Good evening Rhoda and Rick Just to add a bit to what you have written. I have been researching a number of "AD precognition " and "JC trial papers" at West Register House , Edinburgh, lately and it is a painstaking job to work through a case . I normally can only manage two/three cases in a six hour day the information then has to be put into "21st C English " !! I have just finished thirty cases from 1833 re women who were convicted and transported These type of cases are often very difficult to understand re the legal processes involved . Re RC marriages on OPR : often the " banns" can be found due to the person(s) living in a parish with no chapel . Favourite one in Edinburgh is banns read in "St Cuthbert's Parish" ( St Giles) and the couple married in St Pat's , Cowgate. For RC B,M & D pre 1855 suggest you contact Andrew Nicol Scottish Catholic Archives Columba House 16 Drummond Place Edinburgh EH3 6PL Scotland Telephone: 44 (0) 131 556 3661 Fax: 44 (0) 131 556 3661 EMail: archivists@scottishcatholicarchives.org.uk http://www.scottishcatholicarchives.org.uk/VisitContactUs/tabid/61/Default.aspx Regards John John D. Stevenson Edinburgh

Hi listers, I have been researching some Ancestors and discovered that they came to South Australia on the Duchess of Northumberland leaving London on 6 Aug 1839 and arriving 17.12. 1839. Their names were Alexander Stewart, wife Elizabeth and four children. The Emigrant Register says that Alexander was a Shepherd from Leith and I started looking but can find no marriage record there. I don't know where Elizabeth came from so can not check her own parish. However the IGI suggests a possible marriage of an Alexander Stewart to an Elizabeth Ferguson on 5 June 1825 at Saint Cuthberts. Edinburgh (best fit to date) The only way to check is to find the children's birth registrations to check who the mother was. The kids were Donald born either c1826 or 1830, daughter Jessie bc 1828, Elizabeth bc 1832 and another son (either c1826 or 1830 but don't know his name). On the application for immigration in 1839 the children are listed as "2 sons age 13 and 9; 2 daughters aged 11 and 7" Their Application No is 4624 and Embarkation No 3230. I live in a remote region in the Kimberleys and cannot access any significant libraries (local one has no genealogy material at all) though I do what I can via the internet. I would like some help, ideas, leads etc to find the birth registrations or the marriage of the couple. Can anyone help please? Cheers and thanks Janine Halls Creek WA

I'm not familiar with what's in the Emigrant Register but could I suggest that the first thing to do is to compare this family with other entries and maybe look carefully at the column headings? 'From Leith' could mean lots of different things. As I think someone else has pointed out, it could mean port of embarcation. It could mean where he was living at the time of the application - which given that he might have travelled to Leith in order to emigrate, is much the same thing. Or it might mean place of last residence, or parish of origin. The idea that he might have lived in Leith whilst working as a shepherd isn't out of the question. This map http://www.nls.uk/maps/towns/reform/page.cfm?id=2586 gives you an idea of the amount of open ground there was around Leith itself at the time. You can see large houses with grounds where its entirely possible sheep were kept, if only to keep the grass down. Then there would be live sheep coming on and off boats in the port so probably pens somewhere and some shepherds needed to tend to these flocks as they waited. A favourite tale, from more recent times, is of someone going to the dole office in Edinburgh and when asked for occupation saying 'shepherd' - safe in the knowledge he could sign on without any chance of being sent for a job interview. He was promptly offered a job in the Queen's Park. As for the children, would the parents not be named on Australian death certs? That might be a better bet than looking for their births in Scotland as of course pre 1855 these are somewhat hit and miss. Judy On 9 Jan 2009, at 08:23, janine h wrote: > Hi listers, > > I have been researching some Ancestors and discovered that they > came to > South Australia on the Duchess of Northumberland leaving London on > 6 Aug > 1839 and arriving 17.12. 1839. Their names were Alexander Stewart, > wife > Elizabeth and four children. The Emigrant Register says that > Alexander was > a Shepherd from Leith and I started looking but can find no > marriage record > there. I don't know where Elizabeth came from so can not check her > own > parish. > > However the IGI suggests a possible marriage of an Alexander > Stewart to an > Elizabeth Ferguson on 5 June 1825 at Saint Cuthberts. Edinburgh > (best fit to > date) The only way to check is to find the children's birth > registrations > to check who the mother was. The kids were Donald born either > c1826 or > 1830, daughter Jessie bc 1828, Elizabeth bc 1832 and another son > (either > c1826 or 1830 but don't know his name). On the application for > immigration > in 1839 the children are listed as "2 sons age 13 and 9; 2 > daughters aged 11 > and 7" Their Application No is 4624 and Embarkation No 3230. > > I live in a remote region in the Kimberleys and cannot access any > significant libraries (local one has no genealogy material at all) > though I > do what I can via the internet. I would like some help, ideas, > leads etc > to find the birth registrations or the marriage of the couple. Can > anyone > help please? > > Cheers and thanks > Janine > Halls Creek WA > > > ------------------------------- > To unsubscribe from the list, please send an email to SCT-EDINBURGH- > request@rootsweb.com with the word 'unsubscribe' without the quotes > in the subject and the body of the message