The Saga of Colin Campbell

What happens if there is an error in an original source document? When Colin Campbell and Margaret Middlemiss married¹, Colin’s father was listed as Peter Campbell and his mother was listed as Elizabeth Campbell M.S. Duncan.

A descendant of his² gave his mother’s maiden name as Anderson which raises two questions:

1. Could there be another Colin Campbell married to another Margaret Middlemiss?
2. Could the information in the Marriage Register be a mistake?

First, I checked ScotlandsPeople for his parent’s marriage (Peter Campbell and Elizabeth Duncan) between 1876 and 1896 which is ten years on either side of Colin’s estimated birth year (20 when married in 1916). This returned no records. This doesn’t rule out the possibility that Colin was illegitimate.

Second, I searched for Colin’s birth record between 1895 and 1897 and restricted it to the County of Lanark where they were married because Campbell is a common name. This returned seven index records, but I had no way to differentiate between them.

Next, I searched for a Census record. The nearest available Census date was 1911 so I searched for Colin Campbell aged between 13 and 15, restricted again to Lanark. It returned a single record³: in the district of Milton at 17 Grove Street, Glasgow, that showed a Peter Campbell aged 47, and his wife Eliza aged 46, with children Elizabeth 20, Walter 17, Colin 14, and Alexander 5; all were born in Lanarkshire. This is the same street where he lived when he was married six years later, and I have researched enough of my Glasgow ancestors to know that it was common for families to frequently move and often only a few doors along the street. This could be the same Colin Campbell, father Peter and mother Elizabeth.

I returned to the birth records where two of the seven were in Milton, but one had a middle name and Colin did not, so I chose to purchase that record. This was Colin Campbell⁴, born 16 November 1896, father Peter Campbell, mother Elizabeth Campbell maiden surname Anderson.

Jean’s father was Peter Campbell, son of Colin Campbell and Elizabeth Anderson. I am still not convinced that these two families actually the same people. Campbell is a very common Scottish name, so is Elizabeth and Peter. Glasgow in 1896 was very densely populated, there could still be two Colin Campbells with a father called Peter, a mother called Elizabeth, and a son called Peter.

So, I have not yet answered either of the two questions. My next step is to research Peter to see if he provides any clues.

References:

1. Scottish Marriage Register, 1917, GROS Data 644/13 10 Margaret Middlemiss and Colin Campbell (https://www.scotlandspeople.gov.uk: accessed 22 September 2018) [↩]
2. Adams, GF, Family History Workbook Vol I, unpublished, p 99-100.[↩]
3. Scottish Census 1911 644/9 10/7 Page 7 of 35 Colin Campbell (http://www.scotlandspeople.gov.uk: accessed 8 October 2018) [↩]
4. Scottish Birth Register, 1896, GROS Data 644/8 1527 Colin Campbell (https://www.scotlandspeople.gov.uk: accessed 8 October) 2018) [↩]