Why were some of my ancestor’s children born in Spain? p
Q Robert Carey, a machine maker, married Elizabeth Whyte in Carmylie, Angus, in 1849 and they had three children in Dundee up to 1856. They are not on the 1861 census.
On the 1871 census they are in Dundee, him a machine fitter, with three more children born in Spain, and one in Arbroath. The birth of only one of those born in Spain was registered at the consulate in Bilbao.
Why was the family in Spain? Was it related to the Bilbao–Tudela railway? Jim Barton
A I checked FamilySearch ( familysearch. org), but couldn’t find any reference to parish records for an English or Scottish church in Bilbao at that time. I also consulted the Foreign Office index for Spain (FO 605/210) at The National Archives (TNA; nationalarchives.gov.uk), but could find no reference to your forebear. His migration may well have been to do with the Tudela–Bilbao railway, since this was constructed between 1857 and 1863 when he was in Bilbao and a lot of the best, most skilled engineers were Scottish. It is possible that records relating to Robert survive in the National Archives of Spain, Archivo Histórico Nacional ( cvc. cervantes.es/obref/arnac/nacional/). If your relation was ever involved in the construction of railways in the UK, then it’s worth consulting TNA’s online research guide at nationalarchives.gov.uk/help-with-yourresearch/research-guides/railway-workers/.
I’m afraid passenger lists similarly don’t survive for his journey to and from Spain, but again the National Archives of Spain may have a record of his arrival.
Finally, I did manage to find an entry for a Major Robert Carey in the passport index at TNA in FO 611/6. The passport, numbered 42058, was issued on 19 September 1856, which coincides with the period your ancestor emigrated. However, we have no way of knowing if this is the same man because passports weren’t compulsory for travel overseas until the First World War and the register entry in FO 610/12 is scant on information, only providing Carey’s destination as “Continent”, the cost of the passport, 7s 6d, and who recommended him – a Mr Cox. Roger Kershaw