A tangled web

Tangled webs. Image: Su Leslie 2018

“Oh what a tangled web we weave
When first we practice  …

Sir Walter Scott (Marmion, 1808), ended the line with “to deceive”, but in the case of my three times great grandfather, Thomas Boswell Bisset (1831-1902), I’m not sure.

Why did the man baptized Thomas Gordon and married under the name Thomas Baswell (sic) Bisset, have his children baptized with the Bisset surname, and yet simultaneously appear in census returns (1841-1881) as Thomas Gordon? (1)

I don’t know the answer, but I’m hoping if I lay out the facts to date, you might have some ideas.

So, to begin at the beginning; which is actually the end

The last official record for Thomas was his death certificate, dated 30 June, 1902. In that, his name was recorded as “Thomas Boswell Bisset or Gordon.” His wife was named as Helen Laing Simpson, his age 70, his occupation carter, and his address 10 Henderson Street, Leven, Fife, Scotland.

Thomas’s father was named as “Thomas Bisset, farmer, deceased” and his mother as “Elizabeth Grieve, afterwards married to Henry Wright, crofter, deceased.” The informant on the record was Thomas’s son, William Reekie Bisset.

At that point, things seemed fairly straightforward. I found only one matching Bisset/Simpson marriage record — in the OPR (old parish registers) for nearby Dysart parish:

31 May 1851 Thomas Baswell Bisset, labourer, son of Archibald B. and Helen Simpson, daughter of John S. both of this parish, were contracted and after proclamation married.

This matched other information I had (2), except that Thomas’s father was named as Archibald, not Thomas, as on his death certificate.

While I love the detail in historical Scottish death certificates, they’re obviously not self-reported, so I assumed that son William simply didn’t know his grandfather’s name was Archibald.

Surely Thomas’s birth record would clear things up

In both the 1891 and 1901 census, Thomas reported his age as consistent with a birth year of 1831, and his birthplace as Wemyss parish in Fife.

Eighteen boys named Thomas Bisset (or variations on either of those names) had their birth recorded in Scotland between 1820-1840 (allowing for a wide margin around 1831), but none had parents named Thomas and Elizabeth or Archibald and Elizabeth, or any likely variation on them (3).

Changing the surname to Gordon produced 68 results. Fourteen had fathers named Thomas, but not mothers named Elizabeth (or variants); and none had fathers called Archibald. But I did find a Thomas Gordon, born to John Gordon and Elizabeth Grieve. The birth was recorded in 1831, in Wemyss parish, Fife.

The record says “May 16 Thomas natural son of John Gordon and Elizabeth Grieve in Kirkland.” (2)

The year and place of of birth and mother’s name matched Thomas’s death certificate; but now I had to add John Gordon to the list of Thomas’s recorded fathers.

One of those weird light-bulb moments

I had found Thomas Bisset easily in the 1891 and 1901 censuses, but in none prior to that. Confused, I’d tried searching instead for some of his children. I knew he and Helen had a son named William, and daughters Barbara, Charlotte and Tomina (listed in the 1891 census). In the statutory birth records, I found a total of 14 children born to Thomas and Helen: Margaret, Henry, Thomas Boswell, Elizabeth, Helen, John, William Reekie, Rachel, Jane, Barbara, Catherine, Charlotte, Tomina Howden and David. (4)

Knowing the children’s names, and that they were all born in the Leven, Fife, didn’t help me find census records for the family. So, although it seemed unlikely, I searched using the surname Gordon.

Et voila!

The 1871 and 1881 censuses show the entire Bisset/Gordon family living in Henderson Street. In the 1861 census Thomas is absent, but Helen is listed as “wife of Head”, so presumably Thomas was simply away from home on census night.

Why Gordon?

When Thomas married Helen in 1851, he did so as Thomas Bisset. All his children had the Bisset surname and he completed the 1891 and 1901 census returns as Thomas B. How could he simultaneously be a Gordon?

Thomas and Helen married just weeks after the 1851 census was taken, so I wondered if finding him on the eve of his marriage might help.

I found a record for Helen Simpson, in Dysart, living with her father John Simpson, 50, handloom weaver; her mother, Janet, age 50; and four siblings, Margaret, John, Charles and David.

This was where their marriage took place, so I assumed that Thomas Bisset/Gordon probably lived nearby. A search produced three Thomas Gordons around the right age, and only one in Dysart; a 20 year old carter living as a boarder with Henry Wright, his wife Elizabeth and their children William, Jessie and Rachel.

The right Wright?

Could this be the Henry Wright named on Thomas’s death certificate as his mother’s husband?

I believe so. I found an OPR marriage record (November 1839) that matches (the only Wright/Grieve in the time-frame), a death certificate for Elizabeth Wright nee Grieve, and birth records for four children born to the couple: William b. 1840; Helen, b. 1842 (d. 1846); Janet b. 1845; and another Helen b. 1849.

If the 1851 census record IS for the man I know as Thomas Bisset, he was living as Thomas Gordon a few weeks before his marriage, which took place in his local church.

At this point I have so many questions.

Why did Thomas Gordon use a different name when he married?

Why did he complete census returns with his old name? Especially as his wife and kids WERE by birth/marriage Bissets. Did they even know how the returns were being recorded?

And most importantly, why Bisset? Why not Gordon, or Grieve, or Wright?

Bisset is a name used extensively in my mother’s family; my grandmother was Margaret Simpson Bisset Cruden, her mother Catherine Simpson Bisset Black and her mother was Thomas Boswell Bisset‘s daughter Margaret Simpson Bisset. They were named to honour parents and grandparents, so I really need to know who Mr Bisset was and why Thomas wanted his name.

Any thoughts, ideas and suggestions about how to proceed? I would welcome them.

Great, great grandparents in Dysart Cemetery, Fife, Scotland.

 

---

1. The entire Gordon/Bisset family used the Gordon surname in each of the 1861, 1871 and 1881 censuses, despite the children all being baptised Bisset.
2. Helen’s death certificate, issued in 1914, named her parents as John Simpson and Janet Whittock, and I had census records that connected Helen to John and Janet.
3. Given that OPRs weren’t always meticulously well-kept (or preserved) it is possible that Thomas was born to a couple called Archibald Bisset and Elizabeth Grieve or Thomas Bisset and Elizabeth Grieve and either it wasn’t recorded, or the record has disappeared or been really weirdly indexed. If that’s the case, I will probably never know.
4. Although Thomas and Helen were married in 1851, I couldn’t find any birth records prior to 1856, but these would  have been parish records, and some parishes were better at record-keeping than others. I know that the couple did have at least one other child — Boswell — born in 1854, as I found a death record for him dated 1857. Four of the other children; Thomas Boswell, Elizabeth, John and David also died in childhood.

On unknown lives, early deaths and many more unanswered questions

Margaret Bisset and Alexander Black, great, great grandparents. Headstone in Dysart Cemetery, Fife, Scotland. The existence of two boys who died in infancy was an extra, and unexpected piece of information. Photo: Leslie family archive.

Every family historian knows that headstones can provide a mine of new information; this one has helped me not only document lives I was aware of, but told of two more I hadn’t even suspected.

Margaret Bisset and Alexander Black were my great great grandparents. I’ve written a little about their origins in the past, but hadn’t documented their family.

Their daughter Catherine was my mother’s maternal grandmother, and a presence in my early life. I’d long known from my mum that my great gran’s mother had died at a young age, but I hadn’t been able to find a record of the death.

This photo, which mum gave me last year, gave me the information I needed to find Margaret Bisset’s death record. Mum was right; Margaret was only 45 when she died on April 2, 1900, leaving a husband,  two adult daughters and three children under 16. The cause of death was uterine hemorrhage and heart failure.

Alexander Black died on February 6th, 1926, having lived long enough to see his daughter Catherine marry and bear four of her five children.

Catherine Black and her husband Alexander Cruden with their two eldest children. My grandmother, Margaret Simpson Bisset Cruden (named after her maternal grandmother) and Stewart Cruden. Photo: Leslie family archive.

What was “extra” on the headstone was information about the existence of two boys — siblings to my great grandmother — who had not survived infancy.

This branch of the family tree should now have two extra twigs. When I went looking for them, I realised I hadn’t really documented this family well at all.

Progress so far

Alexander Black and Margaret Bisset were married on 7 April 1879, in Scoonie, Fife. Alexander’s occupation was listed as Labourer of (something I can’t read); his age 20 and his address Leven (Scoonie is the parish in which Leven is located). Margaret’s occupation was given as Flaxmill worker; her age 22 and address also Leven. I know from their birth records that Margaret was born on 19 April 1856 in Leven, and Alexander on 5 May 1856 in Kinglassie (which would have made him almost 23 — not 20 as on the marriage record).

The 1881 census shows the family the family living at 2 Henderson Street, Leven with a year old daughter Helen.

The 1891 census shows that the Blacks had moved to Dysart — about eight miles down the Fife coast. By then the family had grown to include Caroline, age 8; James, 5; Catherine, 2; and four month old Janet. Alexander’s occupation was given as coal miner.

By the time of the 1901 census, Margaret had died and Alexander was living at 17 East Port, Dysart with his five children. He was still working as a coal miner. The three eldest, Helen, Caroline and James were all working. Helen is listed as a housekeeper (perhaps for the family itself), Caroline a linen weaver and James an apprentice cabinet-maker. Both Catherine and Janet (Jessie) were at school.

The 1911 census shows Alexander, still working down the mines, living alone, but next door to his daughter Catherine and her husband (my great grandparents).

The children

Helen Black was born on 12 June, 1879. Margaret was obviously seven months pregnant when she married, but this seems to have been quite normal for the times. After the 1901 census, Helen was no longer living with her father. I don’t know if she married; a search of the marriage records in Scotland’s People hasn’t revealed any likely matches, but with no real detail beyond her name, this is a dead end for now. I will ask my mother if she knows anything about her great aunt.

Caroline Black was born on 20 May 1882 at South Street, Leven. She married Thomas Duncan, of 21 Rosslyn Street, Gallatown on December 2nd, 1904. He was 21 and worked as an iron turner; she was 23 and a linen weaver. The 1911 census shows the Duncan family living at 12 West Sommerville Street, Burnt Island (about eight miles down the Fife coast). The couple had three daughters; Margaret, 6; Euphemia, 5; and Caroline, 1. That census was the first to record how many children a woman had borne; Caroline Black is recorded has having had six children – so obviously three had died – presumably in the “gap” between Euphemia and Caroline. The census also shows that Caroline’s brother James was living with them at the time. He was single and also working for the railway company as a carpenter.

James Black was born on 26 July 1885 at South Street, Leven. He married Margaret Heigh Wilson, on 20 December 1912, in Burnt Island. His occupation is shown as journeyman joiner. I have only found a birth record for one child so far; Alison Lawson Wilson Black, born in 1915.

Catherine Simpson Bisset Black was born on 5 May 1889 at South Street, Leven. She married Alexander Cruden of 17 Lockhead Crescent, Coaltown of Wemyss on 27 March 1908. He was 17 and a coal miner; she was 18 and a housekeeper. I’ve written about Catherine and Alexander — my great grandparents — elsewhere.

Janet Bisset Black was born on 3 December 1890 at 75 High Street, Dysart. So far I haven’t been able to trace her in the 1911 census or find a marriage record.

So where do Thomas and Alexander fit in?

Given that both names are quite common, I started at FamilySearch rather than spending Scotland’s People credits trying to identify the “right” Thomas and Alexander. On the off-chance that either boy had been born before the couple married, I set the date range between 1876-1900 and the location as Fife. This search produced no children at all for Margaret and Alexander Black.

I then searched Scotland’s People and to narrow down the results looked for births registered in Scoonie parish between 1879-1890; and in Dysart between 1890-1900.

Thomas Bisset Black was born on 22 October 1887 at 23 South Street, Leven and died on February 25th 1888, aged four months. The death record says “probable cause of death enteritis with perforation.” This is an inflamation of the small intestine and is usually accompanied by diarrhea, dehydration and fever.

Alexander Black has proved more difficult to locate. There were nineteen children of that name born in Fife between 1888-1900. While only one was in Scoonie, and one in Dysart, neither of these turned out to be “my” Alexander.  Given that I know from birth and census records where the Black family was living during Margaret and Alexander’s marriage, it seems unlikely that they would have had a child born outside of either Scoonie or Dysart. Seven children (aged 0-6) called Alexander Black died in Fife between 1888-1901, but again, none of these is the right child. I’ve tried spelling variations on both names, but with no success. I did wonder – given his mother’s cause of death – if Margaret had perhaps died giving birth to this child, so I extended the date range to 1901 (on the basis that he doesn’t appear in the 1901 census), but this has proved fruitless too.

I’m left wondering if Alexander was a stillbirth? These were not recorded until 1939 so I’m not going to be able to know for sure.

Going back to the headstone which sparked this search, it says “died in infancy” of both boys.  While it is nice to be able to document lives, the fact that these children existed and were honoured and remembered by their siblings who erected the headstone – that is enough.

My great gran, Catherine Black and her sister Caroline. Photo taken at my great grandparents Golden Wedding anniversary. Also in the shot my great grandad, Alexander Cruden and (far left) his brother in law, James Fowler. Photo: Leslie family archive.