Buchans of Borthwick

After the initial success of finding which Buchan family my emigrant Robert Buchan belonged to, the goal of my DNA study was to identify the parents of George Buchan and Jean Johnston from the DNA of their descendants.  George and Jean are my x4 great grandparents, both were born between 1770-1780. No document has yet been found that identifies their parents. Many researchers, including myself, propose that Jean is the daughter of James Johnston and Mary Bowstie. This couple had a daughter Jean baptised on 1 February 1780 in Temple Parish, Borthwick.   Temple is a village and civil parish in Midlothian, lying immediately to the west of Borthwick, and about 6 km from Newlandrig. Their address is provided as "Slabs Greenh[ouse?]" and as yet I have not found a similar place on any map. Findmypast has transcribed the date of baptism as 14 February 1780. I think the correct date might be 17 February, reading the text on the document as "James Johnston and Mary Bostie in Slabs...

Robert was 74 years old when a wagon struck him at eight o’clock in the morning on a winters day in January 1887. He died instantly. His wife would learn quickly of his death as his body was returned home immediately to Newtongrange, a mining village less than half a mile from the colliery.  Certainly a doctor was required to certify the cause of death, it being an accident. Two days later he was interred in the Newbattle Churchyard, now known as the Old Newbattle Cemetery.  Scotland has a system called Register of Corrected Entries (RCE).  Since 1855, all death certificates are issued  following a declaration by a medical doctor. This is the system we have in Australia. The death must be registered within 8 days. If the registration is delayed by the need for an investigation, then it will often generate an RCE.  RCE are also created about sudden and violent deaths for the same reason. As well, they are created for divorces, and any significant change about a b...

After a second day in front of a computer at the ScotlandsPeople Record Centre, I have developed a sore throat. No that is not the announcement. Regardless of that discomfort I walked to the Dalkeith Local Studies Centre, which is open to 7pm on a Thursday. Two objectives - find Esbank Lodge, where a Buchan girl was a servant to a local banker. Secondly look at burial records or monument inscriptions in search of where the Robert Buchan who died in a mining accident at the age of 74 is buried, somewhere in Newbattle Parish. He died in 1887, and because there is an Old and New Newbattle Cemetery (which opened in 1813), I didn’t know where he was buried. There is one major deficiency with Scottish records - they don’t include the burial location. As it happened I walked down a new road today on the way to the train. Close readers of this blog know that the Newbattle Cemetery is quite close to the station, but it has been raining every time I arrived back from Edinburgh. I photographed a ...