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My relative John MITCHELL was born in Banffshire c 1810/2 (I am certain of his county of birth as it is recorded on his grave stone) and moved to Liverpool. On his marriage certificate it says his father is Alexander, a wood forester. I have done some searching on Scotland's People and the best I can find is John Mitchell b 1812 To Alexander and Anne Stuart in Mortlach. It says abode is E(a)rnfold. I cannot find this. Is it likely to be in a woody area? Any thought please :clap:
Mortlach is now Dufftown in Morayshire. This site here has ordnance survey for the area around Dufftown ( Mortlach) for 1855, so worth looking through the maps.
Coincidentally, I have an ancestor John MITCHELL but from Aberdeen, and Ancestors from Banffshire and Morayshire (BREMNERs & TURNERs) just in case you ever discover a link!
There's a little bit of info on Mortlach on GENUKI HERE. According to the Statistical Account of (abt) 1835 HERE, Dufftown was the only village in the parish, so Earnfold must have been a farm or small settlement. The first Stat Acct (1790s) describes the woods of the parish HERE. (It's worth reading the whole of this description, the Minister seems to have really known his parish. Just click on the black triangles).
When/where did John marry?
Did you notice the 1857 death certificate on SP for Alexander Mitchell aged 87 in Mortlach? I can't see one for Anne Stuart-Mitchell...
My John Mitchell married in Liverpool 1838 to Esther Bradshaw and died in 1845, buried All Saints Childwall, Liverpool. On his grave it says "A proud native of Banffshire" It has now been brought to my attention that this Alexander is on 1841 census, but has a John aged 23 still with them. So I now think it must be another Alexander Mitchell. Any help greatly appreciated and thanks for that already given
This is your John on the 1841 census? The writing is very feint and the transcriber has John down as born Ireland. I couldn't make out Ms Bradshaw's first name either.
HO107 piece 567 book 10A page 10
Toxteth Park
John Mitchell 30 gardener?
Esther Mitchell 22
Alexander Mitchell 1
Mic Bradshaw 60
Christina
Yes that is the entry. If you look at the original document the entry for John is at the very bottom of the page. The corner where it says Ireland or Scotland is unreadable. It says something but I or S not decipherable. That is why I as so pleased to find his grave that mentioned Banffshire :) Thanks for your help PS Esther's mum was called Alice Bradshaw:balloon:
Can I suggest that you take a look at my notes on using parish registers, etc, HERE. They might explain some of the frustrating difficulty you're having in finding a baptism...
Pre BMD certs (1855), you can often see families (especially among agricultural workers) where the children were all baptised in different parishes as Dad moved from farm to farm. Eventually the family might settle somewhere, and if the kids were young enough when this happened, they remembered the place they grew up, not necessarily where they were born.. Some Churches charges for baptismal certificates so people often didn't even have that bit of paper to remind them of where they were born...