Finding my GGG grandfather

June 29, 2014 7:13 PM

I'm visiting Scotland for a week in July, and I thought it might be fun to lookup some of my Scottish ancestors. We know that the family lived in New Cathcart (parish?) in the 1840's, which appears to now be a part of Glasgow. We also know my GGG grandfather died sometime between 1847 - 1849, in Cathcart, but it's not clear exactly when he died or where he's buried. Would I be wasting an hour or two trying to find it?

My aunt has been looking at the "FHL in SLC and looked again at the old Scottish microfilms." What we know:

• John and Mary Ewing, lived in Cathcart.
• Andrew was born in 1846 to John and Mary.
• Robert, son of the widow Ewing, died in 1849.
• No record of John's death (who I would be trying to find), but most people at the same time who do have records were being buried in the "Old Church Cemetery".
• Shortly after this the family moved to America!

Google Maps shows was looks like a large cemetery in Cathcart; should I assume this is the same area they'd be using in the 1840's? Anyone know if the headstones are still there + legible from the 1840's? It could also be close to the Cathcart Old Parish Church, but the cemetery and church are generally in the same area and I don't mind some walking.

posted by sbutler to Society & Culture (4 answers total)

When looking for information on a parish for genealogy the first place I visit is Genuki. This is the page for Cathcart. I recommend following the link to RootsChat, which is a dedicated forum for genealogy in UK and Ireland and are usually pretty useful for answering very local questions like this.
posted by Thing at 7:25 PM on June 29, 2014 [1 favorite]

It might be helpful to look at the old Ordnance Survey maps for the area. Here's one from 1863 that covers the area in that google link. Here it is superimposed (seeing the map sheet individually allows you to confirm the year). Using the drop-down menu on the left you can check other historical maps of the same location. There's something that I reckon is probably a cemetery there in the 1863 one but unfortunately I can't remember how the OS indicated cemeteries.
posted by coleboptera at 10:45 PM on June 29, 2014

Response by poster: The thread at RootsChat has some useful contact info. I'll have to dig through it tomorrow, and cross my fingers that the email addresses are still valid.

Looks like University of Glasgow did a survey of the Old Church Cemetery around 2010, but I can't find it online. Unfortunately it seems that many of the graves were unidentifiable, and that the cemetery is almost always closed to visitors.

But the (very cool) map overlay suggests that if they lived in New Cathcart then they would be closer to the Cathcart Cemetery and not the Old Church Cemetery. So... crossing my fingers that's where he ended up.
posted by sbutler at 10:57 PM on June 29, 2014

I'm from pretty close to there; born less than 5 miles away. New Cathcart, as a parish church, doesn't exist any more; it merged in 2002 to form Cathcart Trinity. The large cemetery you're seeing is likely Linn Cemetery, which is too new (early 1960s) for your ancestors to be buried there, but is attached to the older Cathcart Cemetery. They're run by different councils, as it's right on the East Renfrewshire (Cathcart)/Glasgow border.

Scottish records are usually pretty accurate, but it's very easy to get confused with generations, as given names are often passed on or even reused if an older sibling dies. My brother's a part-time genealogist, and is based in the UK; I'll pass on his details via memail.

It's not the most interesting place in the world, Cathcart; a mix of red sandstone residential and industrial. Linn Park is pretty (the nearby Cathkin Braes wilder). It's very easy to get to from the centre of Glasgow; frequent trains, and the journey's about 10 minutes.
posted by scruss at 5:25 AM on June 30, 2014