More information on the family

Dear Adrian and Odette,

I hope this finds you well.  I want to pass on something I’ve searched out recently concerning the grandmother of George Lind of Gorgie.  As you know, Douglas wrote that George’s grandparents were John Lind and Mary, “daughter of _____ Boyd of Pittfindie”.  Michael Boyd of Australia, who is most active in studying Boyd history and searching out all the related people and places, had no idea where Pittfindie was or anything else about that branch of Boyds.   It’s taken me a long time, but I believe I’ve finally found it.

 

Item No. 1641/8/404 in the online Records of the Parliament of Scotland

(http://www.rps.ac.uk/search.php?a=fcf&fn=charlesi_trans&id=id9476&t=trans) is a 1641 ratification of a 1622 charter for "the lands and lordship of Kinfauns and Pitfindie".  Kinfauns, as you may know, is in Perthshire, Scotland, east of the city of Perth and north of the Tay.  At www.streetmap.co.uk, even zooming in and scanning around, I couldn't find Pitfindie or anything like it, so I went to the website of the National Library of Scotland and found it on a 1583-96 map by cartographer Timothy Pont, written as Pitfindy and lying between "Kinfains" [Kinfauns] and "K[irk] of Kinfains".  A snippet is attached, and here's a link to the entire map:

http://maps.nls.uk/view/00002323. 

 

On page 2 of Douglas’s genealogy, he described the seal of the Linds/Lynnes of “Pitmadie” in a way that perfectly matches the Lind of Gorgie arms.  Pitmadie is in the Strathearn valley and appears on Pont’s 1583-96 map of Strathearn as Pitmuudry, on Thomson’s 1820 map as Pitmedie, and on current maps (e.g., www.streetmap.co.uk) as Pitmeadow.  It’s roughly 18 miles southwest of the location of Pitfindy.  Unlike Pitmeadow, however, the name Pittfindie/Pitfindy appears to have fallen completely out of use.

 

In any case, that all comports very well with Douglas’s account connecting the Linds of Gorgie to the Lynnes of Pitmeadow, which is very nice since he didn’t identify either “Pitmadie” or “Pittfindie”.

 

With kind regards,

Loretta

 

From: Keith Mitchell [mailto:scottishfamilyheritage@googlemail.com]
Sent: Saturday, April 05, 2014 12:06 PM
To: annlynn9 .
Cc: davidrm_99@hotmail.com
Subject: National Archives Report

 

Hi Loretta,

 

Thanks for your last email. Don't worry about responding too quick, I understand you are busy just now.

 

Thanks indeed also for the Lind genealogy. Of course it is of no help right now, but later on, who knows! Just wish we had something like this for the Lins of Lins Mill, but still mustn't complain, considering what we have so far. I told someone at our Elgin Writers club of which I am President, and she was gob-smacked that I could trace this line back to 1547. Quite a conversation piece it seems!

 

Search for Lin / Linn / Lind / Lyne, etc. in the Register of Deeds

 

This Register, which comprises many shelves of Indices can be exhausting to look through as there are so many and the volumes themselves are large, and this is made worse should you wish to make a thorough search. However, bear in mind, that there are other Registers of Deeds such as the Burgh Registers, etc. (see Google, etc. for better explanations - just type in Register of Deeds, etc.

 

Unfortunately there are significant gaps in the Indices and some of the earlier 16th century volumes are not really indices but more abridgements, which can take and hour or so to search each volume. A great labour indeed!!! The years which exist are 1554-1595, 1661-1702, 1705-1707, 1714-1715, 1750-1752, 1765 & 1770 to date.

 

The missing years are only for the Indices. I understand you can still search through the original volumes of Deeds, but handwriting,, etc., etc., are liable to cause significant problems particularly in the earlier ones. From experience it would take a very long time indeed to search through these volumes, but unless you do, who knows what could be missed!

 

As far as searching for Lin, etc. in  the Deeds is concerned I have checked from 1900-1930. I did not go later, but as I was looking for other family records I thought I would include Lin as well. I do not know if you want information about every Lin in Scotland in these Deeds, but the following is liable to give you an idea of numbers of documents available as in separate named entries. The number of entries I have inserted here in brackets.

 

1902(4), 1903(1), 1904(1), 1905(2), 1906(1), 1907(1), 1908(1), 1909(2), 1910(1), 1912(3),

1915(4), 1917(1), 1920(2), 1926(1), 1928(1), 1929(1), 1930(1).

 

I also searched from the earliest Index through to 1780, not of course including the missing years, and found the following.

 

1661(6), 1662(3), 1663(6), 1664(10), 1665(9), 1666(7), 1667(7), 1668(10), 1669(7), 1670(4), 1671(5), 1672(4), 1673(3), 1674(3), 1675(1), 1676(4), 1677(7), 1678(2), 1679(3), 1680(4), 1681(4) - This included a reference to WILLIAM OF LINSMILNE who was the Granter and it was a Bond dated 2 June 1681 and is 5 pages long.

 

1682(3), 1683(3), 1684(5), 1685(3), 1686(2), 1687(3). This included - Lin, William, in Pompherstoun.

 

In the following set of dates there were various references to George Lind, Merchant, Edinburgh & of Gorgie. Where these occur I have added an *.

 

1688(3) including *, 1689(1)*, 1690(4) 1691(4) inc *, 1692(4) inc *, 1693(1)*, 1694(2) inc *, 1695(1)*, 1696(4) inc *, 1697(4), 1698(4) inc *, 1699(1)*, 1700(3) inc *, 1701(1)*, 1702(2) inc*, 1705(6) inc*, 1706(8) inc *, 1707(10) inc*, 1714(6), 1715(7) inc *, 1750(4), 1751(5) inc*, 1752(4), 1770-72 includes Linn, Wm. of Lins - NOTE certain this is ours and that Lins is an error for Linsmill, 1776(1), 1777(1), 1778(1) ----- search to 1780 completed.

 

I hope you can make some sense of the above. The main thing to be aware of is that from the extant Indices there are obviously a lot of Deeds relating to various families of Lin, if you are interested in them, but it would take a very long time indeed to check them all out.

 

I still have to search these Registers from 1781-1899, and this will form part of our search when next in Edinburgh, which could be in a few weeks time. I will be making a search of the above period for other members of my family and am happy to note Lin entries for you if you wish me to. However, if you should decide that this would be of no interest, do let me know as it would save me a little time searching.

 

I do have more to report from the archives but will leave that for the next epistle.

 

With best wishes as ever,

 

Keith