The Philadelphia Story

Some distant relations on my husband's side left Scotland for a new life in Philadelphia.

A lady over there contacted me via ancestry to ask about another member of the family who also fetched up in Pennsylvania. Her name was Isabella Wardrope and I found her birth in Falkirk in 1872. It seems she met her future husband on a sea crossing from the USA back to Glasgow as she was going to visit her mother who was sick. Her future husband Matthew Wilson was returning with his young son George aged about 4 after his wife had died of influenza. The family story is they met on the boat and she helped Matthew with the boy.
I hunted and hunted to find them both on the same boat. I could see them on separate boats but needed to find them on the same crossing to substantiate the family story.
Meanwhile I found both of Matthew's marriages and the 1900 census has the first family. He married Isabella or Bella in 1905 so probably looking for a voyage about 1901 as the son was born in 1895. I had already found Bella returning to USA in 1901 so eventually pared the search down to Isabella Wardrope going from New York to Glasgow in 1901.

Here is the record of the City of Rome arriving Glasgow July 1901 and look whose names are below.

Isabella is 10 years younger than her birthdate and it's Martha not Matthew. No wonder I they were hard to find!

The lady in the US did not know that her grandmother had a sister nearby. Her 98 year old father (Matthew and Isabella's son) is still alive so he will be pleased to learn all this.

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