Alexander Ross married the girl next door: the 1841 census

I love connecting dots that lead to an exciting discovery, especially when it comes about in an aside made by another researcher who was writing to me about several overlapping genealogy matters.

It turns out that when the 1841 census of Scotland was conducted in Abernethy and Kincardine, my 2nd great grandparents-to-be lived next door to each other, each with their widowed mother. Stuff you can't make up. Really.

The census handwriting isn't 100 per cent clear, but is decipherable. Previously, I had relied on the 1841 census transcriptions available on FreeCen and Ancestry, not stopping to pay attention to the fact that the parish numbers (90A if you're interested) for both families are the same. I happily purchased the image from Scotland's People this morning.

1841 census of Ross household at Ryduack and Smith household at Straaneruie

First up are the Rosses of Ryduack: Alex, his mother Marjory and his sister Mary. Below that are the Smiths of Straanruie: Isabella and her mother Margaret, who share their cottage with four other people. Both households each have a farm servant, who were both Grants. Are the Grants connected to my Smiths and Rosses? Time will tell.

What's notable in the Straanruie household is that Margaret Smith's son-in-law, John Dow, was then visiting. John had married my 2nd great great aunt, Grace Smith in 1838.

Ryduack on ordinance map

Another researcher directed me to the National Library of Scotland's 1867-79 ordinance map of the area in which Ryduack and Straanruie are mentioned, and explained that these places were about five miles apart in the Abernethy Forest, which is in the mid-to-top of the right side of the map. To find these places, look for the river Duack from Ryduack to south of the Duack Dam. Straanruie is almost due south of that. These pull out shots may help you locate, if you're really interested. No?

Ryduack and Straanruie were both the property of the Earl of Seafield in 1841. I suspect the lands and those surrounding are still held by the current Earl of Seafield, the 13th of his name, in Game of Thrones parlance, who still today owns vast swaths of land in the Strathspey area. Both place names are old Scots Gaelic. The original spellings left transcriptions through the years open to the imagination, when the skills of census takers and ordinance map scribes did not include accuracy and spelling.

Straanruie on ordinance map

Tomgown (or Tomghobhain in Gaelic) in the district of Tulloch, birthplace of Isabella, can also be found on the larger map.

My 3rd great grandmother, Margaret Davidson Smith, was a widow by 1841. I don't know when Donald Smith died, but it is safe to say that it was before the census was done. Here's a post about their family.

Marjory McDonald Ross, my other 3rd great grandmother, was also a widow. Her husband, Duncan, died in 1824. I wrote about their family here.

So, Alexander married the girl next door, only next door in this case was about five miles apart. Did the families visit by boat or by foot through the forest?

The ordinance survey name books collected between 1868 and 1876 and now held by ScotlandsPlaces describe both Ryuack and Straanruie.

Ryduack description, ScotlandsPlaces OS1/16/1/68

 Straanruie description, ScotlandsPlaces OS1/17/1/73

The third word in the description of Straanruie, cothouses, means a home for cottars, who usually had small pieces of land which they worked while also doing work for their land-holder, who was likely the local tenant farmer.

You're wondering when my 2nd great grandparents Alexander and Isabella got married, aren't you? So am I. So far, I haven't been able to find a marriage record. Their first child for whom there is a baptismal record was born in 1846.

Special thanks to three other family researchers who are wealths of information about all things Scotland, genealogy related.

The never ending story continues....




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