As the senior genealogist for Clan Carruthers – Canada, I regularly research records for our clan members, helping them to build their family trees and offer research advice. While working on member’s family line which is fairly close to mine, I noticed that Ancestry’s ThruLines application was giving me a connection to my 4th great-grandmother, Ellen Bell-Irving, who was married to William Carruthers of Soriesyke. This was an exciting revelation for me, as I do not have many connections with other descendants of her line. But I was quickly disheartened. Due to errors in several other family trees, the connection turned out to be false, all the result of a lack of due diligence from a single person, whose erroneous work had been perpetuated by others who copied the information without verifying the sources.
The ThruLines suggestion gave me McDougall’s as cousins to my 3rd great-grandfather, James Carruthers, descending through his sister, Ellen, whose parents are William Carruthers of Sorrysyke and his second wife Ellen Bell-Irving.
There is a marriage of an Ellen Carruthers to a William MacDougal on the 27 Jun 1830 in Saint Mungo Parish. But the Ancestry transcription of that marriage does not supply parents’ names, and this is where the problem lies. Novice genealogists often accept these transcribed source records arbitrarily without verifying the details. This extra step of going to the true source, is crucial to maintaining accuracy in documenting a family tree.
It does cost money to locate the original image, since the only source for those Scottish images is either online at ScotlandsPeople.gov.uk, or in person at one of the search rooms at the National Records of Scotland. However, it is well worth the money to secure the source image.
In this case, the image of the marriage record for Ellen and William does contain the father’s name for each party, and Ellen’s father is James Carruthers, not William. What is even better is that the image also provides the residence of the parties and the residence of the parents.
This Ellen was living at Nutholm Shaw, and the residence of her father, James, is Brocklerigg. That is very telling, because Brocklerigg is the farm where several of Ellen’s siblings were born, according to their baptism records, namely: John (1813), William (1815), Mary (1817), Walter (1819), and George (1820) from James’ first wife, the first Mary Carlyle, who died in 1823, and also a half-sibling, Walter (1826) from James’ second wife, the second Mary Carlyle, who died in 1845.
Unfortunately, the erroneously noted marriage source is the single record that has permeated errors throughout the descendants in the original owner’s family tree and has perpetuated those same errors through at least 8 other family trees on Ancestry, not to mention other genealogy sites, such as Geni, MyHeritage, and others. On another disappointing note, it is impossible to have Ancestry correct the bad records. We are dependent on the owners of the trees to correct the information. Comments can be added on the trees, for visibility to other users, but tree owners can delete the comments. Not all owners of trees are active on Ancestry, so while messaging the owners through Ancestry’s service can be helpful, more often than not, the tree owners are non-responsive. As such, the errors could potentially create a domino effect for years to come.
To set the record straight, the Ellen Carruthers who was the daughter of William of Soriesyke and Ellen Bell-Irving married Edward McCann on 28 Aug 1838 in Saint Mungo Parish. Similar to the above noted record, their marriage record identifies Ellen’s father as William Carruthers who resides at Sorrysyke. [Note: Sorrysyke has various spellings throughout the centuries, to include Sorrysick, and there are notes on ScotlandsPlaces.gov.uk that say it was formally known as Milkvale, but commonly known as Sorrysike]
The records for William’s children are a bit scant, and a professional genealogist at the Dumfries & Galloway Council advised me that “when looking through the Parish Registers of St Mungo, I found several pages of written explanations by the Minister, Mr. Andrew Jamieson, who became Minister for the parish in 1809, after the parish being without a Minister for 6 years. He seems to have taken all the old Registers of Baptism for St Mungo from Books and Session Records and other slips of paper and copied them all out into the book that survives today. He states that he didn’t bother to copy the Burials and makes no mention of the Marriages. This is the explanation why there are so many missing bits for St Mungo and so many apparent mistakes [copying records usually gives rise to a great deal of copying errors and mistakes]. He also tells that one particular Minister who was at the church from 1783 to 1803, never kept any records of Baptism, Marriage or Burial at all, and that there were at least two periods in the 1700’s where the Church at St Mungo had no minister, so no records were kept at all.”
Unfortunately, gaps in records causes some other research faux pas. There are baptism records for an Elizabeth Carruthers, born 1777 to William Carruthers in Sorrysyke and a Mary Carruthers born 1781, to William Carruthers in Sorrysyke. With extensive further research into other records, and DNA comparisons, we learn that this is not the same William of Sorrysyke that married Ellen Bell. This William is the brother of John of Guileburn, who married Jean McAlister. John of Guileburn was the father of the William of Sorrysyke that married Ellen Bell. In other words, one William Carruthers of Sorrysyke was uncle to another William Carruthers of Sorrysyke.
Despite those gaps and confusions between generations, there are some other indicators to determine the Sorrysyke William Carruthers and Ellen Bell family.
- William was likely previously married, as a son, Christopher, was baptised on 22 Dec 1782 to Wm Carruthers in Sorrysyke. This Christopher married Mary Carruthers, daughter to the above noted James Carruthers and his first Mary Carlyle wife. Christopher died on 04 May 1844, and while his headstone inscription says that he died at Littleburn, his obituary published in the Dumfries & Galloway Standard & Advertiser says “At Guileburn”. Either way, Guileburn and Littleburn are all of a 3-minute walk between each other.
- William second married Ellen Bell and had at least the following children.
- Phyllis – whose baptism cannot be found, likely due to the absence of a minister when she was born, but who died on 15 Feb 1809 and is buried at St. Mungo with her parents, but there is debate on her age when she died. The tombstone inscription has been transcribed as though she was 18 years old, however an image of the headstone is rather degraded, but it appears she may have only been 18 months old. I’m inclined on the latter, because if she was 18 years old, Ellen likely would not have been her mother.
- Ellen – wife of the previously mentioned Edward McCann, was born on the 05 Feb 1809 at Guileburn and baptised on the 12th, only a few short days before her sister, Phyllis, died
- John – born 12 May 1812 at Sorrysyke and baptised on the 7th
- Jane – born 25 Feb 1815 at Sorrysyke (her birth year only being seen on the image) and baptised on 27 Feb 1817
My own 3rd great-grandfather, James, was born in 1806, and through yDNA testing, we have determined that he was also the son of William Carruthers and Ellen Bell, and he would have been caught in that gap where St. Mungo did not have a minister for 6 years, and as such a baptism record cannot be found. This also may mean that William and Ellen had other children in that period from 1803-1809, who have yet not been identified.
I hope the evidence provided here will encourage the reader to exercise their due diligence when attaching source records in their family tree. I strongly recommend securing original images to verify the transcribed information and to identify other details that may more conclusively provide the evidence needed. Your extra effort will ensure the accuracy of your family tree for generations to come.
Clan Carruthers Society (Canada) 
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