WILL THE REAL ANDREW TURNBULL . . . .

Just because Andrew Turnbull’s marriage record says he was “from Hawick”, I’m not going to ignore the possibility that he may have been born in either Roxburghshire or Dumfries-shire. Since Andrew was married in 1788, I made a guess that he would have been around 20 years old when he married, making him born about 1768. A search of the Old Parish Registers in Dumfries for the years 1760-1772 brought up no births of an Andrew Turnbull. The same search in Roxburgh resulted in 10 hits, six of them in Hawick Parish. Parents’ names of the six Andrew Turnbulls in Hawick are as follows: born 1761 to William and Isabel; born 1770 to Andrew and Margaret; born 1764 to Andrew and Agnes; born 1767 to Andrew and Agnes; born 1772 to William and Ann; born 1768 to Thomas and Jane. Those in other parishes in Roxburgh include: born 1766 to Andrew and Margaret in Kelso; born 1764 to Andrew and Janet in Kelso; born 1767 to Robert and Janet in Sprouston; and born 1764 to William and [?] in Southdean and Abbotrule.

If only we could just say, “Will the real Andrew Turnbull please stand up!”

In these days of making up odd or different names for our children, we maybe don’t realize that long ago there were some unwritten rules for naming your offspring. They weren’t always followed exactly, but it’s uncanny to see how often they hold true. Here’s the Scottish naming pattern: First son named after paternal grandfather; second son named after maternal grandfather; first daughter named after maternal grandmother; second daughter named after paternal grandmother; after the first four they might go with parents, then aunts and uncles, even great-grandparents. So . . . let’s see what Andrew Turnbull and Janet Little (daughter of John Little and Mary Armstrong) named their children:

• Agnes (not the maternal grandmother – could it be the paternal grandmother?)
• Andrew (father? Paternal grandfather?)
• Mary (maternal grandmother)
• John (maternal grandfather)
• Isabella (????).

Well? Who would you choose to be the parents of our Andrew Turnbull? I know who I would choose . . . to investigate further.