Coubrough/Cowbrough Project Update 18 September 2002

Hello Everyone:

It's been quite a while since I wrote last. Just in case you were wondering, the "Coubrough Project" is alive and well. I have found a few more interesting tidbits, and, as always, I would like to hear your opinions on my speculations. Also, please feel free to pass this on to any interested parties, and be sure to let me know if you get two (or more) copies so I can update my address list.

Myrna J. Coubrough

I.

The first_ever Coubrough International Family Reunion, held August 7, 2001, in Kingston, Ontario, Canada was a huge success_so much so in fact that there will be another held in New Zealand, in April 2003. (See below for details.) The web site (www.coubrough.com) has more information on both reunions, as well as a picture of the folks who attended the first one.

On August 7th, 2001, in the middle of the longest heat wave in recent memory, Coubroughs and Cowbroughs from around the world converged on Kingston for the first ever International Coubrough/ Cowbrough Family Reunion. Descendants of three of the four main branches so far identified spent three days getting to know each other and figuring out how there could possibly be so many other people with their name. Nearly all those present had grown up admitting to some shadowy Scots ancestors in the vague, misty past_but they were also sure that they and their close kin were the only living bearers of their name. Astonishment was plain to be seen when they saw how many of us there really are_and that we don't all live in Scotland!

The Coubrough forebearers were a nomadic bunch. You have already heard how, in the 19th and 20th centuries, they moved to Australia, New Zealand,

Uruguay, England, Canada, the United States, and South Africa. But did you know that there is also evidence of their having escaped to France in the mid_1700's, after Prince Charles Edward Stuart (Bonny Prince Charlie) made his last attempt at regaining the British throne? Or that at least one

Coubrough married a Belgian evacuee and moved with her to Belgium after the First World War? And that some of their children were born there? It's all true_and all brought to light during or shortly after the reunion.

Back at the reunion hall, there were 49 of us for supper the first night. On

the menu were barbecued chicken breasts and speeches. After an afternoon

spent marvelling at meeting so many people with our very own name_and whose existence we had never suspected_we spent the evening taking formal groupphotographs and telling each other about ourselves. In the ancient tradition of Coubroughs, several of us are farmers (active and retired). Others of us have somewhat more modern means of supporting ourselves and our families. We are clerks, nurses, veterinarians, teachers, lawyers, businessmen and women, pilots, civil servants, personal_care givers, engineers, housewives, school children, accountants, janitors, and the odd military type (both active and retired). We were from three of the four "big branches": English and Canadian descendants of Helen Stevenson & John Coubugh of Ellrig; New Zealand and Canadian descendants of Jean Buchanan and Malcolm Coubrough; and the largest group of all, American and Canadian descendants of James Cowbrough and Jean Muir. Thirty_one of us were Canadian, with nine from the US, six from New Zealand, and three from England. All in all, a pretty mixed bunch, but all "family" in a way few of us had considered before.

Overheard: After all the years Coubrough's have spent escaping from each other, it's amazing how well everyone here is getting along!

Later the same evening: All these Coubrough's have been together in the same room all day and there is no blood_they are even still talking to each other!

II.

If you missed last year's Reunion, don't despair. You can still join us for the second edition, to be held Easter weekend, April 18 _ 20, 2003, in Katikati, Bay of Plenty, New Zealand. It is being hosted by Geoff and Donna Coubrough, who tell us that Katikati is two hours' drive south from Auckland. The registration fee of $50 NZ ( approx. $40CDN, $30US) will cover the hall rental, name tags, etc. Buffet meals have been arranged on the "pay as you go" plan, and there are plenty of hotel, motels, camp grounds and other places to stay in or near Katikati. See the web site

(www.coubrough.com/Reunion2003.html) for details. Registration fees must be received not later than January 30, 2003. Send cheque or money order (New Zealand dollars, please) to:

Coubrough Reunion

Box 152

Katikati, Bay of Plenty, New Zealand

(International money orders in NZ dollars are available from any Canadian bank for a small fee. Other banks likely have similar arrangements.)

III.

Just a few weeks ago, I had a very exciting e_mail from someone who had stumbled across the Coubrough web site. Pat Hamilton, a descendant of Matthew Gibb Coubrough and Margaret Dowall, is the closest "new relative" I have found outside my immediate family. Matthew Gibb, born 1851, was the youngest brother of my great_great_grandfather, James, who was born in 1831. Pat is also a genealogist, and she lives just up the road from me! (Canadians will understand this to mean less than a three_hour drive.) We'll keep you posted on what we find when we compare notes.

IV.

My apologies to Patsy Sutton, of New Zealand. In the last edition of this monologue, I mistakenly reported Patsy as a descendant of William Coubrough and Margaret Gourlay, when her ancestors were in fact William Coubrough and Jean Auld__same main branch (Ellrig), different generation.

V.

The web site at www.coubrough.com has been updated and is now searchable. It's not perfect but you can look for an individual's name rather than having to know which line he belonged to. Family trees have been updated and a couple of hundred "new" people added. As always, if you find mistakes, please let me know so I can fix them.

VI.

A while back, I told you about the family of William Coubrough and Euphaim Alison, of Wemyss parish in Fife. They were married in 1742, and had 4 children: Janet, Thomas, Euphaim, and Isabel. I told you that Thomas, the only son, married but had only one daughter so the Coubrough name died out in this line, and that I knew of no living descendants. Well, I have since found one_or more correctly, she found me. Diana Vey is a descendant of William and Euphaim's second daughter, Euphaim, who married Thomas Wilkie in 1770, in Wemyss parish. Their second daughter, Sophia Wilkie, born 1777, is believed to have married Mathew Lamont in about 1806. They moved to New Brunswick sometime about the 1820's, where they were in the business of building wooden ships. Matthew and Sophia had a son named Thomas, who in turn had a daughter named Euphemia. This Euphemia is Diana's great_grandmother. Sadly, Sophia died about 1828, soon after she and her husband moved to New Brunswick. (New Brunswick, of course, later became part of Canada.)

And now, back to the old news.

VII.

Some time ago, I mentioned that I had found a man named Andrew Coubrough, who lived at Stonewall, Manitoba, Canada (near Winnipeg). I knew he wasn't related to the Coubroughs from Portage la Prairie, west of Winnipeg, but I had no idea whose he was. Enter the 1891 Canadian federal census, which listed not only him, his wife, and his children, but his mother, as well.

Andrew Smith Coubrough, born December 5, 1858, in England, was the elder of two sons of Henry Coubrough and and his second wife, Ellen Smith. Henry, born 1814, was the son of Henry Cowbrough and his cousin_wife, Wilhelmina Coubrough, so Andrew definitely belongs to the Ellrig line.

Andrew and his wife, Mary Andrina Simpson had at least 6 children. William, born about 1885, and Andrew's only son, died when he was about 9 years old. Then there were Ellen Mary, b 1886; Robina Francis, b1887; Andrina Caroline, b. about 1890, d 1891; Caroline, b 1897; Williamina, b 1898. There may have been another child between Andrina and Caroline, but I have not verified this. The Canadian census says all of the children were born in Manitoba, but it is possible that at least the two oldest were born in England. I have found index records for children of similar names and ages, but have not yet verified them. At least three of the other four daughters are believed to have married and raised families of their own, but nothing else is yet known about them.

According to the 1891 Manitoba census, Ellen was livind in the house of her son, Andrew. The census said she was Andrew's mother, but not whether she was a visitor or a permanent resident. It did say that she was married, not widowed. I assume that Andrew's father was still living, but he may not have lived in Canada, as I didn't find him in the census.

Andrew's older brother, Henry, the son of their father's first marriage (to Elizabeth Wylie), lived in California, with his wife, Marie Shellard, and their three sons: Henry, Leslie, and Walter. I am not certain, but Andrew's brother may be the Henry who I found in Tacoma,Washington, USA, in the 1920 US census. The man in the census was 71 years old, which would have been about right for Andrew's brother, who was born in 1848.

VIII.

About four years ago, I received an e_mail from James Coubrough inWellington, New Zealand, who was looking for his grandfather's family. Jim's dad was, of course, James Coubrough, the son of James Coubrough, and his wife Agnes. Grandfather James, a plumber, and Agnes were an "older couple" living in the Wishaw area of Glasgow when little James joined them in 1929. We had little other information to go on. Grandfather James's siblings were John, Malcolm, William and Kate. Kate had married a man named Hynd, and they had a daughter, Elizabeth.

At first, I had no idea who they could be. Though there are more of them coming on_line all the time, public 20th century records are fairly scarce, so I didn't hold out much hope.Grandfather's siblings, Malcolm, Kate, William, and John, could have belonged to nearly any family in the tribe. The latest record I had of any James married to Agnes was in the mid_1700's, so I didn't see any direct connection. Help was on the way, however, thanks to government beaurocrats and their pointy pencils. Apparently no one can hide from the census_takers, and James Templeton Coubrough, plumber, was found living with his parents, Malcolm Coubrough and Helen Templeton in 1891.

I knew this had to be the right James: He was the right age, the right name, the right trade, and his siblings' names all matched, but I needed more supporting evidence. After all, there could have been more than one James Coubrough who was a plumber, and the James in the census was still single. So, off to the marriage records, where I found that James Templeton Coubrough had married Agnes Aitken Barton in the Wishaw district of Glasgow. Paydirt! In the 1901 census, James Coubrough, plumber, and his wife Agnes, lived in the Wishaw district of Glasgow.

Though by now I was fairly sure that this was the right James, I just had to keep looking. I discovered that Catherine Andrew Coubrough, daughter of Malcolm Coubrough and Helen Templeton, had married a man named David Leighton Hynd. In the 1901 census, David and Catherine A. Hynd were the parents of Helen, Jane, and David Hynd.

The most amazing thing about this discovery is that New Zealand Jim turns out to be a shirt_tail cousin of my very own__the first "new" cousin in our line for quite some time. Malcolm Coubrough, husband of Helen Templeton and father of plumber James, was the youngest son of John Coubrough and Catherine Andrew. John, born 1789, third son of James Coubrough and Jean Muir, was the elder brother of Mathew Coubrough, born 1805, was my great_great_great_grandfather. (My great_great_grandfather, James, born 1831, was Matt's oldest son, James. When he was posted to New Brunswick with the Royal Artillery, James is the earliest recorded Coubrough in Canada. His son Matt (my great_grandfather), born 8 Jan 1854, was the first of our name born in Canada.) Thus, New Zealand Jim is my fifth cousin once removed.

IX.

Quite a while ago, I ran across an Arthur Coubrough who was going to join his brother_in_law, Joseph Foy, in Chicago, Illinois, U.S.A. At the time, I had no families whose children were called Arthur, and when he had come through Ellis Island, he had given his wife, Ann Jane Coubrough, as his next of kin in Scotland, so poor old Arthur was consigned to the "space alien" list until I could find more clues to his identity.

Every family has space aliens. They were born under a cabbage leaf, never "officially" married, didn't baptise their children, and were buried in the back yard; they appear out of nowhere and there seems to be no way of tracking them down. My great_great_grandmother, Annie MacDonald, is a perfect example: She was born "in a rural area" somewhere in Scotland, sometime between 1818 and 1826. She married Jim Coubrough sometime before January 1854, possibly in Scotland, but she had no middle name that I can discover, and she may or may not have been the daughter of a woman named Flora, last name unknown. Annie had only one son, who was named after her husband's father, and her death registration listed her husband's name but not her parents, so I can't even guess what her father's name was. The Coubrough family tree has herds of people who fit this mould, and it was to this list that I added Arthur.

Once again, government records to the rescue. The American Family History Immigration Centre has digitized and indexed nearly all of the passenger manifests for ships that docked at the Ellis Island, New York, USA, immigration centre between about 1895 and 1929. Everyone on the ship had to be on a manifest of some sort, including ships' crews and those who were just passing through on their way home to Canada. My initial search of the Ellis Island manifests had turned up our boy Arthur in 1911. Further searching revealed his wife, Ann, and their two children, Ellen and Arthur, who landed in New York in 1912 on their way to join Arthur in Chicago. Ann had given her mother, Ellen Morrison, as her "nearest relative in the country whence alien came," and her husband as the "relative or friend" she was joining in the United States. Thus, we had Arthur, his wife, and two children in Chicago. Now I just had to find out who he came from.

The 1891 British census had become available on_line by this time, and it was just a matter of time before I found Arthur, age 9, in the home of his parents, William Crawford Coubrough and Margaret McKim. Eventually, all but two of William and Margaret's survivin children went to the US:

William Crawford, b 1868, was one of the two who did not leave Scotland. I don't know anything else about him, except that he died about 1946, probably in Glasgow.

Robert McKim, born 1870, moved to the US in 1923, with his wife, Maria Akhurst Coubrough and his daughter, Maria, born about 1899, in Brighton, England.

Walter McFarlane Coubrough, born 1873, married Agnes Thomson, in 1897, in Glasgow. They had two daughters that I know of: Agnes, 1898, and Maggie, 1899. Walter probably also moved to the US, but I don't know when or where.

Thomas McKim, born October 1875, died in 1876, before his first birthday.

Bethia, born about 1877, married Joseph Foy in Glasgow, in 1898. Joseph, of course, is the brother_in_law to whom Arthur was enroute in 1911, so I assume that Joseph went before that. Bethia and Joseph had at least 5 kids, whose names I got from the immigration list when they went to the US with their mother in 1912: James, b abt 1901; Margaret, 1903; George, 1905; Josephine, 1907; and Arthur, 1912.

Malcolm was born about 1881, but that's all I know about him. He was listed with the rest of the family in the 1891 British census, where he was said to be 10 years old, but I haven't found him anywhere else yet.

Arthur, born 1882, married Ann Jane Morrison in 1906, in Glasgow. They had at least three children: Ellen, born about 1909, Arthur, about 1911, and Margaret, about 1914, most likely in Chicago.

Daniel, born 1887, was the other one who did not emigrate to the United States. He married Evelyn Cowie in about 1924, and they had 5 kids: Daniel, Margaret, Mary Clare, Arthur, and Evelyn. It is Daniel's granddaughter, Ann Holding, who informs us that most of her grandfather's family left Scotland for the "new world."

Ann McKim, was born about 1890, but I don't know anything else about her except that she eventually married and moved to somewhere in the US, not necessarily in that order.

X.

About five years ago, I came across a John Coubrough who was married to a Margaret Murray. I found the names and birth registrations of their children, but I didn't know when they had been married or who their parents had been, so they too were temporarily added to the space alien list. Eventually, I made contact with two of their great_grandsons, Ian and

Gordon. They didn't know when or exactly where John had been born, but they knew that he had died quite young and that Margaret had remarried, in 1893, to a man named Malcolm Fraser. Ian and Gordon also knew that John and Margaret had three sons: John, who had eventually married Jeanie Bruce and moved to Florida, USA; their great_grandfather, William, and Richard, about whom they knew nothing except his name. I had thought that John's father must have been a William Coubrough, but I had no idea which one and neither did they.

With John and Margaret thus recalled to centre stage, I decided to re_read the birth records I had for their children, whence I discovered that John had married Margaret 1876, in Glasgow. The mystery of poor little Richard's fate was solved when I found a civil registration showing that he had been only a few months old at his death in 1882. When at last I tracked down the 1876 marriage certificate, it almost seemed an anti_climax to find that John, born 1853, was the oldest son of William Coubrough and Margaret Ure. A little more searching showed William, born 1825, to be the son of John Coubrough and Christian Dun, descendants of the Ellrig line. I finally got to scratch someone off the alien list, rather than adding them on.

XI.

In response to an e_mail question about a Josephina Coubrough, born 1889, I delved once again into the census records. In the spring of 1891, little Josephina Fraser Coubrough was a year old and living in Glasgow in the home of her grandmother, Margaret Ure Coubrough. Also living in the two_room apartment were Josephina's mother, Christina Coubrough, and Christina's son, William Lindsay Coubrough. William, a "coachman," and his mother, a "housekeeper," were both working, but perhaps their income was not large. Ten years later, they still lived in the same two rooms, though William was now 25 and his sister, "Ina," was 11. I don't know what happened to Margaret after the 1901 census, but Christina died in 1947, and Josephina in 1952. Sometime between the 1891 census and the next one, William quit using his mother's name of Coubrough and began using Lindsay, which seems to have been his father's name. He went from driving horses to driving lorries (trucks), married Jenny Cassels in 1912, and had a son named James in 1913. He died about 1952, in Glasgow.

XII.

A while back, I reported that Robert Coubrough, born 1863, son of Robert Coubrough and Catherine Kennedy, had married a woman named Catherine Clark. You will recall that Robert had written a long family history letter to his daughter, Jeanie, as he was sure she would never hear about him from her mother. Robert's wife had left him shortly after the girl was born, and it is not known if Robert saw his daughter again, or if she ever saw the letter. This week's news is that I made an error in reporting the name of Robert's wife: Her name was Margaret, not Catherine, as I stated previously.

Margaret had left her husband before the spring of 1891. In March 1891, she was living at home with her parents, Robert and Jean Clark, in whose house were also listed their son, Thomas, their daughter, Catherine, their granddaughter, little Jeannie, and a grandson, Robert Wood, age 10. Both Margaret and her sister were listed under their maiden name of Clark, even though they were both also marked as being married. It is not clear to whom either of the grandchildren belonged. Margaret was only 21, while Catherine was 29, so, with an amazing leap of illogic, I assumed that Catherine was little Jeanie's mother, and thus had been Robert's wife. The 1901 census showed my mistake when it listed Margaret Clark Coubrough, confectioner, as the mother of Jeannie Clark Coubrough, age 11. Margaret was still said to be married, so I assume that Robert was still alive, though I didn't find any record of him in that census. Jeannie was said to have come to Canada after she grew up, but I don't know if she ever married or had any children of her own, or where she went.

XIII.

I previously reported that Thomas Maxwell Coubrough, son of Malcolm Coubrough and Marion Callan Moore, was believed to have died at the age of 12, possibly of Scarlet Fever. While I still haven't verified the cause of death, I have since found that he was actually 22 years old when he departed. He was not married and had no children.

XIV.

We all know that most families have a few skeletons in their closets, and ours is no exception. I have known for quite a few years that Jane Bryson, wife of William Coubrough, printer and compositor, seemed to have been estranged from her husband for at least 20 years, but I never knew why. I recently found out at least part of the reason.

William, born 1834, was the youngest of nine children of William Coubrough, surgeon, and Margaret Aitken. He had married Jane in their hometown of Falkirk, Stirling and the first two of their seven children were born there: Janet Steven, in 1861, and Margaret Aitken, 1862. Jane and William apparently had itchy feet in a big way. Their next two children were born in New Zealand: William in West Port, 1869; and John Archibald in Auckland in 1871. Child #5, Emma Jane, was born at sea on the way home to Falkirk, in about 1874. Their youngest child, a daughter named Helen Dawson, was born at Falkirk in 1878, so I assume that William and Jane were still together for at least part of the previous year. (According to the Ellrig genealogy that was made in 1881, there was another child between Margaret and William, but I don't know its name.)

By the spring of 1881, Jane and the children were on their own in Falkirk, and William was working as a printer in Glasgow, where he was living at the time of the census on March 31, 1881. Ten years later, Jane was still on her own, with only little Helen for company, but William was no longer in Glasgow, so I went looking for him. In a recent search of the index in an on_line version of the 1891 British census, I had seen two men named William Coubrough, both in Peterhead, Aberdeen. One was 35 and the other was 65, which just happened to be the right age for the man I wanted.

Since Aberdeen was considerably outside the usual haunts of the Coubrough tribe, I decided to look a little deeper and I downloaded the census pages themselves. The 35_year_old William was a coal miner who I have not yet identifed, and sure enough, the William, age 65, (occupation: printer & compositor) was the one I wanted, but I was more than a little startled to find the word "convict" marked in the Position in Institution column for both men! (I later discovered that one of Peterhead's claims to fame is its huge prison.) I don't know why or for how long they were there, but Peterhead Institution today is a maximum security facility.

The elder William was not listed as an inmate in the March 1901 census, but the younger William was still there. Jane and Helen were still living on their own in Falkirk at the time of the census, but I haven't yet figured out what became of them after that. There is a possibility that William died in Larbert in 1910, but I haven't proven this.

XVI.

Quite a while back, I found that Robert Stevenson Coubrough, son of James Coubrough, carter, and Margaret Stevenson, had moved to Canada with his wife, Eliza Carpenter, and their children. Robert's father, James, born about 1825, was the only child of James Coubrough and Janet Brown. I had found Robert and Eliza's marriage record in Scotland, and I had found Robert's death certificate in Ontario, but I knew nothing of them in between. A year or so ago, I discovered one of their grandsons, who lives not far from where Robert and Eliza settled. He knew the names of his aunts and uncles, but otherwise, we were at a loss.

Then I found the 1901 British census; only Janet, Ella, and Robert were listed, but it did give us some firmer dates than we had previously had. I still haven't found Robert's great_grandparents, but now we at least know the names of most of their children, all of whom were born in Scotland:

Janet, born 1892, married George Wright and had one daughter.

Margaret Stevenson, born about 1895, died about 1900.

Ella, 1898 and Robert, 1900, I don't know anything about, except their names.

John Eadie, born 1908, married Laura Buchanan and had two sons.

Robert Stevenson Coubrough died in Hamilton, Ontario, Canada, in 1915, of "chronic cerebritis" (whatever that is). Even if they came when John was a tiny infant, they could not have been in Canada long before Robert passed away. Eliza reported her husband's death to the registrar, so she must have outlived him by at least a few days, but I don't know what happened to her after that.

XVII.

In 1999, when my mother and I visited Australia (or at least parts thereof!), one of the places we stopped was at the Australian War Memorial, in Canberra. Of course I had to look for Coubroughs, and my search was not in vain. On the Wall of Honour, on the outside of the building, I found Victor John Thomas Coubrough. You will recall that he had been one of the "lucky ones" who had survived the endless nightmare known as Gallipoli, only to be shipped off to the Somme, where on July 19, 1916, his luck ran out. He was 26 years old.

Alexander Thomson Coubrough had also been at Gallipoli, but he had been sent home to Australia in December 1915, when the battlefield was evacuated. Because it was so far from all the fighting, most Australians and New Zealanders never saw home from the time they enlisted until after the end of the war. Men who were wounded were sent to Cairo or England to recover; only those who were either missing large body parts or who were so "shell_shocked" that they didn't know their own names had a hope of going home. I assumed that Alex must have been one of these.

Alex and Victor both given addresses in Fitzroy, Victoria, for their next of kin, but one gave his father's name and the other gave his mother's name. The fact that they had both given Fitzroy as their home town led me to think that there could be a connection between the two men, but I didn't know what it might have been. So poor old Alex and Victor were consigned to the ever_growing alien list for a couple of years.

Enter the digital age. The state of Victoria now has many of its old vital statistics records on_line; as well, there are some "pioneer family groups," that is, families who were in Victoria before 1853 (when Victoria separated from New South Wales). Victor and Alex turned out to be not only brothers from a hard_luck family, but of five children, they were the only two who survived childhood. Twin daughters and another son had all died before they were a year old, and all within months of each other. What a terrible blow, it must have been for the poor parents when their youngest son came home seriously disabled. And to hear only a few months later that their eldest son, whom they hadn't seen in two years, would never come home again.

Victor and Alex's father, Charles Purves Coubrough, born January 23, 1863, was the fourth child of John Coubrough, a baker, born about 1833, and Wilhelmina Thomson, who were married June 12, 1857, in the Tradeston district of Glasgow. John died sometime in the 1890's, and Wilhelmina in 1904. Charles was one of only three of John and Wilhelmina's eight children who grew to adulthood:

John, born June 13, 1858, grew up to be a brass founder (i.e., a person who moulds things out of moulten brass). If he ever married, it must have been quite late in life; in the 1901 census, he was 42, and still lived at home with his widowed mother.

William, born November 29, 1859, died May 2, 1860, of "bronchitis during dentition." He had been sick for three weeks of his five short months.

Alexander, born February 16, 1861, died in 1875, cause unknown. Two of his sisters died in the spring of 1875, both of scarlet fever, so it may have been this which also took Alexander.

Charles, 1863, we'll hear more of shortly.

Mary Jane, born June 7, 1865, died March 29, 1875, of scarlet fever, after an illness of four days.

Robert was born December 15, 1867. He may have married Isabella McWilliam, but I have not verified this.

Elizabeth Kerr, born May 3, 1870, died May 1, 1875, also of scarlet fever, after an illness of 12 days.

Thomas Purves was born August 21, 1872, but never lived to see his third birthday. I don't know the cause of his death, but given its occurrence in the summer of 1875, it was probably the same scarlet fever that took his two sisters.

Wilhelmina Thomson's husband was himself the son of another John Coubrough, also a baker, born about 1807, and Mary McVean. The 1866 death certificate of the elder John gave his father as Robert Coubrough, letter carrier, but gave neither first name nor maiden surname for John's mother. Possibly this Robert was the one who was married to Janet Muir, but I have not been able to verify this; Robert and Janet had a son named John christened in 1801, but Mary McVean's husband was said to be only 59 at his death in 1866, so Janet Muir's son may have been too early. As Mary McVean had only one daughter, it is hard to say what Mary's mother_in_law's name was. John Coubrough and Mary McVean's children were: Robert, born 1826; John, born 1830; John, born 1833, married Wilhelmina Thomson; and Jane, born 1834. The boys were all born in Govan, Lanark, but Jane was born in Tobermory, Argyll. It should be noted here that there may have been only one son named John, who was actually born in 1830, and gave the wrong age (24) on his 1857 marriage certificate.

Now that we know who Charles's parents and grandparents were, let's talk about his wife and children. Charles was born in Govan, Lanark, the same as the rest of his family, but by 1888, he had probably moved to Australia. That year, he married Ruth Ellen Roberts, daughter of Thomas Roberts, but according to the record indexes, there seems to be some discrepancy as to where the marriage actually took place. The Latter Day Saints' index to Australian vital statistics gives the marriage place as Hobart, Victoria; the Victoria State on_line index gives the location as Glasgow. Regardless of where they were married, there is little doubt that all of Charles and Ruth Ellen's children were born in Victoria. My Australian geography is not the greatest, but I believe that Carlton, Preston, and Fitzroy are all now suburbs of Melbourne.

Victor John Thomas, born about 1890, at Carlton, died 1916.

Lily Louise Letcham was born about 1892, probably at Carlton. She died in Preston, in 1893, at the age of 11 months. I did not find a record of birth for Lily, but she may have been Violet's twin.

Violet Wilhelmina Lucy was born in 1892, at Carlton, and died the same year, at the age of 6 months.

Roy Charles William was born in 1893, at Fitzroy. He was 9 months old when he died in 1894.

Alexander Thomson was born in 1895, also at Fitzroy. After the First World War, Alex seems to have stumped around Victoria, speaking at temperance meetings, and perhaps on behalf of other social causes. In 1924, he married Hilda Alma Roberta Thorn, probably in Melbourne. She was the daughter of Richard Thorn, but I don't know if she and Alex had any children of their own, and I haven't been able to learn much else about them. Alexander died in Launceton, Tasmania, in 1972.

XVIII.

About eight years ago, soon after I began looking for Coubrough's outside my own immediate line, I encountered several index records for a man named William Cowbrough, aged 61 years, who had died at Maldon, Victoria, Australia, in 1869. He appeared to have been unmarried, and none of the indexes had any indication of what he did for a living, though he may have been the William Coubrough who went to Australia as a clerk in 1833. Over the years, I have kept a lookout for details about him, but I still haven't quite figured out who he was.

He may have been the son of Henry Cowbrough and Wilhelmina Coubrough, who you will recall were the grandparents of Andrew Smith Coubrough (item VII above). If so, William may have been Andrew's uncle, or I might be completely on the wrong track here. The Victoria vital statistics index gives William's date of birth as 1808, but quite a few of these entries seem to have arrived at a birthdate by subtracting the person's apparent age from the year of death, rather than by actual knowledge of the correct date, which means that an estimated birth date could be out by nearly two years. Henry and Wilhelmina's son was christened in Airth parish, Stirling, on October 30, 1809.

I am not absolutely sure that the Australian William and Henry's son were the same man, but there is some circumstantial evidence. The Ellrig genealogy (made 1881), says that Henry's son "went to Australia." In 1881, there would still have been people alive who could remember William having left, if he was indeed the one who went in 1833. Scotland was the birth place given for both the 1833 William and the 1869 William, so they could have been the same man. Another slight possibility is that William did not go voluntarily to Australia. The system of transportation for conviction in British courts was in place as late as 1868, in some places. Of course, if anyone else knows anything about this guy, I'd be delighted to hear.

XIX.

In 1847, Barbara Coubrough married David Aitkenhead, in Barrhead, Renfrew, Scotland. The parish register does not list any of their parents, so though I knew Barbara must be one of ours, I didn't know which one. In 1851, the British census listed a couple named David and Barbara Aitkenhead, who had two children: William, 1 year, and Catherine, 9 months. For sometime, I had no further clues to Barbara's identity, but about two months ago, I discovered that John Coubrough and Katherine Andrew probably had a daughter named Barbara who would have been the right age at the right place at the right time to be David Aitkenhead's wife. The first daughter's name indicates that Barbara's mother was called Catherine, and John and Catherine were known to have been living in Barrhead, both of which support my theory, so this will bear further investigation; in the meantime, however, Barbara's lineage remains unproven.

XX.

I have recently heard rumours that Coubrough is a French name, brought to Scotland with supporters of Prince Charles Edward Stuart (Bonny Prince Charlie) in the mid_1700's. It is an established fact that the name was in Scotland at least 200 years earlier than this, but it does raise some interesting questions: Were there Coubroughs who fled to exile in France with the prince's father when William and Mary took the English throne and whose sons came back with the prince? Were there Coubroughs in the large Scots merchant communities of Europe? The armies of European kings and princes of the day had herds of Scots soldiers of fortune in their numbers. Were some of them Coubroughs? Perhaps they were priests, diplomats or assylum_seekers who went to France from Scotland? If you have any ideas on the subject, don't be shy. The rest of us will be eager to hear.

XXI.

A couple of times in the past, I have mentioned John Coubrough and his wife, Margaret Herald. They are the ones who I first encountered in the Scots records when John Gray, master of the ship "Great Britain" registered the birth of a child named James Coubrough who had been born at sea on the voyage from Melbourne to Glasgow. John and Margaret had several other children, all born in Scotland, but I could find no record of their marriage there. The reason, of course, is that they were married in Melbourne. The first four of their children had been born at Reedy Creek, which I have since learned was in the vicinity of "the goldfields." As for the names of John's parents, I was definitely barking up the wrong tree, as we shall see.

I had thought that since John and Margaret's first son was called Thomas, John's father was probably also Thomas, and my guestimates of the names of John's mother and his in_laws were similarly based on the traditional Scots practice of naming children after their grandparents. My mistake was in forgetting that many Scots who emigrated to the various "new world" destinations married people who were not Scots, and thus might not follow the "old ways." I also came to the conclusion that Margaret Herald was a strong woman, definitely the one in charge of her family. And here a bit

more background may be in order.

Margaret Herald was a "spirit merchant," which I took to mean that she ran a tavern of some sort. This was a much more sensible way to make money in a boomtown than digging for gold, and not having any indication otherwise, I assumed that her husband was also her business partner. When John and Margaret went back to Scotland, in about mid_1864, I thought the stimulus might have been a combination of the goldrush playing out and distress over the loss of their eldest son, Thomas, when he was only seven years old. Then a veritable flood of information revealed the names of all of John and Margaret's parents, as well as the date and cause of Thomas's death, and I began to think I had the story all wrong.

First, Margaret's parents, Thomas Herald, and Johanna O'Brien, were both born in Ireland, as was Margaret herself. This Irish ancestry might also explain the lack of Scots customs in naming the children. Margaret's children were named after her side of the family first, then her husband's. It was this, coupled with her being a businesswoman, separately from her husband's interests, that gave me the idea that Margaret was a strong character. The fact that she was at

least seven or eight months pregnant when she set out for Scotland, on what was a 4__10_week sea journey, did nothing to detract from this impression.

Second, an account in the Creswick & Clunes Advertiser (which was kindly extracted for me by Sue O'Neill), reported that Thomas Couborough had died when he had gone into the local flour mill to look for his father. April 3, 1865, was a Monday, so the preceding Tuesday would have been March 28, which I have assumed was the date of poor little Thomas's demise.

"An accident of an unusually terrible nature, and which was attended with a fatal result, happened on Tuesday night at Kilmore, to a child seven years of age, named Thomas Couborough. It is supposed that the boy went into the mill in search for his father, who works there, fell asleep on the wheat in the large bin, and was drawn downwards while the wheat was being drawn off. The boy's body was not recovered until Wednesday forenoon, when it was found at the bottom of wheat bin quite dead."

The account doesn't say whether John was a millhand or an office worker, but it does refute my theory that John was his wife's business partner, at least in Australia. John probably didn't own the mill, as that would likely have been mentioned in the article about Thomas. I still haven't learned why they went back to Scotland, but they stayed there long enough to have four more children. When John Gray reported the birth of the child who had been born on his ship, he lsited the father's occupation as "spirit shopman" but I don't know if this reflected reality or just the idea that no self_resepecting man would let his wife have a trade if he didn't.

All together, John Coubrough and Margaret Herald had 8 or 9 children (depending whether Kestrina and Christina were one person or two). So far, I haven't managed to find out much about any of them except their names:

Thomas, b 1858, Kilmore, Victoria; d March 28, 1865, at Kilmore. I don't have an exact birthdate for Thomas, but I assume that if he was already 7 years old at the end of March, he must have been born quite early in the year.

Kestrina & Christina both seem to have been born in 1860, in Reedy Creek, Victoria. Given the circumstantial evidence, I think they were actually the same girl. First, there are entries for both girls the vital statistics index, but there seems to have been only one registration_for Kestrina. The entry for Christina says her birthdate was taken from a "sibling's registration," as do the entries for some of the other children, but there is no such entry for Kestrina, who is clearly older than any of the others. Second, I have heard of the nickname Kester being used for Christopher, so why not Kestrina for Christina? Or possibly, the child's name really was Kestrina but was misunderstood by a clerk who had not heard it before and assumed the girl was called Christina. Or maybe I am completely out to lunch, and there simply were two girls, both born the same year in the same place. Neither girl was listed with her mother in the 1881 census, when she/they should have been 20 or 21, but whether this was because they had not grown up or because they were already married, I don't know.

Johanna, born 1862, at Kilmore, Victoria, aged 18, was still at home with her mother in the 1881 census. Margaret was again listed as "Wine and Spirit Merchant" but no occupation was given for "Hannah."

Mary Ann, born 1864, at Kilmore, Victoria, was not listed with her family in the 1881 census. I did find her, aged 26, in the 1891 census, as an "inmate of the refuge" at what appears to have been some sort of women's shelter or hospice in the Shettleston district of Lanarkshire. The page where I found Mary Ann did not give the name of the institution, but all 25 "inmates" on the page were women who ranged in age from 11 years to 68. Most of them were unmarried, as was Mary Ann, but some were widowed and one was said to be married.

James, born July 8, 1866, at sea, Lat 25" 18' N Long. 32" 57' W. The 1891 census had a James Coubrough, age 25, Inland Revenue Officer (a lodger in the home of Jessie Munro, Lodging Housekeeper), who could have been this young man. Margaret Herald's son would have been the right age at the right time. However, the James in the census was said to have been born in Glasgow, whereas Margaret Herald's son was only registered there after being born at sea. In any case, the lodging must have been pretty crowded: There was only one room with a window (which may have been the only room in the home!), but six people lived there, including James, his landlady, her sister, a female boarder, and two other male lodgers. I am not sure of the difference between a boarder and a lodger, but I suspect that lodgers must have had to get their own meals while a boarder would pay the landlady to feed him.

John, born May 13, 1868, at 49 Duke Street, Glasgow, was the son of John Coubrough, Spirit Merchant's Assistant, and Margaret Harrold. He was aged 12 years in the 1881 census.

Catherine, born October 17, 1870, at 49 Duke Street, Glasgow, daughter of John Coubrough, Spirit Salesman, and Margaret Herald, was 11 years old in March 1881.

Donald, born April 18, 1873, at 49 Duke Street, Glasgow, John Coubrough, Spirit Dealer's Assistant, and Margaret Harrold, was 7 years old in the 1881 census. Since the father is not marked as deceased in this birth registration, I assume that John was still alive when this boy was born.

 

Margaret eventually returned to Australia, though I am not sure exactly when. She may have gone back after she was widowed, as John had died in Scotland sometime between 1873, when their youngest son, Donald, was born, and March 31, 1881, when Margaret was listed as a widow in the census. She may have moved back with some of her children, or she may have had other family still in Australia. She was 66 years old when she died in Melbourne, in 1902.

As for John's family, I have no idea what led him to Australia in the first place, but judging by the dates, and the location, he may have been attracted to the gold fields. At any rate, he was the eldest of five children of William Coubrough and Christian Dunn. William and Christian were married May 14, 1819, in Fintry parish, Stirling, where all their children except Janet were born: John, 1819; Margaret, 1821; Catherine, 1823; James, 1825; and Janet, 1828 (in Lochgoilhead and Kilmorich parish, Argyll). So far, John is the only one of these that I have managed to trace.

XXII.

You may remember that I found a couple named Matt Coubrough and Margaret Duncan who were married in Barrhead, Renfrew, Scotland, in 1851. They had a couple of children, then disappeared from the Scots records. About two years

later, I caught up with them in Victoria, Australia, where they had had several more children. Their second daughter, Catherine, had married a man named Thomas Henry Bucknell in 1876, and died soon after the birth of her daughter Sarah in 1877. In 1878, Thomas Henry married Catherine's older sister, Elizabeth Sinclair Coubrough, but I can't find anything about them after that.

I eventually found Matt's parents because he just happened to be still at home for the 1851 British census, only weeks before he was married. I thought at first that John and Catherine Coubrough, in whose house Matt was listed as "son," might be John, b 1789, (son of James Cowbrough and Jean Muir) and Catherine Andrew, as they were in the right place at the right time, but the census parents were too young. I did find a couple named John Coubrough and Catherine Young who were the right age at the right time, but I could find no indication that they had had a son named Matt.

Matt died July 15, 1895, in Carlton, Victoria (Margaret had died in 1880, probably in Fitzroy). I eventually found him in the index to the Victoria State death records, which usually recorded both parents' names; none were given for Matt, so I still don't know which branch he belonged to. On the bright side, though, I did find out more about their children, and about Margaret's parents. Margaret was the daughter of Elizabeth Sinclair and Alexander Duncan, who were married April 8, 1823, in Rothesay parish, Bute. Margaret was christened in May 1826, also in Rothesay, and is the only child the IGI has listed for her parents.

Late last year, I was tracked down by Linda Coubrough, of Perth, in Western Australia, whose husband John and his sister Donna are Matt and Margaret's great_great_grandchildren. With the aid of Matt and Margaret's family Bible, John and Linda were able to fill in some of the more recent generations of the tree, but alas, the Bible record begins with Matt and Margaret, so John has had no more luck than I in trying to find Matt's parents. Again, though, the Coubrough's were listed in the Pioneer families part of the Victoria state records, and there was a small family tree for them, including even some of their grandchildren. The ones I know of are listed below:

Elizabeth Sinclair, born about 1853, probably in Scotland, married her sister's widower, Thomas Henry Bucknell, in 1880, at Paisley, Victoria, Australia. There were no children listed for them, but since I did not find a death record for Henry's daughter by his first wife, I assume the child lived with its father.

Margaret, born 1853, probably in Scotland. This girl may have died very young, or her name may not have been Margaret.

Margaret, born 1854, probably in Scotland. There may or may not have been two girls named Margaret in this family. The Victoria State Archive Family Group C21120 gives girls named Margaret as being born in both 1853 and 1854. It also gives Elizabeth as being born in 1853. If this is so, then possibly Elizabeth and the first Margaret were twins, with Margaret dying in infancy and the second Margaret being named in her place. However, the 1855 birth record for their brother, John, says that he was his mother's fourth child and that he had three living sisters at the time of his birth. The informant, being his mother, probably knew how many children she had, so possibly the name of one of the girls was recorded incorrectly.

John, born September 25, Abbey parish of Paisley, Renfrew, Scotland, married Sarah Cruickshank, in 1889, at Carlton, Victoria. They had five kids: Eileen Catherine, 1890, at Carlton; Alexander,1892, Hotham West, Victoria, died 1893; Victoria May, 1893, Hotham; Florence, about 1896, Perth, Westerna Australia; John James, about 1900, in Perth. John James married Ellen Swan, and they had three kids: Jack, Ellen, and Alexander. Alexander is the father of John and Donna.

Catherine, born 1858, in Fitzroy, married Thomas Henry Bucknell in 1876. She probably died when her daughter, Sarah, born 1877, was very young as the child was not more than 3 when her father remarried to Sarah's Aunt Elizabeth.

James was born in 1862, in Fitzroy, but that's all we know about him.

William Alexander was born 1865, in Fitzroy. He was three years old when he died on November 3, 1868, at Fitzroy.

Andrew Duncan Coubrough was born in 1868, at Fitzroy. In about 1900, he married Helen Battersby, probably at Carlton. They had 6 children, all born at Carlton: Robert George, 1901 _ 1944; Andrew Duncan, born 1904, died 1906; Jane Alexander Coubrough, born 1906, married Alexander Redvers Baden Davis in 1922; Nellie Melba, born 1909, married David Elias Lazarus in 1935; Rose, born 1912, married George Sennitt in 1931; and Alma, born 1914, married David Ernest MacQuire in 1933.

You will recall that Charles Purves Coubrough's family also lived at Fitzroy and Carlton. Possibly this indicates a relationship of some sort between the two families, but I have no idea what it might be.We'll keep looking, but don't forget to write if you know the answer.

XXIII.

FOUND: For some time we have been intrigued by a George Coubrough that we kept seeing in various records as a resident of California. Earlier this year, we tracked down his widow and found out that he had been lost at sea

nearly 40 years ago, when he was a young man of about 35. He was the son of another George Coubrough, who had come to the United States early in the 20th century, where he had gone first to Chicago, Illinois, then to California. Unfortunately, Mrs. Coubrough knew nothing else about her husband's ancestors.

Lucky for us, George had come through Ellis Island. The immigration records not only gave the age of all passengers, but occupations and physical descriptions as well. So we find that George, a railway worker, travelled to New York with his older brother Walter, an engineer. They both gave their sister Maggie Coubrough as their next of kin in Scotland, and another sister, Agnes Hodgkinson, as the person to whom they were going in the US. Just last week, I found Agnes in the index to the civil register of marriages, where I hope to find her parents__and those of her brothers.

XXIV.

Just before Christmas last year, I came across a web site which published short stories of previously unknown writers. I contacted Fred Coubrough, who was listed as the author or one of the stories I read. It turns out that he did write the story but it had been posted without his permission. At about the same time, I received an e_mail from Bob Crawford who wrote to tell me about his friend, Bill Coubrough of South Africa. Bill had grown up in Glasgow, but had emigrated as a young man, but Mr. Crawford did not know much about his early life, except that Bill's father had been the Sergeant_Major of an infantry outfit in the British Army. The one short message I had from Fred seemed to indicate that Bill was his brother, but I haven't heard from either Fred or Bob since.

 

XXV.

And now for my giant leap of faith. Almost since the beginning of my search, I have been intrigued by certain gaps in our knowledge of the family shrub. One of the first families that I found was that of John Coubrough and Jonet

Buchanan, whose apparent first child was christened in Campsie parish, in 1704. Around the same time, I found Mathow Coulbrough & Jonet Sheirer, and Malcolm Coulbrough & Margaret Smyth, also of Campsie. I have since

discovered that John and Jonet were the progenitors of the "Strathblane line," which includes the calico factory owners. Mathow and Malcolm's children were christened in the 1650's and 1660's, and while I have not yet proven their connections to any other families, I have long thought that they were brothers. There were also couples named Malcolm Coubrough & Marrion Reid and Malcolm Coubrough & Jean Buchanan, who seemed like they just HAD to belong to the Strathblane line, but I couldn't quite fit them in.

Like any good puzzle, there were many tantalizing bits that looked like they should belong SOMEWHERE, but I just couldn't make them fit. Then, late this past summer, as I was reviewing some old information in the hope that notes

made over the years would yield new clues, it occurred to me that it might not take too much stretching of the facts to think that Marrion Reid's husband was the son of Jonet Buchanan, and that Jonet's husband might be the son of Margaret Smyth. If Margaret Smyth's husband was actually the younger brother of Jonet Sheirer's husband, as I believe, they were perhaps the sons of another John Coubrough, since that is what they both named their first sons. So here I have my family group:

1st Gen: John Coubrough

2nd Gen: Mathow C m. Jonet Sheirer

Malcolm C m. Margaret Smyth

3rd Gen: John C (s/o M. Smyth) m. Jonet Buchanan

4th Gen: Malcolm C m. Marrion Reid

5th Gen: Malcolm C m. Jean Buchanan

The story below has been pieced together from little bits gathered here and there along the way. To me, it makes complete sense, but I would remind you that some of it is speculation and wishful thinking on my part. It has NOT

all been verified, but I really would like to know if you think it is plausible. Should you have any comments or ideas or hard information on any of the folks in my tale, I absolutely want to hear from you. Even if you don't know anything about them, I'd still like to hear from you. Here's the story:

A child named John Coubrough, son of Malcolm Coubrough, was christened 13 March 1747, in Killearn. I have assumed that he is the son of Malcolm Coubrough and Marrion Reid, as this seems to be the only Malcolm who was

having children in the Killearn area at the time of John's christening. No mother's name is given, but John's christening date fits nicely with Malcolm and Marrion's marriage date in December 1745. John also helps fill in the

large space between the 1745 marriage and the 1751 birth of son Malcolm. Because Malcolm was the oldest son I knew of, I had long thought that Marrion Reid's father_in_law would also have been called Malcolm. The discovery of this boy, John, refutes my theory and points instead to the child's grandfather having been named John, but which one?

John Coubrough m. Jonet Buchanan was the right name at the right time, but their children were all christened in Campsie, not Killearn, and they don't appear to have had any sons named Malcolm. They did move to Strathblane,

sometime after all the children were born, but before any of them were married. At least John did; it isn't clear whether Jonet was still living when they moved as she is not listed on the large granite marker in the

Strathblane churchyard. Either way, it would account for Malcolm's marriage to Marrion Reid in Strathblane parish.

I still don't have any proof of who the parents of Marrion Reid's husband Malcolm may have been, but I am more inclined than ever to believe that he was the son of Jonet Buchanan. While there is no record of her having a son

by that name, there is also no record of her marriage to John Coubrough, so it is possible that they had a son who was either not christened, or for whom I have not found a record (assuming such record still exists). I have based my theory on the circumstantial evidence below:

1. Malcolm and Marrion Reid seem to have named their first son John, so I believe this was probably also the name of Malcolm's father.

2. The Strathblane churchyard has tombstones with the following inscriptions (all lying in close proximity to each other and to the large granite Coubrough monument):

A. Erected by James Coubrough in memory of Margaret Murdoch his wife who

died 4th February 1849 aged 42 years

The said James Coubrough who died 20th December 1885 aged 84 years

(James is the second son of Malcolm C. & Jean Buchanan.)

B. On a stone lying below

Malcolm and Jane Coubrough placed this stone in memory of John Coubrough

their brother who departed this life on the 6th october 1771 in the 26th

year of his age

(These were most likely Malcolm C. & Jean Buchanan. If so, Malcolm was probably the son of Malcolm C & Marrion Reid. They were the only ones I know of who had both a son named Malcolm and a son named John (b 1746/47)

that would have been about 25 in 1771.)

C. IC AE

1796

1667

IR IF

(I have no idea who these people might have been, but the stone seems to be near the "Buchanan" ones, so perhaps they are relatives of some sort.)

D. here lyes interred the remains of

John Coubrough

who died 9th July 1797 aged 80 years.

(John is the husband of Jonet Buchanan, at the head of the Strathblane line. He is also on the big red granite monument, which is of a much later date. There is apparently no sign of his wife in this cemetery, so she may have been buried somewhere else, possibly at Campsie. Or she could have been buried with her own family, under her maiden name.)

3. Malcolm C & Marrion Reid were the only people I have found that had a son named John who would have been about 25 or 26 in 1771. They also had a son named Malcolm who was about 7 years younger than John. The only Malcolm I have found who would have been about the right age at the right time was the one who married Jean Buchanan. This would fit with the gravestone information at B., above.

4. Jean Buchanan's first son was named Malcolm, which would fit with his being the grandson of Malcolm C & Marrion Reid. Jean's second son, John, and first daughter, Mary, match the names of Jean's parents. Following the

pattern, Jean's second daughter seems to have been called Jean, which one would assume should have been the name of Malcolm's mother. It is possible though, that they might have felt it was too confusing to have both a Mary and an Marion in the same family, so Jean called her second daughter after herself.

5. Marrion Reid's husband seems to have been the son of another John, as that is what he named his first son. Marrion's first daughter was called Janet, one assumes after Marrion's mother. The second daughter, Jean, should have been called after her father's mother; however, since I don't know the name of Marrion's mother, and with the limited number of names in use, there is certainly nothing to say that both Marrion's mother and mother_in_law did not have the same name. If that was the case, it would not be outrageous to think that Malcolm's parents were John C and Janet Buchanan.

6. In their marriage banns, Malcolm was said to be "in the parish of Kirkland," while Marrion was "in the parish of Baldernock." A Malcolm Coubrough in Kirkland was a witness to the baptism of the third son (William, 1742) of Jean Coubrough and William Dinn or Dunn, of Strathblane. Since John C and Jonet B's family seem to have been the only Coubroughs in Strathblane at the time, it may be safe to say that Wm Dinn's wife was the daughter of John & Jonet. Their daughter, Jean, b 1712, would have been the right age to have been married in 1736, and having children in 1737, etc. The bapism of another of Jean's children, James, 1740, was witnessed by "John Cowbrough in Kirkland" and "John Buchanan in Broadgate."

7. John C & Jonet Buchanan did not have any recorded sons named Malcolm; however there was an as yet unexplained gap of nearly five years between their fifth daughter and their first recorded son. There was easily room for at least one other child in this gap, who could have been Malcolm. As for the fact that he was not recorded, John and Jonet's marriage doesn't seem to have been recorded either. It is possible that he was born in a different parish from the other children (though this doesn't seem all that likely), or there may not have been a minister in the area at the time.

8. Given the number of Jean Coubrough's children whose baptisms he witnessed, there must have been a fairly close relationship between Malcolm and Jean. With the apparently high probability of Jean's being Jonet Buchanan's daughter, I think the odds are equally good that Marrion Reid's husband was also Jonet Buchanan's son, borne out by the names of Marrion Reid's first two children.

9. John m. J. Buchanan was exactly the right age at the right place at the right time to have been the son of Malcolm C & Margaret Smyth. If Marrion Reid's husband was indeed the son of John C & Jonet Buchanan, everything would fit perfectly:

Generation 1. Malcolm C. m. Margaret Smyth

Generation 2. John C. m. Jonet Buchanan

Generation 3. Malcolm C. m. Marrion Reid

Generation 4. Malcolm C. m. Jean Buchanan

10. Malcolm C & Margaret Smyth's oldest son was called John, as was the oldest son of Mathew C. & Jonet Sheirer. The boys were very nearly the same age, and I believe that Malcolm and Mathew were brothers. One of the witness to the baptism of John & Jonet's daughter Jean (1712) was a Mathew Coubrough. The baptisms (in Campsie) of John & Jonet's sons John (1717) and James (1719) were witnessed by "Malcome and Mathew Cowbrough's." If Jonet B.'s husband was the son of Margaret Smyth, it would not seem unreasonable for his father and his uncle to witness the baptisms of Jonet's children.

 

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