Notes on the McBride Family by Helen Boughton
Given it is convoluted I will start to explain how I thought the McBride family through - might need more than one email though!
Firstly, the dates for Peter McBride - and this had me stumped too. The death certificate for Peter in 1897 does give age clearly as 44, and the death was reported by his daughter, our own Lavinia. The censuses are all about uniform and as you say they all put his birth between 1850 and 1853. So a bit inconsistent but all within a band of about 4 years.
The marriage certificate is out of step - according to the censuses and death he would have been 18 or 19, and Emma 19 or 20, when they married. It strikes me that in those days the age of majority at 21 meant a lot more than it does today - under that age you needed the approval of a parent or guardian, and if you were officially an apprentice you couldn't marry at all. The upshot of which was that a lot of people lied to make themselves seem a bit older, and it seems to me plausible that teenagers in love told a few fibs in order to convince the vicar. So I still leant towards the repeated evidence of 4 censuses and the death records for dates, rather than the marriage.
That left the birth! Like you the only Peter son of a shoemaker called Donald that I could find in the records was in 1838 in Barony. This date is just too far away from all the others to be convincing, but I checked him out - and could find no further trace of him. Donald and Margaret next produced twins, also called Donald and Margaret, and I found these four on the 1841 census - the twins are just a few months old, and Peter ought to be there aged 2. But he isn't, nor could I find him anywhere else on the 1841 or 1851 census. The logical conclusion is that this Peter died in infancy.
1841 Census - Donald McBride
Donald's father, when I looked him up, turns out to be called Peter - clearly this is a family where family names are very important. So if their first Peter died, they might have followed the popular practice of the times and named a later son Peter. Trouble is, like you, I found subsequent children for Donald and Margaret - all those amazing twins - but no later Peter. I have the birth records for all the twins, plus the 1851 census showing the whole family, with no Peter.
By the time the 1861 census appears, Donald and Margaret have vanished and their children appear all over the place. I concluded that Donald and Margaret both died in this ten year period. They aren't in the official death registers that started in 1855, and the parish records collections hardly exist - chances are they died in that 1851 - 55 period where we have scant records. If our Peter really is a later son of theirs then he is going to have been orphaned at just a few years old - probably under 5. This might explain the way the later date records wander around within a 3 or 4 year band - quite possibly he and whoever took the orphan in were not absolutely certain exactly how old he was. But at this stage I was still just guessing that such a child even existed - and there I left it for absolutely ages, until I found Marion.
So, where I left this with the last note is where I lost heart! I poked about for a bit looking for other Donald McBrides who might be shoemakers, and failed to find anyone very likely. So I thought again about the Peter born in 1838 who I was assuming was an infant death. I thought that, as Donald and Margaret both died before any of their children married then if he lived Peter would be head of family and might appear on his siblings wedding records as a witness. So I looked up these weddings. I started with the eldest daughter, Margaret, and found she married John Murdoch in 1867. She and her family were then easy to find in the censuses and to her death in 1918.
By the time the 1861 census appears, Donald and Margaret have vanished and their children appear all over the place. I concluded that Donald and Margaret both died in this ten year period. They aren't in the official death registers that started in 1855, and the parish records collections hardly exist - chances are they died in that 1851 - 55 period where we have scant records. If our Peter really is a later son of theirs then he is going to have been orphaned at just a few years old - probably under 5. This might explain the way the later date records wander around within a 3 or 4 year band - quite possibly he and whoever took the orphan in were not absolutely certain exactly how old he was. But at this stage I was still just guessing that such a child even existed - and there I left it for absolutely ages, until I found Marion.
So, where I left this with the last note is where I lost heart! I poked about for a bit looking for other Donald McBrides who might be shoemakers, and failed to find anyone very likely. So I thought again about the Peter born in 1838 who I was assuming was an infant death. I thought that, as Donald and Margaret both died before any of their children married then if he lived Peter would be head of family and might appear on his siblings wedding records as a witness. So I looked up these weddings. I started with the eldest daughter, Margaret, and found she married John Murdoch in 1867. She and her family were then easy to find in the censuses and to her death in 1918.
The crucial census record is 1881
You can see the Murdoch family is thriving and staying with them is Margaret's sister Marion McBride, who is a Pentygrapher by trade. Dad and I had to look that one up - you wont find it easily on Google, but Dad has an ancient dictionary which says that a pentygraph is a device much used in engineering drawing and pattern engraving in the textiles industry. Which sounds awfully like the profession given for Peter on the Manchester censuses, engraver to a calico printer.
So I went back through the birth records again, and there is definitely no trace of her. But I found a marriage for her and she is definitely the child of Donald McBride, Shoemaker, and Margaret Brown. Even better, this gives her profession as a Calico printing engraver. She will have been born around 1854 according to this record which puts her birth in about the same timeframe as her parents deaths, and about 10 years after the last birth on record for the couple. Suddenly my wild idea that they might have other younger children who aren't on the birth records looked more likely so I started digging a lot harder.
I found Marion on the 1861 census. She is just 7 living with a boy of 9 called Peter McBride. They are in the houshold of Christina McCallum nee Brown, together with her son Thomas Brown who is a Pentigraph Engraver.
I know it is circumstantial but there are a lot of circumstances piled together here and I am as certain as I can be that this is our Peter McBride, orphan son of Donald the shoemaker and Margaret Brown, together with his little sister Marion, and that this will be where he learnt his trade. The age is consistent with the death record and manchester censuses - he is not their first born Peter from 1838, who would be 23 by 1861, but a much later child whose birth is not on the records.
So I went back through the birth records again, and there is definitely no trace of her. But I found a marriage for her and she is definitely the child of Donald McBride, Shoemaker, and Margaret Brown. Even better, this gives her profession as a Calico printing engraver. She will have been born around 1854 according to this record which puts her birth in about the same timeframe as her parents deaths, and about 10 years after the last birth on record for the couple. Suddenly my wild idea that they might have other younger children who aren't on the birth records looked more likely so I started digging a lot harder.
I found Marion on the 1861 census. She is just 7 living with a boy of 9 called Peter McBride. They are in the houshold of Christina McCallum nee Brown, together with her son Thomas Brown who is a Pentigraph Engraver.
I know it is circumstantial but there are a lot of circumstances piled together here and I am as certain as I can be that this is our Peter McBride, orphan son of Donald the shoemaker and Margaret Brown, together with his little sister Marion, and that this will be where he learnt his trade. The age is consistent with the death record and manchester censuses - he is not their first born Peter from 1838, who would be 23 by 1861, but a much later child whose birth is not on the records.
1861 Census - Marion & Peter McBride
Here Peter and Marion are children on the 1861 census staying with Archibald and Christina McCallum and Christina's son Thomas Brown. The census shows Christina's birthplace as Campsie in Stirlingshire - in fact just a few miles from Glasgow and if you climb the hill in Glasgow you can look out over the rural Campsies, lots of people from round there made their way to the city for work and a better life. And I remembered the 1851 census showing Margaret Brown's birthplace as Campsie. I had decided that must be the right family group in the census - husband Donald is a shoemaker and of course there are evidently twins of the right names listed - it would be a startling coincidence to have two families exactly the same in that regard. Which means the reference to Campsie as Margaret's birthplace is going to be right, as the easy/lazy thing for a census taker to do would be to put her down as Glasgow like everyone else, instead he has painstakingly spelt it out.
I found both Christina's death and marriage records - she and Archibald McCallum married in Campsie. Both records give her parents as Malcolm Brown, a weaver, and Agnes McFarlane. Malcolm and Agnes turned out to have a large family - I'll copy all the pictures up for you - including a daughter Margaret of exactly the right age to be our Margaret, and a daughter called Jean of exactly the right age to be Agnes Motion's mother. And of course Agnes Motion had a brother called Malcolm shown on the 1871 Manchester census - I figured Jean would be naming her children after her parents.
I think your logic path from Hugh and Agnes Brodie through the Motion family to Jean Brown is absolutely spot on and more complete than I did, it is just that I decided she would be the Jean Brown who is sister to Christina Brown and Margaret Brown, all of Campsie. I don't think anything in the Motion records I saw gave a birthplace or exact parentage for Jean - unless you have something? It isn't on her marriage to Alexander Motion, and the Manchester census just says Scotland. I haven't looked up her death but it would be an English record and they don't give that sort of useful info.
Something I haven't looked into yet is Archibald McCallum's father, given as Peter McCallum on the marriage record to Christina, and if he is related eg brother of our Ann McCallum. They are the same generation living in the same area so there is a decent possibility that Archibald might be a first cousin of Donald the shoemaker, as well as their wives being sisters - all the more reason why Archie and Christina might take in Donald and Margaret's orphans. But I haven't rummaged around in that yet so that is pure speculation on my part!
Helen