Barrie - Larbert, Stirlingshire

[sheilalewry]

My g/g/grandmother was Helen Barrie, born around 1828 in Larbert, Stirlingshire and died in 1916. I have not been able to find her birth or her marriage. She was married to Robert Allardice b 1817 in Kirriemuir, Angus. On the birth of her children, her name is given as Ellen Barret, Ellen Barrie and Helen Barrie. Even her son registered her death as Helen Barret and with the wrong year of birth!! According to him she was only a few years older than he was! I would love to get some ideas for getting further back with this line. Can anyone help, please? Thanks.

[Sue Mackay]

As indexed by Ancestry. I don't have access to actual images without getting credits on Scotlandspeople.

Parish: Kirriemuir; ED: 29; Line: 9; Year: 1851
Dounshade Moor, Landward, Angus
Robert ALLERDICE 34 b Kirriemuir
Hellen 23 b Falkirk
Betty 2
John 1mo

Parish: Kirriemuir; ED: 15; Line: 13; Year: 1861
7 Muir Drumshade, Kirriemuir
Robert ALLERDICE 44 Ploughman b Kirriemuir
Ellen 33 b Larbert
Betsy 12
John 10
George 6
Duncan 4
Robert 1
Susan ALLERDICE sister 52

Parish: Kirriemuir; ED: 15; Line: 11; Year: 1871
Muir of Drumshed
Robert ALLERDICE 53 aglab b Kirriemuir
Hellen 43 b Larbert
James 9
Charles 7
Isabel 4
Jessie 2

The IGI lists the births of all these children (plus Helen b 6 Nov 1873) with the first three having Helen Barret as the mother. I had a couple of spare credits on Scotlandspeople and looked up the eldest child Betsy (the IGI doesn't give an exact date for her) and she was born 12 Dec 1848 and baptised 5 June 1849 in Kirriemuir. The mother certainly looks like Helen Barret. I also looked up Duncan Milne, born 10 Nov 1856, in the hope that his parents' date of marriage would be on his birth certificate, but it wasn't. She is just listed as Helen Barrie. Perhaps they never actually tied the knot?

[sheilalewry]

Thanks for all that Sue. I hadn't actually considered that they might not have married! There's certainly room for lots of research here. It does look like Helen was born 1827/28 in Falkirk or Larbert. I haven't been able to find anything on her birth, even though I tried both Barret and Barrie. I'm going to study the children now to see if they will give me any clues!

[sheilalewry]

Hi Sue, your reply about the birth certificate of Duncan Milne got me thinking! So I tried the one for son Charles, and ...... it says parents marriage was in Borthwick 14 Nov 1848. Just 4 weeks before Betsy was born! The only Borthwick that I know about is in Midlothian, which is quite a distance away, for those days. That marriage does not seem to be showing up anywhere else. At least, I now have a marriage for them, but it would be great if I could also find Helen Barries birth. Thanks for pointing me in the right direction!

[Sue Mackay]

Great news! I suppose they had to travel a little further from home to hide the bump from the local minister :D