Ever since we've had the internet, I have been looking for evidence of our Naysmiths in Scotland - never realising until then just how many of them there were, and how difficult it was going to be to find our Naysmith needle in that haystack.
The only two confirmed records we've had of Henry, Mary and Alexander was that Henry and Mary were married at Barony, Lanarkshire on 12th April, 1840, and that the family of three sailed on the Duchess of Argyle, leaving Greenock, Scotland, on the 9th June 1842. And now, at last, I have found some more evidence which I am sure must prove to be our Henry and Mary.
Even though I've searched many times in the 1841 census (on Ancestry.com), I've never found any Henry or Mary who fitted our known criteria. I hadn't used the My Heritage records search as often but had another random search and found this:
Interestingly, Henry, Janet and Mary's years of birth are all given as circa 1821 which is 3 years later than the generally accepted (but not proven) 1818 date of Henry's year of birth. This could be because in the 1841 census, ages were rounded down to the nearest 5 years for anyone over 15 - and although this instruction was not always followed, it can explain discrepancies. I don't have access to the original document, but I imagine it would have given their ages, not their year of birth. It does endorse Henry's year of birth as circa 1818 though.
Barony, where Henry and Mary married, no longer exists under that name as a place on the map, but the general area is about 10 miles from Potterhill - about a 3 - 4 hour walk, and it's interesting to speculate what they were doing there at that time.
I searched Ancestry.com 1841 Census again and still found nothing there on Henry and Mary in the 1841 Census, so tried a search on the extra occupant Walter Galloway instead and found this - which is clearly the same household. It has a bit more information which further confirms these are our Naysmiths - plus a few more unknowns.
Clearly the original document has been mis-transcribed, and although there are some legitimate Arasmiths found in other records, these ones appear here only and cannot be found in any other records. Eventually, the original document may become available, and my theory can be verified.
Henny Arasmith = Henry Neasmith, aged 20 - 25
Mary Arasmith = Mary Neasmith, aged 20 - 25
Janet Whan = Janet McLean, aged 20 - 25
Alexander Arasmith = Alexander Naysmith, aged 10 months
Walter Galloway - aged 7 months
From this information we know that Henry and Mary were handloom weavers - Henry obviously following his father James' occupation of weaver (as stated on Henry's death certificate). Note the MH record uses the plural "hand loom weavers", possibly acknowledging all the adult occupants' participation.
Annoyingly, Henry's birthplace is given as a very unspecific "Scotland". Everyone else's birthplace is more helpfully given as Renfrewshire, Scotland. This, again, is due to the limitations of the 1841 Census questions which only allowed choices for place of birth of: This County, elsewhere in Scotland, England, Ireland or Foreign. From this, we can at least ascertain that Henry was NOT born in Renfrewshire.
The family lived in Potterhill, in the Paisley Low Church Parish, in the Renfrewshire County. Potterhill Ave still exists today in Paisley. The 1841 Census did not ask for information on the relationship between household members, but we can speculate that Janet could have been Mary's sister (both McLeans), that she may not have been married (uses her maiden name but Mary uses married name), and that Walter was Janet's son - with a father (alive or dead) named Galloway.
So who were Janet McLean and Walter Galloway? I found them in the 1951 Scotland Census - but by this time, Henry, Mary, and Alexander were well settled in New Zealand. This record verifies that Walter Galloway is indeed Janet McLean's son. They had moved to Broomland Street in the Paisley High Church Parish. (Now called Broomlands Street, about 2 miles from Potterhill.)
Janet is listed as head of the household, so safe to assume there is no husband - or ever was? Other household members were listed as Alexander Gilroy, aged 3, another son, and Agness Buchter (Butcher? - given as Baxter in MH record) aged 30, a lodger.
I can find no further useful records of Janet McLean, Walter Galloway, Alexander Butcher or Agnes Butcher or Baxter - that's a new mystery to replace the one I've just solved.
Feel free to update your family tree records:
Henry Naysmith, Mary Naysmith, Alexander Naysmith - 1841, location: Potterhill, Paisley, Renfrewshire. Occupation: Hand loom weavers.
Henry Naysmith (Neasmith if you prefer) born Scotland
Mary Naysmith born (McLean) Renfrewshire, Scotland
Alexander Naysmith - born Renfrewshire, circa August 1840.
(Source: 1841 Scotland Census)
