Category: Agnes Chronicles

I’m starting to think I blog to name things and give them cool title graphics. Either way, I decided to spend my first day back from being a little sick (a lot sick) by analyzing my Agnes again. After my last post, David was gracious enough to send me the scans. It was so fun to look at them. One of my favorite things to do is to decipher handwriting. In fact, I’m pretty obsessed with handwriting and naming patterns. I actually use to “change” my handwriting all the time in school. Just for fun. It’s crazy to look back and see how different I made each change. My signature loops were always a standout. You can change a lot about your handwriting, but some things always stay the same.

Anyway, David was also nice enough to say that I could share the Agnes passage with everyone here on the blog. His only request is that it stay here. I hope everyone respects that. I’ve added a watermark also, showing that the image is David’s property. I would hope everyone would honor his wishes and not post this scan anywhere else on the internet.

The whole document was basically a written out family history of the Reverend Andrew Hamilton and his family. It was a fascinating read definitely! I’m very grateful to hear from a descendant of this line so that I can once and for all rule out a certain family. I’m now positive that Agnes #2 isn’t my Agnes. However, that doesn’t mean all these Hamiltons aren’t related by a further up connection. Remember not to discount anyone with a matching surname from the same area. This family could be the 3rd cousins of my family, or even just first cousins. I won’t know until I’ve really nailed down which family is the right family.

I did some brief note taking on the children of Thomas Hamilton and Agnes Cuthbertson, or as you know their daughter, Agnes #1. This means I’ve done a basic search for all three Agnes’ siblings and parents. Agnes #3 was previously researched here on this blog post.

Besides knowing Agnes #2 isn’t my Agnes, I haven’t gone any further then the notes you see above. Actually, I can’t seem to find my sheet of paper for Agnes #3, so it’s a good thing I took a picture! Though I should be able to re-make it thanks to ScotlandsPeople‘s previous searches page.

I think my next option is to see if I can hunt down any census records or other marriage/death records for both Agnes’ left in the running. Alas, that will have to wait until my next credits purchase as I’ve run myself out again. I do that quickly.

Previous Agnes Posts:

1. Giving some of my time to Agnes
2. Giving Even more of my time to Agnes
3. Another Agnes Post

I have created a new blog category for the Agnes Chronicles. All future and past posts can be found under that category.

I’ve never been a stats watcher. Sure I like seeing how many visits my page gets. It’s not my main focus though, I just love talking about genealogy. I could write multiple entries every day about genealogy if I had the time. What I do like to do is to check my popular posts. The top four are in my sidebar at all times and I don’t think they’ve changed in months, now I see why!

Above is the top posts for all time on my blog. The main page is the obvious top one. The second one really surprised me though. My 4th great grandmother, Agnes Hamilton, must have been a very popular relative because she generates a lot of visits to the blog!

The entry in discussion is one I made when I felt guilty that Agnes wasn’t getting as much of my genealogy time as her in-laws were. Well, thanks to my readers I’ve got even more guilt because they give her more attention then I do!

I’m here with an update today. I’m going to go ahead and add the #2 Agnes as my Agnes. I’m doing this because all points really lead to her in the practical sense. Like my cousin Grace also said, it also fits in with her age on her death certificate (Thanks Grace for that)!

With that leap, I jump another generation and Agnes gets four siblings. I didn’t have enough credits to see if these were baptism or birth dates, so I’ll have to make sure to add to do tasks for them.

With the searches I used to find Agnes’ family I am officially out of Scotlands People credits again. It’s always a sad feeling to run out but payday is coming! haha.

I hope you also understand that this means I get another chance at Scottish naming patterns. Any chance I get to analyze naming patterns!

I’ve been feeling really guilty lately. I have been so involved in my Love success, that I feel like I’ve left Agnes Hamilton in the lurch. So today I’m going to spend a little quality time with her.

Trying to find Agnes’ birth record might get a little tricky. I have her records all the way from her marriage through her death, but nothing before. So the birth record and her parents names would be a huge stepping stone for me.

Unfortunately I have many birth date calculations for Agnes. They range from 1803 through 1811. Obviously, that’s a big gap. So I’ll do a search on Scotlands People to see if the options there will narrow it down.

The things I know are absolutely true are that her name is Agnes Hamilton and she was born in Kilmarnock parish.

With my general results above, there are 3 possibilities there.

1. Agnes Hamilton, born May 1802, daughter of Thomas Hamilton and Agnes Cuthbertson.
2. Agnes Hamilton, born Feb 1805, daughter of Andrew Hamilton and Janet Bachop.
3. Agnes Hamilton, born Oct 1810, daughter of James Hamilton and Mary Wallace.

Just looking at the names helps me none. My Agnes had two sons with the first names of Thomas and Andrew. She also had a son with the middle name of Wallace. Agnes also had a daughter named Agnes, which could be for herself or her mother. So looking at the names does nothing for me.

One thing that pays in the favor of the second Agnes is that her birthdate is much closer to the birthdate of Andrew Love, my Agnes’ future husband. In every single record I have for the couple, their ages are always recorded as the same. Sometimes, you’ll get that because only one person is giving the information, however, I’ve never gotten that on every single record unless it is true. I’ve decided to have a look at the record for Agnes #2 first.

This shows that the second Agnes is the children of “Reverend Andrew Hamilton, minister of the chapel in this place”.

The possibility rises of this Agnes being the one for one simple, weird reason. Andrew and Agnes have two marriage records. One in Beith parish, where Andrew was born, and another in Kilmarnock, where Agnes was born. Usually when I see two marriage records, the second record is just an announcement that the marriage happened in the first place. That’s not the case with these. The marriage records are dated one day apart.

Could this be a sign that there were two marriages? One for Andrew’s family and another for Agnes’ father, the Reverend?

I guess I’ll have to spend some more time with my Agnes before I can figure out which Agnes she actually is.