Hi Judy, The best I can do for you on the ownership is to refer you to "History of the Lands and Their Owners in Galloway " by Peter Handyside MacKerlie. Balsarroch is covered in Volume 1, pages 415-417. You can read this on-line at: http://archive.org/details/historylandsand00mackgoog Handyside also discusses the derivation and spelling of the name. Your BELLs may have been tenants on the farm, but may have been servants of the tenant farmer. Remuneration for servants, including agricultural labourers, generally included accommodation. Had they been there from 1841, or preferably 1851, you should have been able to determine if the head of the family was a farmer or a servant. If farmer, he would have been a tenant. Regards, Bruce On Sun, May 5, 2013 at 7:01 PM, Judi Hollands <dutchess@wn.com.au> wrote: > Hi Bruce > > My BELLs were in Kirkcolm prior to 1841 Census - 1861 Census. A number of > OPRs list the children as being born in Balsarroch from 1822. Thomas Bell > was a farmer of 20 acres - so wondering who owned Balsarroch House at the > time. I imagine they had leased a farm in the vicinity. I believe there > are > ruins of the Balsarroch House - > > http://www.britishlistedbuildings.co.uk/sc-10173-balsarroch-house-and-walled > -garden-kirkco Just trying to work out the lifestyle he may have lived > and > get a sense of the history. > > Thanks > > Judi :) > > > > -----Original Message----- > From: Bruce McDowall [mailto:milldriggan@gmail.com] > Sent: Saturday, 4 May 2013 6:04 PM > To: Judi Hollands > Cc: Wig List > Subject: Re: [WIG LIST] Balsarroch > > Hi Judy, > > Balsarroch will have been a farm. > There's only one in Wigtownshire by that spelling that I can see on the > current OS Landranger map. It is in the parish of Kirkcolm, about 4km or > 2.5 > miles west of Kirkcolm village. Balsarroch Wood is marked close by on > Google > Maps. > If your BELLs were not from Kirkcolm, there are other similar named farms > in > the parishes of Penninghame, Mochrum, and Stoneykirk. Perhaps there may > have > been one in Wigtown also. Spelling was rather arbitrary prior to the 19th > century, and the farther back in time, the more variations one will find, > so > those other farms could easily have been recorded at some time as > Balsarroch. > What parish were your BELLs in, and over what time span? > > Regards, > Bruce > >