For seven unbroken generations in my family tree William Roy has had a son, also called William Roy. No middle names to differentiate - just William and Roy. Within the family we’ve always referred to them by Roman numeral - so my grandfather was William Roy IV, my great-grandfather was William Roy III and so on.
But what if the numbering was wrong? What if William Roy (husband of Margaret Campbell) wasn’t the FIRST William Roy? What if his father had also been called William? Would we need to revise our numbering system? This was one of the first research challenges I pursued, but it wasn't until I was able to access the records via Scotland's People that I could reach a conclusive answer. And given one of the Williams had his numeral tattooed on himself, you could say there was considerable skin in this game.
The 1990s family tree printout I started my research with had no detail about William (or Margaret) other than their names. For each of the generations between myself and them, I was able to find sufficient evidential details to establish the lineage. The other piece of information I knew was that the family hailed from a place called ‘Bankfoot’ or ‘Auchtergaven’ in Perthshire.
So, to establish whether there was a William Roy one generation before our ‘first’, I needed to locate William Roy’s death registry entry to find out what his parent’s names were. It took a bit of trial and error and a lot of triangulation with details of descendants, but eventually I found his death in Dundee:
Death of William Roy I 1
1878 Deaths in the District of St. Clement in the Burgh of Dundee
Name: William Roy, Illegitimate Farm Labourer, Widower of Margaret Campbell
When and where died: 1878, July Sixteenth, 3hr 13m AM, 30 Rosebank Street, Dundee
Sex: M
Age: 64 years
Parents: James Roy, Farm Labourer (deceased), Ann Peddie, afterwards Cowan (deceased)
Cause of death: Natural decay (6 months) as certified by Peter Young
Informant: John Roy, son, present
When and where registered: 1878, July 16 at Dundee
In this death register entry, the father’s name is given as James. This is one piece of evidence that William Roy is indeed the first of the unbroken line, however it is reliant on the informant (his son John) providing the correct information. I like to have at least two corroborating pieces of evidence to be certain I can rely on any information.
So, now to look for William’s birth (which, given it is before 1855, would be recorded in the Old Parochial Registers). The age given on his 1878 death certificate is 64 years - which would mean a birth or baptism around 1814. Again, we’re relying on information given by a son, who may not have known exactly what year his father was born…so I used a wider year range of 1810 to 1820 to search Scotland’s People, which brought up 36 William Roys born in Scotland over that time period, but only one who had parents called James Roy/Anne Peddie, and that one was baptised in 1811 in Auchtergaven.
Baptism of William Roy I in the Auchtergaven Parish Register 2
1811, May 12 - James Roy, Glack, had a child in fornication by Anne Peddie, baptised, named William.
Putting these two pieces of evidence together, we can conclude that our numbering system is safe. William Roy I is indeed the beginning of the unbroken chain. No need to edit the tattoo.
However, this also raises a whole lot more questions - such as, what was the relationship between James and Anne? Did they marry? How was the charge of 'fornication' dealt with by the kirk?
To investigate this further, my next stop is the Auchtergaven parish kirk sessions...
Confused about how these characters fit into the family tree? Or where this action is occurring? You can always check The Family Tree and Map pages for visual clues.
Footnotes
2. Parish register entry of baptism of William Roy, 12 May 1811, Auchtergaven, Perthshire, Scotland, National Records of Scotland, 330/10/185.
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