My son’s 3x great grandparents, James Gray and Isabella Thompson. Photo c. 1890. Source: Peter Duncan / Gray family archive.
Since I wrote the most recent post about my son’s paternal line (Opening the door on a new journey), I have been contacted by two relatives from the Gray branch of that family. Both have provided me with useful background information and in one case, photographs.
We knew that Andrew GRAY was the only one of my partner’s great grandparents not born in New Zealand. My father-in-law believed that his grandfather came from Scotland, probably from around Glasgow, but wasn’t really sure.
Arrival in New Zealand
From New Zealand Yesteryears I was able to find details of Andrew Gray’s arrival in NZ at the age of four. The passenger list shows that he traveled with his parents, James (farm labourer aged 36) and Isabella (aged 34), and his sisters Isabella (7), Agnes (2) and Ann (10 months) aboard the ship Matoaka, arriving in Lyttleton on December 1st, 1860. They had sailed from Bristol on September 2nd
Although the ship’s manifest shows Isabella’s surname as Gray, I know from James’ Will that her maiden name was Thomson.
Marriage of James and Isabella
The only likely record I’ve found for a marriage between James and Isabella was in Glasgow in 1852. The OPR record (from Scotland’s People, below) says:
Gray James Gray, Carter in Glasgow, Isabella Thomson residing there, married 16th July by Mr John Graham, Independent Minister in Glasgow.
Marriage record, James Gray and Isabella Thomson, 1852, Glasgow. Source: Scotland’s People.
To corroborate this, I searched for birth records the Gray children listed on the Matoaka’s passenger list.
The children
The eldest, Isabella, was shown as aged 7 in December 1860, so was probably born around 1853. However, a search in Scotland’s People didn’t find any records — in Church of Scotland, Catholic or other parish registers of any children called Isabella (or name variants) born to James and Isabella Gray/Thomson (name variants included here too).
I did have more luck with Andrew (born 1855), Agnes (born 1857) and Anne (born 1859). All three birth records show the same parent details, and the two older children were born at the same address — Crofthead Cottage in the parish of Cadder, about 7km north of Glasgow. The address for Anne’s birth is “Bishopbridge (Bishopbriggs?) in the District of Cadder.”
Statutory record-keeping
1855 was the year in which compulsory civil registration of births began in Scotland — taking the place of parish registers. As all the birth records I found for the Gray children are post-1855, I’m wondering if perhaps James and Isabella’s children weren’t baptised (at least not in churches for which records have been digitised).
Records for 1855 are particularly interesting as, for that year only, the birth register recorded some additional information:
- Other children and whether they were living or deceased
- Ages of both parents
- Birthplaces of both parents
- Parents’ usual residence
- Baptismal name (if different)
Andrew’s birth registration tells me that James was aged 33, a mining labourer and born in Garnkirk, a settlement near the southern border of Cadder parish. Isabella was aged 30 and had borne two other children: one girl, living — Isabella; and a boy, deceased.
Isabella Gray Maiden name Thomson ?? 3rd child 30 Years, Muirkirk??? From birth record, Andrew Gray, 1855. Source: Scotland’s People.
As to her place of birth: I’m having trouble reading the hand-writing on the record. It looks like Muirkirk — a small town in Ayrshire.
What do you think?
Where to next?
My usual method for unraveling ancestors’ lives (certainly those born in the 19th century) involves beginning at the end — with death certificates. In Scotland, these include the deceased’s parents’ names, father’s occupation and whether the parents were alive at the time of their off-spring’s death.
Because James Gray and Isabella Thomson left Scotland in 1860, their deaths occurred in New Zealand.And while that may be convenient, death certificates here are costly to obtain and, in my experience, contain very limited information.
I have searched Scottish records for James and Isabella’s births, and have found several possible matches for each. However, in the absence of any corroborating evidence (parent’s names for example), it isn’t possible to be sure which (if any) of these records is correct.
I will have to “bite the bullet” and order their NZ death certificates and hope that they are more informative than others I’ve accessed.
In the meantime, I plan to work forward, from their arrival on the Matoaka, to the lives they and their children built in their new country.
Shaking the tree 
How wonderful that those birth records have so much information. Good luck with finding NZ records. And I am always so happy to see a genealogy blog post!
Thanks Amy. I am so grateful for Scottish record-keeping and archiving. Scotland’s People is a godsend, and really makes English and NZ records seem expensive. But this project isn’t just important for the Big T and my son, but for my father-in-law too. He has dementia, but can still engage with the past and seems to enjoy learning about his ancestors.
I know the feeling. My dad, who’s 90 and not doing well, is enjoying learning and also remembering his relatives—like those I’ve been doing most recently. I am glad I can give him that pleasure.
Yes! One of the many joys of doing family history research is sharing it with those we love.
Absolutely!
Great post! Just love the picture – always try to imagine what their life was like, what they did right after the pic was taken etc. Good luck with the NZ research!
If it were me, I’d get out of the stiff corseted dress (which looks like it’s straining a bit) and make myself a nice cup of tea. 🙂
Haha! Yes, the corsets must have been truly horrible! Would have loved to see the look on the men´s faces if she had done exactly that! 😉
I love the handwriting on the marriage record!
🙂 it’s much more legible than that on the other records
Cadder – just up the road from where I live!
🙂 How cool. I’m really enjoying this journey into the Big T’s past. He’s been to visit Poland/Germany where is mother’s family were originally from and hopefully now I can get him enthused about the south and west of Scotland too!
Hi, this might be another “blind shot”. I’m trying to find my ancistors. Born and raised in Norway, my mother was born and raised in Glasgow. My granny’s birth name was Thompson, Isabella. My grandpa’s name was Norman Cowie. They got engaged in 1925. I read your side, and reacted because of the names in your family. As I mentioned, my granny’s name was Isabella. My mother was named Agnes, her brothers was named Bert (Herbert) and Bill{William). My name is Anne.
Hi Anne. Sorry I can’t help you. The Isabella Thompson in my tree emigrated to New Zealand with her family in the 1860s.
Apologies: I wrote a much more detailed response but hit send on my draft. Here’s what I wanted to say … Hi Anne. Sorry I can’t help you. The Isabella Thompson in my tree married James Gray in 1852 and they emigrated to New Zealand in the 1860s. I know very little about her life in Scotland, and nothing about her birth family.
If you have access to Ancestry.com in a public library, you can probably use it, free of charge, to search for the marriage of your grandparents — sometime after 1925. Scotland’s People is the online portal for Scottish records; it’s free to search, but operates a pay-as-you-go system for records you want to download. Scottish records are wonderful; amazingly detailed and generally pretty accurate. If you find a marriage record (assuming they got married in Scotland), that should tell you both bride and groom’s ages, occupations, address at marriage, and their parents’ names.
Hope this helps.