Stewarts of Balquhidder

[Tykee]

Hello everyone,
I am in the process of moving and notes are all packed. I have a few on this computer. Is it appropriate to give my "pedigree" that is mostly Fergusons from Balquhidder (Lagan)?

This is one of my Stewart connections:
1 Duncan FERGUSON
+ Helen STEWART
2 Alexander FERGUSON b: 20 Jun 1774 d: 5 Nov 1853
2 Patrick (Peter) FERGUSON b: 1768
+ Margaret MCGREGOR b: 1770 some records show McGrigor and others show Margaret Stewart (IGI)

This site is wonderful. It will take me ages to read all the great information.
Thank you,
Tykee (Peggy)

[Ryk]

Tykee/Peggy

Welcome to the board! It's always great to have a new Stewart with us. And yes you are certainly most welcome to post your pedigree. We all share our research together so we collectively learn more about our Stewart ancestors.

When your move is finished and you're all unpacked please feel free to post again with some more detail. And you mentioned this was only "one" of your Stewart connections. We'd be delighted to learn the others and see if we can help you connect up to the main branches.

In the meantime, from the information you've posted above I can tell you this much so far:

Duncan FERGUSON married firstly on 14 NOV 1761 in Balquhidder and Port of Menteith to Margaret MCGREGOR. The fact that the marriage was double-registered would suggest that one of them was from Balquhidder and the other was from Port of Menteith parish. As we do not have transcriptions of non-Stewart entries then we can't assist you on which one of them came from where. Nor can we assist you on the exact birth places for the following children for the same reason. They had the following children:
1. Mary FERGUSON, bap 5 DEC 1762 in Balquhidder parish (place not known to us)
2. Barbara FERGUSON, bap 16 JUN 1766 in Balquhidder parish (place not known to us)
3. Patrick/Peter FERGUSON, bap 1 MAY 1768 in Laggan in Strathyre in Balquhidder parish (according to an LDS member submitted entry in the IGI)

The suggestion that Duncan's first wife may have been "alias-Stewart" can be refuted. There was a second Duncan Ferguson contemporary with this one who did mary a Margaret Stewart and resided in Invernenty and Inverlochlarig. Their children can be shown to overlap with the preceding family therefore they cannot be the same people.

Duncan FERGUSON and Mary/Margaret STEUART in Invernenty and Inverlochlarig Beg, m. 4 DEC 1755 in Callander parish
1. Mary FERGUSON, bap. 6 SEP 1756 in Invernenty (mother's name given only as "Stewart")
2. Jannet FERGUSON, bap. 29 MAR 1758 in Invernenty (mother given as Margaret Stewart)
3. Mary FERGUSON, bap. 10 JUL 1760 in Innernenty (mother given as Margaret Stewart)
4. Jean FERGUSON, bap. 19 SEP 1762 in Innerlochlaribeg (mother given as "Mary Stewart", Mary is a known substitute name for Margaret)
5. Patrick FERGUSON, bap. 10 APR 1765 in Innerlochlarick beg (mother given as Margaret Stewart)

The fact that the eldest son and daughter for both families were Patrick and Mary make the confusion of the two families quite understandable.

Duncan FERGUSON married secondly on 18 JUN 1774 in Balquhidder to Helen STEWART, recorded as "both in this parish". They had the following children:
1. Janet FERGUSON, bap 9 SEP 1775 in Laggan in Strathyre, Balquhidder
2. Robert FERGUSON, bap 1 JUN 1777 in Laggan in Strathyre, Balquhidder
3. Alexander FERGUSON, bap 20 JUN 1779 in Laggan in Strathyre, Balquhidder
4. John FERGUSON, bap 22 JUL 1781 in Laggan in Strathyre, Balquhidder
5. Donald FERGUSON, bap 22 AUG 1783 in Laggan in Strathyre, Balquhidder

As their first son was named Robert then Helen's father's name was almost certainly Robert STEWART (as Duncan would have already named his first son from his first marriage after his own father). Since Helen is recorded as being "of this parish" at the time of marriage then we can resistrict our search for her birth to Balquhidder with some confidence. A search of the Balquhidder parish records for any Helen Stewart born around that time reveals two entries:

1. Helen STEWART bap 05 AUG 1746 in Craigrui, Balquhidder, Perth, Scotland dtr of James STEWART and Anna STEWART
2. Helen STEWART, bap 31 MAY 1754 in Ledcreich, dtr of Robert STEWART and Janet DRUMMOND-alias-MCGREGOR

As you can see, only one of these has a father named Robert. Thus we can be highly confident that the second entry is probably yours as there are no other viable alternatives. But we cannot strictly "prove" the relationship.

The good news is that we do have the second Helen's ancestry already fully researched. She would be the daughter of Robert Stewart, 6th of Ledcreich, a cadet branch of the Stewarts of Glenbuckie. You can find their information here:
http://freepages.genealogy.rootsweb.ancestry.com/~rykbrown/glenbuckie.htm#Stewarts%20of%20Ledcreich
This is also the same family as our fellow founder, Chuck Speed.

As we can now identify your family of origin I am going to move this discussion to the Glenbuckie section and upgrade you to full membership so you can post in that section. You will also have access to our "Members Only" discussion forum.

Welcome to the family!

Ryk
_________________
Ryk Brown
Descendant of the Stewarts of Dalveich (Ardvorlich)
Sliochd Iain Dubh Mhor