I was hoping for some assistance with my Scottish ancestry.

Question

Hello folks! I reckon this is partially me introducing myself and partially asking for some assistance.

My name is Clinton, I live in Tucson, Arizona USA. My family tree seems to fluctuate between relatively commonplace surnames with brick-walls to obscurer surnames with brick-walls.

Recently, I've been researching my Sinclair family, but I'm running up against a dead end despite the absolutely bounty of Sinclairs worldwide.

My great-grandmother was Violet Sinclair (1906 - 1996, England), her father was James Gunn Sinclair (1880 - 1948, England) after that it's a tad fuzzy. I've seen some public family trees on Ancestry which list his father as an Alexander Sinclair.

I've only added things that are source-able and verifiable to my personal family tree and am running short. Without anecdotes or trusting in public ancestry trees, I'm at a bit of a loss.

So, the last verifiable Sinclair that I can link to using Censuses, Marriage Bans and Registers is James Gunn Sinclair.

If anyone can lend a hand or some insight that'd be much appreciated. If not, I'm just happy to be here and be able to participate in the research!

Cheers,

Clinton

Answer 1

FindMyPast has some records that can be viewed for free, you can sign up for a free account.

The following I have found and may be of interest.

First name(s) James Gunn

Last name Sinclair

Birth year 1880

Birth date ? ? 1880

Baptism year 1880

Baptism date 08 Apr 1880

Father's first name(s) Alexander

Mother's first name(s) Julia Sophia

Parish St Barnabas, Pimlico

County Middlesex

Country England

Archive City of Westminster Archives Centre

Page 184

Record set Westminster Baptisms

Category Birth, Marriage, Death & Parish Records

Subcategory Parish Baptisms

Collections from England, Great Britain

https://www.findmypast.co.uk/transcript?id=GBPRS%2FB%2F491545509%2F1

Possibly the right Budge but not 100% certain

First name(s) Julia Sophia

Last name Budge

Gender Female

Birth year -

Birth place -

Baptism year 1835

Baptism date 29 May 1835

Place Topsham

County Devon

Country England

Father's first name(s) George

Father's last name Budge

Mother's first name(s) Sophia

Mother's last name -

Record set England Births & Baptisms 1538-1975

Category Birth, Marriage, Death & Parish Records

Subcategory Parish Baptisms

Collections from England, Great Britain

https://www.findmypast.co.uk/transcript?id=R_962238405

Marriage: 

First name(s) Julia Sophia

Last name Budge

Age Full

Residence -

Marriage year 1866

Parish St Peter, Eaton Square, Pimlico

Spouse's first name(s) Alexander

Spouse's last name Sinclair

Spouse's age Full

Spouse residence -

County Middlesex

Country England

Archive City of Westminster Archives Centre

Record set Westminster Marriages

Category Birth, Marriage, Death & Parish Records

Subcategory Parish Marriages

Collections from England, Great Britain

https://www.findmypast.co.uk/transcript?id=GBPRS%2FM%2F492477551%2F2

Cheers, Rich

Comments

I appreciate you taking the time to answer and provide all that info.

I do have info on Julia Budge and James Gunn. My info that I have ends with Alexander. I’m looking for info on Alexander and his parents. Thanks for your help!

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No problem, thought that FindMyPast may have leads from the info. I provided though will probably mean paying to see. Good luck with your research. I'm stuck on my female line.

Cheers, Rich

Answer 2

It's a difficult one but I think it's clear that Alexander and his wife Julia Sophia Budge spent some time in France as two of their children Francoise and George were born there. Alexander may have still been over there in 1871 as his wife is recorded as married and living with her children including newborn George Alexander Sinclair (born France in 1871) . I've put sources for all of this on the relevant profiles. Pedigree files, if they can be trusted, suggest that Alexander was born in Glasgow around 1836. On his wife's side things are much clearer, with the budges going back to Cornwall. https://www.wikitree.com/wiki/Budge-742

Answer 3

If you haven't already, you'll want to explore the records at ScotlandsPeople [SP]~ it's the official website for Scottish records and the only place to see the digitized versions of records for any events that took place in Scotland.

Civil registration of births, marriages, and death started in 1855 in Scotland ~ and that first year (1855), the records had extra information, so it's worth looking at siblings who had events in that year if your ancestors didn't.

Before 1855, many church records [baptisms, marriages/banns, deaths/burials/morthcloth rentals, and kirk session records {=church 'courts'/discipline}] are at SP, but coverage varies greatly from one parish to another.