In an earlier post I traced Catherine Mitchell from her marriage to William Ward backwards to her trial at Stirling in 1833. She was 16. We know from letters that have survived that Catherine had a brother named Alexander and a sister named Mary. She also had an Uncle named Peter who had a brother named Alexander in Australia. These facts have been helpful in locating Catherine's family in Scotland.
Catherine was born on 29 March 1817 and was baptised at Alloa on 1 April. Her parents were John Michell and Catherine McGregor (or McGrigor). She was the fifth child in the family, including another girl named Catherine who had been born in 1812. I have not located any burial records from Alloa, but it is safe to assume that the first Catherine died in infancy.
John and Catherine Snr's family included Anne 1808, Elizabeth 1810, Catherine 1812 (died) , John 1814, Catherine 1817 (our Catherine), Alexander 1819, Janet, 1822, Marjory 1824, William 1825 and Mary 1827. They were all baptised in Alloa. Alloa is a town on the river Forth, 10 km east of Stirling. It is about 40 km from both Edinburgh and Glasgow.
I found it difficult to trace Catherine's grandparents because the names Mitchell and McGregor are very common in that part of Scotland and there were a lot of variations of spelling, even within the same family. I think that spelling was not an exact science in the 1700's, but by the time of the 1841 Census, spellings had largely standardised on 'Mitchell' and 'McGregor', so I use those spellings.
I found a letter on ancestry.com.au that was written in 1950 by Harriett Chalmers, a descendant of Anne Mitchell. This letter outlines the family structure and was very helpful in sorting things out - even if it was not perfect!
I believe that John Mitchell was probably born in Alloa in 1782, the son of John Mitchell and Janet Comrie (shown as Janet Condey on the baptism record). John Snr was a coalhewer from Alloa and he and Janet married in 1768. They had 5 children, three were named John. This idea is supported by the fact that our Catherine had siblings named John and Janet. The 1782 John is also a good age match for the Catherine McGregor shown below, so the two theories fit together will.
There is an element of doubt in my theory. I found 6 other John Mitchells born around Alloa between 1767 and 1787. Some other family trees have John's birth in 1787 and his parents as James Mitchell and Margaret Scott. This is possible, although I would have expected our Catherine to have siblings named James and Margaret after their grandparents.
In researching all 7 John Mitchells I looked for their siblings. There were no siblings named Peter or Alexander, so the uncles mentioned in letters to Catherine Jnr were almost certainly McGregors.
The search for Catherine McGregor's parents proved complex. Harriett Chalmers suggested that Catherine was not born in Alloa, but there were dozens of Catherine McGregors baptised in surrounding areas in the target period. I found a number of family trees that list Catherine's birth as being in Aberfoyle in 1784 with her parents being Alexander McGregor and Elizabeth McGregor. After hours trying to sort out families, I dowloaded a list of all children of Alexander McGrigor born between 1760 and 1820 and looked for siblings named Catherine, Peter and Alexander. The only mother that appeared with all three names was Elizabeth! Even then there were two families.
My conclusion was that Catherine McGregor was born in Aberfoyle, Scotland in 1784 (baptised 'Katherine'). She had siblings born in Callander (Janet 1777, Margaret 1779 and Elisabeth 1782), Kilmdock (Mary 1787), Alva (Peter 1789) and Clackmannan (Alexander 1797). Alva and Clackmannan and both within 5 km of Alloa. There is enough circumstantial evidence for me to say that this is the most likely answer to a complex puzzle, but as with John Mitchell, there remains an element of doubt in my mind.
You can probably read between the lines and guess that this research nearly did my head in. While the Scottish archives are great in giving the maiden name of the mother on a baptism, the information from different sources are not consistent. Unlike many of the English Counties, the Scottish parish registers are not available to browse online. You can only view one page at a time - and then at a cost of almost $1 each page! In most cases I have had to make do with the information available on the index and forgo the register images.
I have loaded by detailed research notes onto the Ward-resources section of my website. Look for 'mitchell-family-research-notes.docx'.
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