James Masson

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Permalink Reply by Kirsty F Wilkinson on August 1, 2009 at 9:51am

Hi Marg.,

Do you have a copy of James' death record? If he died in Scotland this should show the names of his parents (including mother's maiden surname) although this information may be incomplete or inaccurate. Once you have this information you can search for his baptism and those of any siblings in the OPRs.

Permalink Reply by margaret on August 1, 2009 at 11:48pm

Thank you, Kirsty, for your reply to question re James Masson. I don't have his death cert. (I live in Australia) Someone sent me info from a cert. they thought was James, but I am not sure. This James was born abt 1800 (died1875 aged 75) " My James " was born about 1810, going by age on the census 1861 ,1871.James (on dc) had a son James who was the informant. The parents were James Masson and Helen Caird. "My James ".had sons James, Thomas, Willian and Andrew. (1861 1871 census) His wife was Barbara. James and Barbara had a son Alexander .born abt 1840. They married 1842. This could be a clue to James father, although Alexander was also the name of Barbara's dad ( I don't see any wifes name on d.c.) This lot is giving me so much bother!!! I am trying to sort out a family tree for my son and g,children. Once again thank you. Regards Marg

Permalink Reply by Kirsty F Wilkinson on August 2, 2009 at 3:41am

On an 1875 Scottish death certificate the name of the deceased's spouse should be included in column 1 under name and profession. If the deceased was married more than once you will often find the names of all spouses given. There are alway cases where information is missing (often for no apparent reason!) but I would expect this to be accurate, especially where the informant is a son.

As Scottish death records of married women are indexed by both maiden and married surname (and you can do a search on this name combination) it's often easier to find a wife's death first. This will tell you whether her husband was alive or dead when she died (so helping you to narrow down the likely date of the husband's death) and may indicate if the family had moved from where you expected to find them.

Hope that helps a little!
Kirsty