How could somebody get from Scotland to America without leaving records?
I have been researching ancestry and one man managed to immigrate to America in the early 1800s without leaving any records. No immigration records exist with his name. Also, he married a woman with an unknown last name in America in 1824 when he was 20 years old. I know that because their first child was born shortly after their marriage in Pennsylvania. I am lead to believe that he must have been a criminal or was forced to leave Scotland (my father told me that his father said that we came over here because somebody didn’t pay their taxes). He left a small town called Leadhills Scotland, and none of his family followed him. Was this guy a criminal, or was record-keeping just not as precise as it is in more current times?
Any ideas would be helpful as this is irritating me to death.
Thank you
I don’t know if this is of any help, but the man is named Joseph E. Kerr.
Also, his wife Mary (?) was born on a ship c. 1805. No marriage records exist.
http://www.maxwellancestry.com/ancestry/resources/prisonsearch.aspx a free Scotlish border prison search
http://familytimeline.webs.com/apps/links/ I was looking at a link from this website about transported UK convicts yesterday and found lots of information, several took ailas’s so if he did thn he could be using a different name, also look at the Old Baily link as he may have been sent to London to face trial ( and you hope he was as there is full free searchable records)… http://www.genuki.org.uk/cgi-bin/htsearch?words=1823+transported+convicts&method=and&format=builtin-short&matchesperpage=20&sort=score&config=genuki&restrict=&exclude=&restrict_header=&backlink_header=
Also there are marriages and births registered onboard…you may find he never married rather than it was not recorded and just target searching’ "Joseph Kerr" scotland’ you may find further information…..you hope he was a convict as a convict is worse than a prisoner and at that time in history he would have been transported and records are easier to get if your ancestors are rich or rogues ( more records)
There are also some Kerr’s on these websites http://www.johnmacmillan.co.uk/cemeteries/dum_mouswald.html
http://freepages.history.rootsweb.ancestry.com/~cdobie/sanquhar.htm
Add: look on the links page I gave you ( familytimeline’s) under general FH resources at ‘Black sheep ancestry’
Ship records (actually records of any kind) in the early 1800s were very sketchy. Sometimes names ere so misspelled they are hard to find. If he had a accent they could have spelled it Carr for example. Sometimes people can first to Canada and then into the US. THere are half a dozen large ports and dozens more small ports so ship records can be hard to find. Philadelphia is the most logical but he could have come through another port.
References :
http://www.maxwellancestry.com/ancestry/resources/prisonsearch.aspx a free Scotlish border prison search
http://familytimeline.webs.com/apps/links/ I was looking at a link from this website about transported UK convicts yesterday and found lots of information, several took ailas’s so if he did thn he could be using a different name, also look at the Old Baily link as he may have been sent to London to face trial ( and you hope he was as there is full free searchable records)… http://www.genuki.org.uk/cgi-bin/htsearch?words=1823+transported+convicts&method=and&format=builtin-short&matchesperpage=20&sort=score&config=genuki&restrict=&exclude=&restrict_header=&backlink_header=
Also there are marriages and births registered onboard…you may find he never married rather than it was not recorded and just target searching’ "Joseph Kerr" scotland’ you may find further information…..you hope he was a convict as a convict is worse than a prisoner and at that time in history he would have been transported and records are easier to get if your ancestors are rich or rogues ( more records)
There are also some Kerr’s on these websites http://www.johnmacmillan.co.uk/cemeteries/dum_mouswald.html
http://freepages.history.rootsweb.ancestry.com/~cdobie/sanquhar.htm
Add: look on the links page I gave you ( familytimeline’s) under general FH resources at ‘Black sheep ancestry’
References :
You appear to have confined your search to Ancestry. There are many other sites that are available at public or Genealogical libraries and Family History Centers that are more complete than Ancestry.
I usually suggest that someone who is a beginner to take a few classes in Genealogical research, again libraries and Family History Centers are giving them now. I use Ancestry only for clues and to see what mistakes others are making. There are few pedigrees on that site I have found that are documented and the green leaves are only hints not actual facts.
You should be able to locate census records from 1830 until the last one taken before his death.
There should be marriage information in Pennsylvania and you should be able to find his children.
If you have traced this lineage back from your father to the 1830’s you should have some information
like marriage birth and death records for each generation. You might also look for different spellings Kere, and Carr are variations of the name Kerr. I found several possible connections by typing Joseph E. Kerr PA 1850 in to the search engine – several possibilities came up. one was some research on the Kerr family that someone had put on line and it contained sources.
References :
Genealogical researcher 35+ years