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Genealogy
Original poster

Handwriting help

32 replies

WeatherwaxOn · 27/01/2021 09:58

I am looking into old records, sent to me by a contact. This is one of my ancestors but I can't figure out where they were. (I've highlighted it as it's the bit I can't understand)
It looks like 'Gavlquinnan' but I can find no such place.
This is Scotland, in 1725.

OP posts:
Original poster
WeatherwaxOn · 27/01/2021 09:58

Would have helped if I attached the image!

Handwriting help
OP posts:
JanuaryChill · 27/01/2021 09:59

For some reason this image appears not to have attached as normal and I can't click into it to enlarge and see where you've highlighted?

JanuaryChill · 27/01/2021 10:03

Oh no, sorted now must have been my phone.

But now I can see it - sorry, I can do no better than you!

LIZS · 27/01/2021 10:04

I think Garlquinnan - compare third letter to r in Mary

JanuaryChill · 27/01/2021 10:06

Yes I thought maybe an R not V. But google doesn't know of such a place name!

Seeline · 27/01/2021 10:07

Yes - it's definitely an 'r' not a 'v'

Seeline · 27/01/2021 10:11

Could it be the name of a house or estate, rather than a settlement? Quite likely that such a place would no longer exist. Do you know roughly what area the document is referring to? I can't work out hte subject matter either.

PinkyParrot · 27/01/2021 10:27

But there's a place called Radford near Coventry which comes before that

PinkyParrot · 27/01/2021 10:32

'The surname Quinnan was first found in Kincardineshire (Gaelic: A' Mhaoirne), a former county on the northeast coast of the Grampian region of Scotland, and part of the …'
From www.houseofnames.com/quinnan-family-crest

merryhouse · 27/01/2021 11:28

Is the one underneath Margret to John Brown? If so maybe the first letter is a B...

what's the word before of? Is it an abbreviation?

I'm off to look up Robert Coventry on Ancestry Grin

merryhouse · 27/01/2021 11:51

We appear to be looking at Fossaway and Tulliebole (Kinross), Kirkcaldy or Perth...

That seems a bit far to be Balquhidder. Maybe it's a house name?

What's the document, and where are the other places?

Original poster
WeatherwaxOn · 27/01/2021 11:53

Thanks folks. It is a list of baptisms and it is Robert Coventry I am interested in as I believe his family are connected to mine.
The Coventry families were in various parts of Scotland - Cleish, Orwell, Kirkcaldy, Dunfermline, Edinburgh, Milnathort, Dollar, Dysart and Fossaway/Tulliebole. So I was trying to work out which area this birth was likely in.
Roberts mother isn't listed as far as I can understand from this but I may be misreading it.

OP posts:
Original poster
WeatherwaxOn · 27/01/2021 11:56

And I can't work out the word before 'of' either.

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Original poster
WeatherwaxOn · 27/01/2021 12:05

If it helps, ancestors of the people in this transcript were in Milnathort in the mid/late 1800s at the same time as.my ancestors.
I think Robert was married to a Helen Anderson but can't find the marriage record
Robert in turn may have been the son of a David who was married to a woman called Euphan Sympson and they appear to have come from Dysart.

Unfortunately there are many Andrew, David & Robert Coventry's around at this time, some in very close proximity.

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merryhouse · 27/01/2021 12:51

to Helen Anderson, 22 February 1717, Fossoway and Tulliebole

  • Scotland, Select Marriages 1561-1910, FHL 1040185

No image, I'm afraid.

merryhouse · 27/01/2021 12:59

Again no image -

Andrew Coventry, 12 Dec 1725, Fossoway and Tulliebole

Handwriting help
Original poster
WeatherwaxOn · 27/01/2021 13:00

GAH! The two Andrews (1717 and 1725) seem to be rather conflated on the records. I suppose he could have been born in 1717 and baptised in 25 but it seems a huge gap.

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merryhouse · 27/01/2021 13:02

Here's the other one (I have learnt about Snipping Tool Grin)

Handwriting help
starfishmummy · 27/01/2021 13:02

Can I suggest the free futurelearn course on scottish paleography to help decipher the handwriting. I dont have my notes to hand but there are some interesting letter forms in Scotland zo it will help with those.

I believe the course is starting again next month

www.futurelearn.com/courses/ems-palaeography

merryhouse · 27/01/2021 13:08

Where have you got a 1717 birth? Ancestry doesn't have any. I mean, any at all - nothing till I expand it to 10 years and then the 1725 one.

Original poster
WeatherwaxOn · 27/01/2021 13:18

@merryhouse

Where have you got a 1717 birth? Ancestry doesn't have any. I mean, any at all - nothing till I expand it to 10 years and then the 1725 one.
Sorry merryhouse I misunderstood. You were giving me marriage info not birth info.Blush That makes far more sense!
OP posts:
Original poster
WeatherwaxOn · 27/01/2021 13:18

Thanks starfish I will definitely take a look at that course.

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merryhouse · 27/01/2021 13:39

Oh I see Grin

Anyway, I've been looking at Google Maps and neither Polsgarth nor Colovan appears, so I suspect Garlquinnan or whatever it is is a house name. But the records are from Fossoway and Tulliebole.

Anyone work out the word that comes after Mary's and Margret's fathers?

starfishmummy · 27/01/2021 15:28

Can you narrow the area down and have you tried old maps of the area on National Library of Scotland?

starfishmummy · 27/01/2021 15:31

@WeatherwaxOn

GAH! The two Andrews (1717 and 1725) seem to be rather conflated on the records. I suppose he could have been born in 1717 and baptised in 25 but it seems a huge gap.
It is possible - sometimes parents only baptised their kids because they wanted parish relief in hard times and the clergy made being baptised a condition.