Where in Scotland was Mary McIndoo born?
QMy husband’s great grandmother was Mary McIndoo. Her father was John McIndoo. In the census returns from 1871 to 1911, she gives her birthplace as Scotland except for 1881 when she adds Kirkliston. I have been unable to find any trace of her in England or Scotland before 1864. I did find a Mary McIndoo in Killearn, Stirlingshire, but I don’t know if it is the right one. Can you help?
Christine Judd
AThe 1881 Chingford census shows Mary aged 39, thus born about 1842 (if accurate). Since one of the daughters present, Alice or Elizabeth, may have been named for her mother, it is worth looking for combinations of John and Alice, or John and Elizabeth, in the censuses, as well as the marriage records on ScotlandsPeople ( scotlandspeople.gov.uk).
Kirkliston, West Lothian, seems too specific a place to confuse with Killearn, which is located over 50 miles to its west.
However, it is worth trying to ‘kill off’ this Killearn candidate, so see what became of her using the post-1855 civil records available on ScotlandsPeople. Mary’s surname McIndoo is likely to be a variant of McIndoe. There are no birth or baptismal records on ScotlandsPeople for a Mary McIndoo/McIndoe born in Kirkliston in the early 1840s.
If Mary was born in 1842, this was a year before the Great Disruption in Scotland, when a third of the Kirk’s members broke away to form the Free Church of Scotland. A baptismal register for the Free Church congregation in Kirkliston, covering 1843– 1943, is also available on ScotlandsPeople, but she is again not found in it.
Mary may have been illegitimate and initially registered under her mother’s surname. A look at the Kirkliston kirksession records (free on ScotlandsPeople), may help if so. It’s also possible that Mary was never baptised, a frequent occurrence in Industrial Revolution Scotland, which helped to herald in civil registration from 1855. If so, it may be worth taking a DNA test to look for genetic cousin matches in your extended family on the McIndoe line, whose own records may help you.
Chris Paton