From the parish records, this is the entry supplied for the baptism of George
Douglas, son of Donald and Isobell Douglas:
Douglas George lawful Son to Donald Douglas &
Isobell Douglas in Lybster was bap
tized 22 March- witnesses David Ag
new & Christian Douglas there --
This microfilm page image has no year listed. The previous image on the
microfilm tape is marked as page 19. This page contains the year 1777 so it
would be reasonable to assume that the page after it is also for year 1777.
Or would it?
There is something wrong with this. Donald and Isobell Douglas were married
on 03 Mar 1778 according to the LDS IGI, which is a year after George was
baptized. Back in these times premarital births were not as acceptable as
they are today.
So I went and located the dates of marriage using the LDS IGI for all parents
on this page and all except one (Simson's) are later than the 1777 baptism
date. And for that one, the birth is only 5 months after the wedding.
David Gun and Katharine McKay married 04 May 1784 Latheron
Elizabeth Gun 04 Mar 1777
James 14 Jul 1775 <--
Elizabeth 04 Mar 1777 <--
Donald 13 Dec 1778 <--
Robert 10 Mar 1783 <--
Isobel 05 Mar 1785
William 25 Nov 1787
Marcus 20 May 1791
David 10 May 1794
James Simson and Helen Calder married 14 Oct 1776 Bower
Robert Simson 04 Mar 1777
Robert 04 Mar 1777 <--
Isobel 18 Aug 1781
Alexander Murray and Margaret Swanson 27 Feb 1779 Halkirk
(by fornication)
Starachan Murray or Swanson 14 Mar 1777 <--
William Sutherland and Janet Swanson married 12 May 1778
Barbara Sutherland 08 Mar 1777 (also 01 May 1777)
Barbara 01 May 1777 <--
Sidney 05 Jan 1781
John 16 Apr 1786
Katharine 24 Feb 1788
Isaac 08 Aug 1790
Jean 18 Sep 1791
John Gun and Jean Elder married 07 Jan 1780
Donald Gunn 15 Mar 1777
Donald 15 Mar 1777 <--
George 27 Oct 1782
Alexander 23 May 1785
William 12 Sep 1787
Janet 17 Dec 1792
Mary Lee 19 Jul 1804
John McBeth and Katharine Campbell married 18 Dec 1778
Donald and David McBeth 17 Mar 1777
Donald 17 Mar 1777 <-- twins
David 17 Mar 1777 <--
Katharine 1783
Janet 06 Apr 1786
Janet 30 Sep 1787
Donald Douglas and Isobel Douglas married 03 Mar 1778
George Douglas 22 Mar 1777
George 22 Mar 1777 <--
Elizabeth 22 Dec 1778
William 29 Mar 1784
Helen 30 Dec 1786
Christian 04 Mar 1790
Alexander 21 Nov 1791
William 08 Sep 1796
William Gray and Christian (Myrray?) married 09 Jan 1789
Janet Gray Mar 1777
Janet Mar 1777 <--
Christian 25 Apr 1777 <--
Alexander 22 Apr 1781
Note the Murray child "Starachan" was born by fornication and not by married
parents. That's how premarital births were recorded.
If we look at the Canadian census records for 1850, we see that George was
listed as 40-60 years old. If he were born in 1789 and the census was taken
before March, that would put him at 60 years old.
The 1852 census lists him as 73 and his wife as 60:
26 Geo Douglas Mason Scotland FCS 73 M
27 Jennet Douglas Scotland 60 F
That would put his birth year at 1779.
The 1860 census lists him as age 77 on his next birthday which would put his
birth year at 1784. [The Noel book also lists him as "a widower of seventy-
seven in 1861" which I assume is based on the same census information.] What
if that age should have been 72 and not 77?
If all the dates of marriage (above) are correct, none of the children could
have been born before 1790. However, I'm not so certain about the marriage of
William Gray so it could have been 1789 or later.
If we look at just the children for Donald and Isobel Douglas, he couldn't be
born in 1784 since his brother William was. And he couldn't have been born in
1790-1792 due to the births of siblings Christian and Alexander.
It is my opinion that the images were out of order when they created the tape.
If you look at the top of the image, you see a page number which may have been
mistaken as 20 but seems to be three digits, like 201. So let's say the page
should have been March of 1789 instead of March of 1777, that would mean there
were 180 intervening pages over the span of 12 years (144 months). That would
work out to an average of 1.25 pages per month, or 10 births per month if you
record 8 births per page, which seems reasonable.
With the 1852 and 1860 census discrepancies, I think George may have misstated
his age perhaps to have some fun. From Noel's book we see that he is a little
mischievous.
This could use some more investigation but I'm thinking 1789 would be the best
choice for George's year of birth, and for all the other births on that same
page since there are no sibling conflicts at that date.
Does anyone have a photograph of the graves for George and Janet?
Reference:
Title: Parish registers for Halkirk, 1770-1856
LDS tape 0990521