Dr David Livingstone

[Bachuil]

I have moved the discussion of Miles Livingstone to a new thread. Regards, Niall

[Alex Maxwell Findlater]

They married at both Hamilton and Old Monkland both on 3rd June 1849.  Both parishes are now in the outskirts of Glasgow, Old Monkland North East and Hamilton South.  Alexander's family came from Penpont, Nithsdale, and his father died in Carluke, where he had two brothers, James and Robert Lorimer Findlater.  I presume that it was he who was in Hamilton and she in Old Monkland, therefore.

[Alex Maxwell Findlater]

I have now spent quite a few hours this morning pouring over the details which I have for the wife of Alexander Findlater, Elizabeth Livingstone. The Elizabeth Livingstone who married Alexander Findlater in 1949 in Hamilton and Old Monkland, both Lanarkshire, is recorded in a family history as being a third cousin of Dr David Livingstone and I thought that research on her line might go some way to validate the ancestry of Dr David.  I have very little to go on, but have worked quite a lot from what I received from Australia.  There is a gravestone for Donald and Agnes Livingstone who were her parents, married in Hamilton on 22 May 1825 (she was nee Haddow).  Her father was born in 1803 and died in 1877, her mother in 1799 and 1876, while Elizabeth was born in 1825, by extrapolation from her death date (1891 aged 66), per the certificate, not per one reading of the gravestone I saw which was 20 years out, saying aged 86 not 66.  I knew that was wrong, for she could hardly have been bearing children into her late fifties.  She had a sister Jane and a brother James, both born, by extrapolation, in 1836, but not registered; perhaps twins?  The brother reported his father's death (recorded as Daniel, not Donald, but the date and place agree) and died (1909 aged 73) at the ranch of his nephew Col Daniel Findlater at Naracoorte. The family seem not to have considered it necessary to register births, either in Australia or in Scotland.  They are said to have emigrated in 1855, but I have also seen the date 1865, so a thorough search of both the 1851 and 1861 UK census would be in order both under Findlater and under Livingstone.  A search for them in Lanarkshire under the name Findlater in 1851, before I knew the full names of her father and mother, yielded nothing.   It might be possible to connect all the Livingstone entries in the South Australia register.  To me they seem to fall into a few groups, but do not easily gel, mainly I think because each group came over to Australia independently.  However, they might well have come through the encouragement of family already making a success.  Whether going forwards in this way would help to get cross-bearings on Dr David cannot be known, but it would probably be quite difficult.  Roll on the database!

[Keith Livingstone Australia]

I am the son of a London-born Livingstone, himself the son of an invalided Argyll & Sutherland highlander (WW1), James Cooper Livingstone. I have traced this line through birth, mariage and death records to Neil McLean Livingstone, born 1864, son of Gavin Livingstone, b.4/1/1835, Parish Livingston, son of John Livingston (weaver) and Agnes Edmistone or Edmonston. There is a reputed link to David Livingstone and Stewart of Appin and fighting the English over Prince Charlie. I have lived in country Victoria, Australia, for 16 years, and people have often asked me if I was related to the "local" Livingstones who were long-time district butchers in the northwest of the state... Swan Hill, the Mallee, and the Wimmera... not too far from Hamilton in the state's west where Livingstones lie buried. These people are stocky and solid in build, not unlike many of my father's people, but rather unlike myself (I inherited my mother's side... she, by the way, was a Stanley!).

[Andrew Lancaster5]

My own Australian Livingstones may be the earliest ones in Australia. They all descend from David Peter Living or Livingstone who seems to have come from Angus, though he had been living in Edinburgh, where he married. They claim a relationship to Dr Livingstone via his uncle John (David Peter's father was supposed to be a John in Dundee) but there is no documentary proof. The first area these Livingstones lived in was in the area between the Riverina and the highlands around Canberra - Tumbarumba being one key town in my own family history.

[Kyle2 MacLea]

The Personal Life of David Livingstone is available for free on Google Books for those who might like to read it.

[Kyle2 MacLea]

Google books has quite a lot of other books about Dr. Livingstone as well, such as: http://books.google.com/books?id=smRQTq ... w#PPA96,M1 You can find a whole list: http://books.google.com/books?q=Livings ... =N&start=0 Kyle=

[Jerry]

The current issue #35 January 2008 of "Scotland Magazine" has an article on Dr. Livingstone.

[Kyle2 MacLea]

I went and found that magazine in Borders yesterday.

[Jerry]

Kyle, I just e-mailed you the editors e-mail address.