lockharts of nemplar

[anno]

Hi, I m tracing my family roots and have hit my brick wall (me and a million others), my great great grandfather was james lockhart who lived at middleton farm. His own father lived there too, this is where i have problems his father was married twice once to marion gardiner and then to betty forbes, i can't find his children to marion gardiner, he had 4 but he has strangely named his second lot of children with some of the same names, i know they cant be his first children because they were born years later. And i cant go any further back either on the parents side it would just be guess work does anyone have any ideas that may help me. Thanks Ann

[aNonnyMoose]

You don't say where or roughly when - what parish and what county, and what dates roughly are you talking about here. If it's prior to 1855 you will need to access the Old Parish Records, assuming they exist for that parish.

With regard to the same names being used for members of the second family, I would assume (on reasonable grounds i.e. experience) that this would be because the original children bearing the names had died. OPR's are often very vague on this. If there is a list of Monumental Inscriptions for the churchyards in the area, you could trawl through these in the hope of picking up some clues there - but most poor folk didn't erect headstones...

As for heading further back, often it's just a case of getting lucky in the OPR's, search the surrounding parishes as people didn't move far - but if they were itinerant farm workers then they would move from farm to farm at the feeing times, and could move 30-40 miles over the course of a few years.

Not a lot of help, I know, but genealogy's a bit like that... Best of luck with the hunting.

[anno]

thanks for the advice The parish is lanark, and the year is pre 1800s as far as i am aware the children did not die, i can find no death or even marriage information on the 4 children, their mother had died and my ancestor remarried. The family lived in nemphlar as far back as 1600, i have found a will of a james lockhart who was the portioner of various farms and bits of land there and one of the farms was middleton so i think its safe to presume that these bits and pieces have been passed down the family from year to year but you never can tell. My ancestor and his servant who he later came to marry were tried for the murder of his first wife, she died after a laudunum overdose but their was no proof, laudunum was widely used for all sorts of ailments in the 1700 and 1800s. I think maybe someone else took the children, his first wifes family but i can't find any trace of them.

[aNonnyMoose]

Aye, that's a bit of a strange one. I did wonder if it was Lanark as the Lockharts were mainly from that area - I assume you know the story behind the name?

The only other thing I can think of is to look up the Parish Session records if you can trace them. If there was any scandal involved then the minister and elders may have been involved, and the Session records might record something about it. Apart from that, then trying to trace the first wife's family to see if the children were taken into the care of an aunt and took her husband's name is about the last possible line of inquiry, I fear!

[anno]

Thanks I may have to try that, I have the names of every lockhart family in and around lanark from 1690 to 1854, but i cant find any marriages for any of the male children of that marriage, may be they were sent abroad, I have tried scotlands people but i have had no joy there. lanark library have the opr of the whole of the district that you can look at free of charge but i cant find them their either.

[Polwarth]

Do you live here?

If so, it may mean a visit to the local graveyards in Lanark!

[anno]

Hi, Yes I do, motherwell, so we did'nt travel too far out of lanark. Someone suggested st kentigerns in lanark. I have been to lanark constantly but never tried the grave yards. My grandfathers pictures used to be up in the lanark railway station,but they were removed years ago he used to win the lanimers day competition for having groomed clydesdale horses, don't know if it was true. He was also james lockhart and was quite famous round about for his stature 6ft 7 and 24 stone, apparently there were quite a lot of really tall lockharts, suppose you would need to be to work the land. I will certainly try the grave yards thanks for the advice. Ann