I still haven't been able to find much information on my ancestor David Horn(e). I know he was born in Makerston, Roxburghshire in 1793. He appears on the 1841 census in Edinburgh. He's probably dead by 1851. But other than his baptism record, the 1841 census record, and the baptism records for two daughters (Isabella and Agnes), I can't find anything. This has led to quite a few questions and a lot of frustration.
I cannot find a record for David's marriage to Isabella. The only record that I could find for a David Horn(e) at around the right time was for a shoemaker named David Horne who married a woman named Janet Wilson in 1822 in Glasgow. The occupation is right, the date is plausible, and Janet's maiden name also fits into the picture (David's eldest son is James Wilson Horne; I'd assumed the "Wilson" was from David's mother, Agnes Wilson, but perhaps there's another explanation here...). Also, if David was married to Janet before he was married to Isabella, it might help explain why there is a six-year gap between James and his next younger sister (the subsequent children are all separated by three or fewer years). James Wilson Horne's death registration does state that his mother was named Isabella... but James may not have remembered his real mother, and the person who registered the death probably never would have met Isabella or known the real story. So I'm thinking Janet could be a real possibility...
... except for the Glasgow bit. It seems odd to me that a shoemaker would move around that much. From Makerston to Glasgow to Edinburgh? A soldier or a merchant or a seaman... okay. But a shoemaker?
Showing posts with label Wilson. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Wilson. Show all posts
Friday, August 17, 2012
Friday, April 20, 2012
Possible link-up of the elusive Horn(e)s
Try as I might, I haven't been able to find much information on my 3x great-grandparents, David and Isabella Horn(e). David was born in 1793 in Roxburghshire, Scotland. Isabella was born in approximately 1801 (according to the 1841 census, which of course rounds off the ages), but somewhere other than in Midlothian. Both appeared on the 1841 census with their children (and David's father, James) in Edinburgh. But by 1851, they had disappeared. David and Isabella's three sons were living in Berwick-upon-Tweed under the care of the eldest (James Wilson Horne, age 24); their daughter Isabella, age 18, was working as a house servant in Edinburgh; and their daughter Agnes, age 16, was living with her uncle in Edinburgh (also James Wilson Horne... and there are more besides those two in this family!). Despite spending money on Scotland's People and scouring the records available on Ancestry.com and on FamilySearch.org, I have not been able to find any records of David's and Isabella's deaths. I'm assuming they died; the only other possibility is that they abandoned all their children and left the country in the 1840s (which seems unlikely). Since their deaths would've been before 1855, I probably wouldn't get much from the death records anyway... but at least I would know what happened to them.
David's wife, Isabella, has been a bit of a mystery. First of all, her maiden name appears to have been Horn(e) as well (this is according to the death registration of David's brother, James Wilson Horne -- the uncle mentioned above). The family appeared to use the Scottish naming pattern, so I'd assumed that Isabella's parents would be Robert and Isabella. I couldn't find any families that matched... though I did find an Isabella Horn, born 1802 in Orwell, Kinross-shire to Robert Horn and Catharine Hunter. I might have dismissed this possibility until I noticed that this Isabella had a brother named Henry. This is a name that didn't appear on David's side of the family. So, if this is indeed Isabella's family, it would account for the boys' names that didn't really seem to show up in David's family.
What's even more interesting, however, is that I poked around a bit more and found that the only Robert Horn I could find in the right time and place was one born 1762 in Cleish, Kinross-shire, making him the son of David Horn and Isabel Westwood, and the brother of James Horn... who is also (I believe) David's father. All of which means (if I've corrected all the dots correctly) that David and Isabella Horn(e) were first cousins as well as husband and wife.
Whew! This would be interesting if it proved to be true. Mathematically speaking, it's impossible to have all unique ancestors; some of the branches have to join back together further up the tree. It's surprising to me that this is the first instance of a first-cousin marriage in my direct ancestry that I've found.
David's wife, Isabella, has been a bit of a mystery. First of all, her maiden name appears to have been Horn(e) as well (this is according to the death registration of David's brother, James Wilson Horne -- the uncle mentioned above). The family appeared to use the Scottish naming pattern, so I'd assumed that Isabella's parents would be Robert and Isabella. I couldn't find any families that matched... though I did find an Isabella Horn, born 1802 in Orwell, Kinross-shire to Robert Horn and Catharine Hunter. I might have dismissed this possibility until I noticed that this Isabella had a brother named Henry. This is a name that didn't appear on David's side of the family. So, if this is indeed Isabella's family, it would account for the boys' names that didn't really seem to show up in David's family.
What's even more interesting, however, is that I poked around a bit more and found that the only Robert Horn I could find in the right time and place was one born 1762 in Cleish, Kinross-shire, making him the son of David Horn and Isabel Westwood, and the brother of James Horn... who is also (I believe) David's father. All of which means (if I've corrected all the dots correctly) that David and Isabella Horn(e) were first cousins as well as husband and wife.
Whew! This would be interesting if it proved to be true. Mathematically speaking, it's impossible to have all unique ancestors; some of the branches have to join back together further up the tree. It's surprising to me that this is the first instance of a first-cousin marriage in my direct ancestry that I've found.
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