see the people mentioned in my tree here
Maybe you can see why I get caught up in the research!