Gowdy/Livingstone Connection?

[Greg]

On numerous occasions my deceased mother talked about our family connection to Dr. David Livingstone. The story was that the father of my great great grandfather, William Gowdy, had married a Jane Livingstone - a relative of David. All we know is that William Gowdy was born about 1825 in County Derry, Ireland and he married Mary Nicholson in about 1852 in Killarney. Supposedly, William's mother and father eloped from Blantyre, Scotland to Ireland prior to 1825. Old correspondence from my great aunt describes several occasions of when visiting her grandmother Mary Gowdy that the latter would talk about her mother-in-law, the former Jane Livingstone. I realize this is rather sketchy information, but I was hoping it might be enough to generate a response from anyone who may have come across this possible connection in their research.

[Canadian Livingstone]

Hi Greg,
Welcome to the forum.
I regret to say I dont know anything about a Gowdy- Livingstone family connection to Dr. Livingstone and was unable to locate much of a Gowdy presence in the County of Lanarkshire during the early 19th century.

regards,

Donald (Livingstone) Clink
Historian
Clan Maclea Livingstone Society

[jmlivingstone]

Donald/Greg,

I had a look in Scotlands People, in all the records available for Lanarkshire, they only list one Wm. Goudy, b. 29 or 30 Sept. 1758 in the Parish of Barony, City of Glasgow, f. Robert Goudy - m. Janet Tod or Todd, GROS data 622/00 0020 0123.

Family Search have a mass of William Goudy's, around 50 pages, unfortunately, most are born too late to be the correct one, Jane Livingstone does not appear anywhere, so far, either as spouse or parent.

There are no marriages listed for any William Goudy in Lanarkshire from the 1700's till mid 1900's.

This information is probably not a lot of help, but from Barony, Glasgow to Blantyre is not a long distance, so this William may be worth a bit of further research,

John.

[Canadian Livingstone]

Hi John,

Thanks for that. Its a tough to establish the details of the Livingston family connection when we cant locate his William Gowdy or Goudy ancestor in the Blantyre or Lanarkshire in the early 1800's. I agree with you that there is evidence of some Gowdy or Goudy's in the Lanarkshire County area. I think there does seem however little to work with to help assist us in locating any details of a Gowdy-Livingston connection in the parish records in the Blantye or Glasgow area. And there is no close connection to Dr. Livingstone's immediate family to a Jane Livingston who resided in Ireland in the family tree that I am aware of. Interestingly the Gowdy's were located in significant numbers in County Down and Antrim in the North of Ireland and no doubt some in other nearby counties. Unfortunately that doesnt help to sort out Greg's particular family information quest connecting his family to Livingstons in Blantyre Scotland.

regards,

Donald