The McGeachie Surname Forum

My Family has traced its origins to Maybole Scotland thanks to the work of two remarkable ladies in our family tree, namely Jean Manning (now deceased) and Mary McNickle. In their privately published book "Bridging the Sands of Time" they bring together the McGeachie and Carson Families and trace our origins to the family of John McGeachie (weaver of Maybole) and his wife Jane Dick. The eldest of their children, Thomas, was born in 1800 and is one of seven children now identified as belonging to John and Jane. Our Family in Australia decends from Thomas (1800) and his son James (1835) who migrated to Australia (1860), married Margaret Carson and started a rather large family of 12 in total in the Wagga Wagga region of New South Wales.

I recently searched the Old Parish records at Scotlands People website for the children of John and Jane because the family book mentioned above only confirms four children and places a question mark on whether there were other children. This is understandable given the research was undertaken quite some years ago before the web really existed and before many of the records available today were in any sense organised and available. So... here is what the Old Parish records revealed:

No Date Surname Forename Parent Names/Frame No. Sex Parish City/County
1 30/04/1808 MCGACHY JANNET JOHN MCGACHY/JANE DICK FR525 F MAYBOLE /AYR
2 20/11/1805 MCGACHY JOHN JOHN MCGACHY/JANE DICK FR510 M MAYBOLE /AYR
3 26/10/1800 MCGACHY THOMAS JOHN MCGACHY/JANE DICK FR478 M MAYBOLE /AYR
4 06/11/1812 MCGAUCHIE JAMES JOHN MCGAUCHIE/JANE DICK FR553 M MAYBOLE /AYR
5 16/08/1818 MCGAUCHIE JAMES JOHN MCGAUCHIE/JANE DICK FR606 M MAYBOLE /AYR
6 15/07/1821 MCGECHIE AGNES JOHN MCGECHIE/JANE DICK FR712 F MAYBOLE /AYR
7 07/08/1815 MCGUACHY MARY JOHN MCGUACHY/JANE DICK FR578 F MAYBOLE /AYR

The spelling variants of McGeachie are interesting but the one constant is the name "Dick" which would tend to confirm that they are the same couple. In addition, the birth dates do not conflict.

If there is anyone who decends from any of these children (other than Thomas 1800) I would be pleased to hear from you.

David McGeachie
Australia
18 Oct 2009