Was my William Butchart born in Scotland?
QMy 3x great grandfather William Butchart was born in South Shields, according to both his Merchant Navy record and the 1851 census when he was living in Great Yarmouth, Norfolk. In the register of seamen’s tickets I found a record dated August 1845 stating that William was 46 years old, and born on 10 October 1799 in South Shields. I’ve searched without success for a baptism there and in surrounding areas.
The Butchart/Butchard surname is prevalent in Scotland. The baptismal records on Scotlands-People ( scotlandspeople.gov.uk) have a William Butchart born 10 October 1798 in Forfar, baptised on 14 October 1798, son of James Butchart and Janet Findlay. Could this be my ancestor?
Margaret George
AThere are complications when it comes to your proposed link with a Scottish Butchart. The first is that your ancestor says he is from South
Shields in two different sources. The second is that there is a William Butchart of about the right age in the Forfar census for 1841 with a son named James. He seems a better candidate for the son of James and Janet Butchart than your ancestor.
Your William doesn’t appear in any censuses other than 1841 and 1851. He is not listed in Merchant Navy apprentice registers on TheGenealogist ( thegenealogist.co.uk), nor any other Merchant Navy registers (1835–1857) on Findmypast ( findmypast.co.uk). I don’t think seafaring records will help you, although if you do find any named ships that William served on, then the crew list for that ship should state his age and place of birth. The National Archives at Kew (TNA) has a useful research guide: tinyurl. com/TNAcrewlistguide.
In the 1845 register of seamen’s tickets William is a marine engineer, and in the 1851 census he’s an engine driver on land. So he may have regularly changed from seafarer to landbased employment, which is why he may be difficult to find.
Sometimes records related to a death provide information about an ancestor’s origins. Did William leave a will? Is there an obituary in Great Yarmouth newspapers? Did he die at sea or abroad?
Another option is to see if you can build a tree for the Butcharts of South Shields – a member of a local family history society may already have tried this. According to the register of seamen’s tickets, William first went to sea there in 1821, and the 1851 census shows William’s son George was born in South Shields. So William clearly lived there for a long time. Simon Wills