New comer!

[sl0905]

Hello! So glad to have found this website Would very much like to learn more details of my origins, but not really sure where to start.. (I live in South Africa, so apart from internet access, my options are rather limited). My name is Simmone Laubenheimer nee Livingston. My sister and I were brought up being told that 'The David Livingston' was a distant relative although nobody could ever give us any details. The only facts I have are: My father's name is Allan Livingston. His father's name Was William Ritchie Livingston. W.R. Livingston was born 02/11/1912 in Auchinloch. He was the Chief Engineer on a number of ships.
And that's it. That is all I know. Is there anybody who can help me out with more information, or point me in the right direction? Please?

[Canadian Livingstone]

Welcome to the Clan Maclea Livingstone Society Forum,

THough I have not seen the full detailed record your ancestor William Ritchie Livingston was born in 1912 according to the Scottish birth records in Cadder Parish in North West Lanarkshire, County of Lanarkshire in lowland Scotland and Auchinloch which was indeed a village in old Cadder Parish.

The good news is the information is that there appears to be an existing birth record existing in Scotland as you have pointed out from the year 1912 for your ancestor William Richie Livingston which should in theory list the name of his father and mother including her maiden name and other details. The bad news is that I dont unfortunately have access to the the original document from that early twentieth century birth record in the data base I have access to. THe Scottish birth information I have access to is basically18th and 19th century Scottish records. I would suggest you contact Scotlands People online and check out their services and the information on their site as the site is indicating when I checked that your ancestor's record is available and that you can order a copy of the original birth record of your ancestor William Richie Livingston 1912 Cadder District, County of Lanarkshire from them. I am not certain but it looks to me like Scotlands people dont have the early twentieth century births scanned but can get the record for you if you order it from them online. To my way of thinking this is a far simpler and almost certainly cheaper solution than finding a researcher in Scotland who does research at the Scottish archives. A number of our Clan Society members have utilized the services of Scotlands People online for their Livingston family research and they are highly reccomended. Once you have the names of William Richie Livingston's parents through the Scotland People's service there is a good chance that I could trace your Livingston family back a few generations for you.

There are as you can imagine many stories that have been passed on from generation to generation amongst numerous Livington families worldwide including my own Livingstons that they are related to Dr. Livingstone's family in some way. This is particularly the case I have found with Livingston families with 19th century roots in the Glasgow area of Lanarkshire. Dr. Livingstone's grandfather Neil Livingston and his family left highland Argyllshire in 1792 and ended in Blantyre near Glasgow where Neil and the family over the years found work in a cotton mill operated by the Monteith family. There were other Livingstons and a few families working at this Monteith mill I noticed whom appear to have some family connection but as for other Livingston families residing in Glasgow and other parts of Lanarkshire in the 19th century there has been little evidence to confirm a connection. We will however take a look at your Livingston ancestors once we know who they are and see where they fit amongst the Livingstons of Scotland.

regards,

Donald (Livingstone) Clink
Historian
Clan Maclea Livingstone Society

[Kyle MacLea]

Hi!

If you want to introduce yourself at all, we'd love to get to know you a bit too!

As for your ancestor in our records, Donald is right. We have a database of records from a few years ago held in ScotlandsPeople's online record site, but its birth records end at 1906, so we won't be able to give you that one as a starting point.

So the first step in researching your past is always to start with yourself and what you do you know about you, your siblings, your parents, aunts and uncles, and work back. Once you have a birth record for your grandfather, you should be able to find his parents and perhaps beyond in the birth records. Donald can also help with Scottish census records back to 1841. And with any luck, we may be able to go back much farther. Some of our families are easily traceable past 1841, even back to the 1700s. Others are a little more difficult, but we can get some ideas and trends.

http://ww1.scotlandspeople.gov.uk/

The record will cost you something (I think access starts at 6 GBP) but if you know exactly what you're looking for, it can be cheap and much faster than requesting films from your local LDS family history centre. (Which is an alternative, cheaper route.)

Let us know what you find out and we can help you go a lot further back!

Kyle=

[Canadian Livingstone]

Hi Kyle,

Actually the scanned image of the 1912 birth record for William Ritchie Livingston of Lanark County like you say is not in the Scotlands People readily retreivalble image collection but she could order a copy of it from Scotlandspeople.com I think the cost for the copy was 10 or 11 pounds something like that. A little pricey but probably not unreasonable when you compare the costs of hiring a archive researcher in Scotland to retrieve it. I guess because it is not included in their scanned collection of earlier Scottish birth records it costs a little more. I would imagine a copy of the birth record is e-mailed. Dont know how fast this particular document retrieval service is. As I said I have only worked with their 18th and 19th century parish record collection.

regards,

Donald

[Kyle MacLea]

True, sorry for the confusion. The 'newer' records are often not scanned yet. If you order an extract like this, it used to be always a paper copy, which took a little while. But it could be that they will now email them. Either way, it will be a good investment and help get the process started!

Kyle=

[Canadian Livingstone]

Hi Kyle,

Not sure if they e-mail or mail the copy. Dont know for certain.

regards,

Donald

[Jill Richmond]

Hi Donald and Kyle,

I recently ordered 2 death certificates via Scotlandspeople. These cost £10 each and were mailed to me, but I don't know what their policy is regarding requests outwith the British Isles. They are superior to the earlier copies which could be downloaded from the site for a fee of around £5 (if I remember correctly), and are printed on official paper with a serial number and saying "Given under the Seal of the General Register Office, New Register House, Edinburgh on .... The certificate is embossed with Register Office seal, so it is quite smart.

Regards,

Jill

[Kyle MacLea]

Thanks for the info, Jill! When I lived in Michigan, I got a similar extract stamped the same way. Which makes me think they are still doing it that way to other places, too.

Thanks!
Kyle=

[Canadian Livingstone]

Hi Kyle and Jill,

Yes those sound like the real deal. An official copy of the original records from the archives. Its been a while now but I had a few records sent to me like that in my case direct from the archives. It took a while as I recall though and of course it had to travel a long way by post. I dont know how long Scotlands people would take to send these.

regards,

Donald

[Jill Richmond]

Hi Donald and Kyle,

My certificates took approximately a fortnight to reach me, but I don't know how long it would take for orders from outwith the British Isles. I would think it would depend on whether they send them by air or surface mail.

Regards,

Jill