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Finally! Kirk Session Minutes break through another brickwall!

 My maternal 2 x great grandfather's origins have always been a bit of a mystery to me. John Anderson died a pauper in Wishaw in 1865. His death certificate gives his wife's name as Annie Russell and his parents as John Anderson and Christina Garrie. Both the 1851 and 1861 censuses have him being born in New Monklands (Airdrie). It should therefore have been reasonably easy to find his birth/baptism recorded in the New Monkland Parish records. But it wasn't.

His age given on censuses and his death certificate pointed to him being born sometime between 1799 and 1806. However, searches on Scotlands People proved futile. Searches for a Christina Garrie also came to nothing and Airdrie was full of John Andersons around that time. Virtually every family tree on Ancestry, My Heritage websites etc. had my John Anderson as the son of a John Anderson and a Christina Shanks. However, these trees did not take into account that Christina Shanks would only have been 15 or less when my John was born - not impossible, but John did not marry Christina Shanks until 1830! To complicate things further, Christina Shanks was John's second wife, his first wife, Jean Davidson having borne him four children before she died in 1808. DNA match analysis around this time also confirmed that this John Anderson was the correct one and thus indeed related to me.

So I had a certificate naming Christina Garrie as my John's mother and no other documentary evidence of a Christina Garrie ( various spellings) existing and lots of hints from other people's trees with the wrong mother. Had his widow got his mother's name wrong? Or could John have been illegitimate and possibly not even registered? I found all this very frustrating and I felt that I had done everything I could to take this any further.

Then, last week I had used Kirk Session Minutes on Scotlands People to confirm an illegitimacy in another branch on my tree. Another 2 x great grandmother who had had a child out of wedlock. Although I already knew her story, I was able to read about her and the father being brought before the church elders to be reprimanded for their conduct. Could I find similar in the Kirk Session Minutes for Airdrie? I expected to be disappointed.

Instead of the one paragraph I might have expected about the embarrassing interrogation and reprimand of a couple, I found pages upon pages about John Anderson and ... Christina Garrow! Pages and pages written in faded, blurry, indistinct handwriting, but still!! These pages read like the script from a trial.

Christina Garrow has been brought before the Kirk Session where she accuses John Anderson of being the father of her unborn child. John Anderson disputes this. Witnesses are called on Christina's behalf, who 'depone' that the couple were seen together, both in John Anderson's father's house and in Christina Garrow's mother's house as well as walking outside towards the woods. One woman witness is dismissed as she states she bears ill will towards Christina! John's father refuses to take the oath as he believes 'nothing improper happened between his son and Christina Garrow'. Two witnesses say that Christina's mother runs a house of ill repute. A witness states he saw John Anderson in that house - John declares he was only there to get a male cat!!!

This all takes place over quite a few sessions. In the end, they conclude that there is a lot of strong 'presumptive evidence' but no direct proof. Nevertheless John is found 'guilty' and told he must maintain the child. Needless to say, John tries to appeal this.

The final session sees John Anderson (along with other men) being 'absolved from scandal'. And Christina? - well double standards here - she is to be taken 'under discipline' until the church elders can report on her 'favourably'.

So there I had it - a written record linking John and Christina Garrow together. Rechecking the Parish records, I found an entry for Christina's child :

Source: Scotland People

Christina Garrow - John in Airdrie

A bastard presented by the mother and born 5th of March 1802.

How harsh is that!! But now I had the actual birthdate to add to my records. 

John Anderson was not yet finished coming before the Kirk Session. Later in 1802, he appears to be rebuked with Jean Davidson, both charged with prenuptial fornication!







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