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  1. #11

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    Wow! Grisell, I was not aware that Alexander and Ann had a son, Alexander. My records showed that Helen was the eldest child. Thanks, also, for your other suggestions! I will take your suggestion, and contact David Weir.
    I was actually at the national Records of Scotland this past May, researching my 'Jeffrey' side of the family, so am familiar with the Kirk session records. But I'm pretty sure these are not viewable online. Am I correct? I need to view them on site or at one of the FHS sites in Scotland.
    And I have become a member of the Renfrewshire FHS, so I will be utilizing their resources.
    My records show that Alexander McLean died 23 March 1810 in Brockville, Upper Canada, British North America. And the family records I have, say that he was 74 years old at his death. So his birthdate would've been 1735 or 1736. There are a few Alexander McLean's births listed on the SP website, but if he used the typical Scottish naming pattern, none of these have an Alexander as his father.
    Kind regards!

  2. #12
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    Happy to help.
    Yes I think you have to visit the NRS in person.
    I'm sure you will be visiting Mull too, a lovely island.

  3. #13

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    Many documents are only on their internal network, but you can buy copies to take away with you. I seem to remember that you can pay them to find a document that hasn't been scanned and send you a hard copy, but it was quite expensive. If you're headed for Edinburgh, I'd wait. Last time that I was there, I also ended up with original documents as well, but that was about 5 years ago.

    Always remember that the one time that you reply on one of these genealogy "rules", such as the naming pattern, you'll hear ghostly giggling because they didn't rely on it....

  4. #14

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    Thanks, everyone!

  5. #15
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    Googling turned up a couple of things.
    From Adventures and Exiles The Great Scottish Exodus by Marjory Harper
    'For poverty and to get bread' reason for emigation in 1774 on Commerce.
    178 were from Paisley where large numbers of weavers had been thrown out of work as a result of the collapse of the four year old Ayr Bank in 1773.

    From Labour Migration in England by Arthur Redford
    The dangers of excessive emigration from Scotland was brought to the notice of the government in 1773. ' As some thousands of weavers were concerned and threatened to go off in a body to America the trial became very delicate'

    I have only seen those snippets and can't vouch for their accuracy, but it does look as though there was unrest amongst the Paisley weavers at that time. So I do think it is likely that the library, museum or RFHS would have details.

  6. #16
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    And from American Heitage.com
    In 1773 a conspiracy trial of 12 journeyman weavers in Paisley. They had struck for higher wages and forcefully prevented their employers from using scab labour, but they had rallied thousands of other weaversand threatened to ' go off in a body to America' if their case was not vindicated.

  7. #17
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    But so far I can't find any reference to the 1773 trial in the nrs catalogue.

  8. #18
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    Quote Originally Posted by grisel View Post
    But so far I can't find any reference to the 1773 trial in the nrs catalogue.
    But there is an account in the National Archives at Kew in the State Papers Scotland series 11.
    Ref SP/54/46/88

  9. #19

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    I can't thank you enough, Grisel, for your 'digging' for information for me! The above information is fascinating! I also received the following response from Mr. Weir, of the Heritage Centre, Paisley, for your info:

    Thank you for your enquiry on your McLean ancestors. The family tradition of your Maclean ancestors coming to Paisley from Mull is plausible as the MacLean name is associated with Mull. Family records in the Renfrewshire area, including Paisley seldom go back much further that the 1770's so I am not surprised that you cannot trace your relatives beyond this date. However family records in small communities often survive better than in large industrial towns such as Paisley. It might be worthwhile finding out what records are available from the Mull side of your family. I would expect that the name, Alexander MacLean would have been fairly common on Mull and that could make further research difficult.

    Regarding the Heritage Centre. We are now closed at our historic location of Central Library, High Street Paisley but we should be open at our temporary location (until 2022) by November of this year at the Mile End Mill, unit 907, 12 Seedhill Road, Paisley PA1 1JS. Our newspaper collection will come with us and be available for research from our opening date. Our newspaper collection starts from 1824 and therefore will not be of assistance to your research. The only documents that we have access to from the 18th Century are OPRs which you have already traced. You are welcome to visit the Heritage Centre on your visit to Scotland. however I don't think that our records can assist in your research which would require earlier records than those we have in our collection.

  10. #20
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    Quote Originally Posted by grisel View Post
    But there is an account in the National Archives at Kew in the State Papers Scotland series 11.
    Ref SP/54/46/88
    Case seems to have been held on the Western Circuit Glasgow, so may poss be in the nrs ref JC, poss JC13.

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