Ireland XO
Back to Message Board

ALGOE,WISHART,WATT FAMILIES,RATHMELTON

DonegalAughnish (Donegal)

I'm curious to find out more about these families for my husband's family tree.William WISHART born 1819, Mariner, born in Rotherhithe, Surrey, England. He married Margaret (Margery) Jane ALGOE but I haven't been able to find any record for their marriage or their deaths in Rathmelton,or in Ireland.In 1843 their daughter Jane Watt WISHART was born in Rathmelton;I have found the church record for that. They were Presbyterian.In 1848 Margaret (Algoe) Wishart had a child,Catherine Rogers,and married a local policeman,William ROGERS, in 1849.(I'm assuming that William Wishart had died before then.) Jane Watt Wishart emigrated to Australia at some stage and married Robert JOLLY in Victoria in 1865;they had 8 children.She died in 1913 in Ballarat.If anyone has any knowledge of these families in Rathmelton I would be very grateful for any information.

IrelandXO member

3 replies

Statutory death registration didn’t start in Ireland till 1864 so you won’t find a death certificate for William Wishart (who perhaps died at sea anyway). The Church of Ireland keeps burial records but other denominations do not. So unless there’s a gravestone or a notice in a local newspaper, you might not find any records of his death.

Tradition was to marry in the bride’s church, and thereafter she’d attend her husband’s. You don’t say what denomination she was, prior to her marriage (and perhaps you don’t know). Aughnish Church of Ireland birth, death & marriage records start in 1823, 1st Presbyterian baptisms and marriages 1806, 2nd 1808 & 3rd 1835. Copies of all of these records are held in PRONI in Belfast but I am not sure they are on-line anywhere. If you have searched them and can’t find the marriage then perhaps Margaret married elsewhere and moved to Rathmelton with her husband,

I did notice this marriage in 1845:

November 8 1845

On the 30th ult., in Rathmullan Church, by the Rev. H.S. Cochran, MR THOMAS ALGEO, of Ramelton, to MARGERY, second daughter of MR JOHN DINSMORE, of Killygarvin

http://donegalgenealogy.com/aughnishbmdnotices.htm#Births

and on the same site, this death:

May 2 1840

At Ramelton, on Thursday, the 23rd ult., aged 40 years, after a short and severe illness, JANE, the beloved wife of MR SAMUEL ALGEO, leaving a large family to deplore the loss of a loving mother

William Rogers was unlikely to be a native of Donegal. If he was in the RIC, it was their policy not to post officers to counties where they had connections. So he would be from somewhere else in Ireland. He had to have been 19 to join the RIC (18 if his father had been a member) and had to have served 7 years before he could marry.  So he was probably 26 or over when he married Margery. If you are interested in him you can get a copy of his service record from various sources.

Elwyn, IrelandXO Volunteer ☘IrelandXO Volunteer

Dear Elwyn,

Once again thank you for your prompt reply.

William Wishart seems to be a "Mystery man"..maybe I am destined to never find out very much about him.He appears on his daughter Jane Watt Wishart's baptism record,but I can't find him anywhere else.

I have been through my local genealogical society's microfiche on the  church records for Rathmelton Presbyterian  Churches 1,2 and 3,and the entire collection of  Presbyterian church records for Co.Donegal also on microfiche without a lot of success.I did find some Algoe/Aljoe/Algeo  and Watt records, obviously those families have been in Rathmelton a long time; but nothing on Wishart which makes me sure that he was a recent arrival to the town,and married elsewhere.

Thank you for the marriage and death notices..I'm not sure about the first one,but I think that the second one was the death of Jane Watt Wishart's grandmother,Margaret Jane Algoe's mother.I had Samuel Algoe as their father and grandfather,but not the name of his wife.I shall definitely be exploring that bmd site!

I will leave William Rogers on the backburner for the moment. I am more interested in finding the members of Margaret Jane Algoe's family in Rathmelton at the present time.

Many thanks once again,

Margot.

IrelandXO member

Update on William Wishart born 1819.

I have found his family and the details of his early life,but his later life still remains a mystery.He was born on 19 April,1819,in Rotherhithe,Surrey,the son of John Hammiger Wishart,born in Stromness,Orkney Islands,Scotland,and Harriet Ann Costy.He had 6 siblings.

I found a record for his apprenticeship in the UK Merchant Navy  in March 1837,aged 16.

Then in the UK 1841 Census there was a record for him in Liverpool,as a sailor.

No marriage record for him to  Margaret Jane Algoe.

Their daughter Jane Watt Wishart was born in Rathmelton in 1843.His occupation was listed as Mariner on her birth or baptism record.

Then here is the part that puzzles me-  Margaret Jane Wishart (Algoe) had a daughter,Catherine Rogers,in 1848. On 10 Dec.1849 she married a policeman,William Rogers,presumably the father of her last child,in Rathmelton.

 Apart from the dates of his length of service on the ships that he served on,and the names of  the  actual ships,I can't find anything more  for William Wishart until he pops up in Jan.1852,  when he applied for  his Master Mariner's Certificate..This information raises questions-were William and Margaret Algoe never married? (Bear in mind that she was only 18 when their daughter was born. I never found their marriage record.) Were they married,and did William fake his death to enable Margaret to marry? Or did he just quietly disappear  to serve on various ships? He served on ships more or less continuously from 1837 to 1852. (Source-his application for his Master's certificate.) After that he just seems to drop off the radar. Could he have gone to the USA? With his Master's Mariner's certificate it would have been easy  for him to get a working  passage to America or Canada..I don't have access to America on Ancestry so can't check  any records  out for him.I have no more info. for William after 1852. I can't find any records  for him in England,Scotland or Ireland.

I also found a mention of a record on Ancestry for a  Pennsylvania-Death certificate  1906-1964 for Margaret Algoe-Spouse William Rodgers, but again as I don't have access to the World subscription on Ancestry I don't know if this record is relevant.

I really hope that someone has some answers for these questions,and can help me!

Thank you for reading this.

Margot.

IrelandXO member

Reply

Reply
One image file up to 2 MB.