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2015 Week 11: Brickwall #52Ancestorsin52Weeks

One set of my paternal  2 x great grandparents cause me somewhat of a headache! 

The paper trail from my great grandmother Mary Boag, shows her parents were William Boag and Sarah Diamond. William was a cotton spinner and at the time of Mary's birth in 1829, the family were living in Eaglesham. By 1838, the couple had had ten children. They had been married in Glasgow by an independent minister - William was a Protestant and Sarah an Irish Catholic.

All seems normal in 1841. The family are living in Eaglesham, the two eldest sons have followed their father into the cotton spinning trade, a couple of children are no longer there - possibly have died. But by the time of the next census in 1851, William is no longer in Eaglesham and no longer with Sarah. He is living in Glasgow, no longer a cotton spinner but a 'light porter' and there is a new spouse, a Margaret Muir, who was born in Eaglesham and a 9 month old son, Joseph. Obviously there was initially some doubt that this was the same person, but that was dispelled when I found this William Boag's death certificate from 1878, stating he had had two wives - 1. Sarah Diamond and 2. Margaret Muir. 

Death certificate of my 2 x great grandfather, William Boag. Source: www.scotlandspeople.gov.uk

It should have been an easy piece of research to confirm Sarah's death sometime between 1841 and 1851 and also William's remarriage. Not so!  Sarah, my 2 x great grandmother 'disappears' from the records after 1841. No death record, no further census records. Similarly, there is no sign at all of a marriage record for William and his second 'wife' Margaret. 

Sarah and William's second eldest son died in 1855. His death certificate states that by then Sarah is deceased. If no records exist in Scotland, could it be she died elsewhere? 

And as for William's lack of marriage record to Margaret Muir, a woman who was living in Eaglesham at the same time as William and Sarah, did she just step in after Sarah died? Why did William then leave Eaglesham and move to Glasgow? His son William also seems to have moved there. It is possible of course that, as well as change in the personal circumstances, there had been a downturn in the cotton industry in the village forcing a change of job and a move away to the city. 

William himself hadn't been born in Eaglesham. Census entries state he was born in Greenock, a port on the River Clyde. His death certificate (see above) records his father, Thomas Boag, as having been a seaman in the Royal Navy, though I can find nothing else to substantiate this. More deadends in this family as I can't find William's birth record in Greenock or anywhere else, nor a record of his parents' marriage, nor any other children born to a Thomas Boag and Mary McNeil. Given that these parents are only mentioned on his death certificate, could it be that his second wife Margaret who was the informant got it wrong???

I think that DNA may be the only way I can resolve this. If I can find matches to the Boag line with a common ancestor earlier than that of William, then maybe at least some of these brick walls can be broken down.


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