OLIPHANT and BARKER family papers

Below is an index to papers about the OLIPHANT and BARKER families, from Kirkcaldy, Fife, which I have posted onto AFamilyHistoryBlog.

The index to these papers was originally posted to the blog; HERE.

You can view all the related posts under the category; OLIPHANT papers.

Here are .pdf reports of the closest descendants or the two families; the OLIPHANTs and BARKERs. Due to marriages in the second generation, by the third generation these two families share many descendants in common. (for my other sources, in addition to these papers, please see notes at the bottom of this page).

PDF-logo Robert OLIPHANT & Janet BELL;
Descendants Outline Jan2016version
Descendants Report Jan2016version

George BARKER & Christian BELL;
Descendants Outline Jan2016version
Descendants Report Jan2016version

Background;

Several years ago I looked through a bundle of old family papers, dating from the 1700 & 1800’s, relating to ancestors of mine; the OLIPHANTs and BARKERs of Kirkcaldy, in Fife, Scotland. There are two old brown paper envelopes, labeled “Oliphant papers”, each containing a number of documents, which I have scanned and attempted to transcribe.

I have posted the scanned images, with my attempts at transcribing them, in a series of posts on AFamilyHistoryBlog. Below is a list of those documents, in the order I found them in their envelopes, with hyperlinks to each blog post. I will also try to note where some of the documents relate to each other, in several distinct groups/subjects.

In those posts, transcribed text appears in a Maroon colour below each scanned image. I use [square brackets] where I’m not totally sure of the original handwriting, but can make a good stab at interpreting it, or where I want to add a little extra, e.g. to expand on a handwritten abbreviation (so that everyone understands it).

[…] – means that I’m very unsure of the original word! So please have a look at the original image, and let me know if you think that you can decipher it. :) Thanks.

# – (hash-tag) in my transcription indicates the end of a line (or a change of line) in the original text. I’ve done this to try and make it easier to relate where you are in the transcribed text to the relevant point in the scanned image.

I aim to “tag” the blog posts with as many names as I can, of the people, places, etc, that appear in the original document. That should help to make these documents findable in search-engines by anyone who might be interested in their contents. Please do suggest any additional tags you think I could add, either in the comments to each blog post, or via the site’s Contact page.

You will also see below this index, some notes I made about embossed marks that appear on many of the sheets of paper (but which do not show up in the scans!). I would be interested in whether anyone can tell me more about these markings.

The titles in the index are usually based on the first few words in the document.

Envelope 1;

  1. Document by John Peal, Edinburgh, 6th April 1799 [note 1]
  2. Disposition of George Barker; to his grandchildren, dated 8th May 1784
  3. the late Mr Henry Oliphant; Property [note 2]
  4. Proprietors of […] East Half, of [Big] House on the Head of the Harbour; settled 15th November 1823 [note 3]
  5. Dear Brother [short letter; no date; might be a missing second part!]
  6. Note of A. Anderson … at the Glasgow Bank; 1827 [note 4]
  7. Trust Disposition and Settlement by Robert Oliphant
  8. Mr Hy. Oliphant estate [note 5]
  9. Mr Baxter, Gary Street, Newington; 1825
  10. Betty or Elizabeth Baxter [note 6]

Some notes about the paper in Envelope 1;

  1. 2 sheets of paper both embossed ” 1816 “, and with a shield design (as for “W Cadell & Co” – see notes 3 & 6 ).
  2. Paper embossed ” 1808 “.
  3. Paper embossed; ” W CADELL & Co ,  1821 “, and with a shield design.
  4. Paper embossed ” 1824 “.
  5. Paper embossed; ” C WILMOTT & Co ,  1818 “.
  6. Paper embossed; ” W CADELL & Co ,  1821 “, and with a shield design.

Envelope 2;

  1. Bundle of 35 receipts; dated 1843
  2. Settlement by George Barker; in favour of his grandchildren; 8th May 1784 (copy) [note 1]
  3. Memo; re Henry Oliphant, by his settlement, 3rd Dec 1821 [note 2]
  4. Letter from Mr Dougall, to Betty Baxter, 27th Sept 1821 [note 3]
  5. I Robert Oliphant; dated 29th December 1825 [note 4]
  6. Andrew Ingram; Letter to Henry Oliphant; 13 January 1808
  7. Proprietors of the East half of Big House on Head of the Harbour; 6th May 1823 [note 5]
  8. Copy of Discharge, 28th Feb 1821 [note 6]
  9. Agreement between the tutors of John Aitken, and Christian Barker; 1768 [note 7]
  10. Receipt for church repairs; dated January 1830.

Notes about the paper in Envelope 2;

  1. Paper embossed ” 181? ” (possibly 1810?), and with a shield design (as for “W Cadell & Co”).
  2. Paper embossed with a shield design.
  3. Paper embossed; ” C WILMOTT  ,  1818 “.
  4. Paper embossed; ” J WHATMAN , TURKEY MILL , 1820 “.
  5. Paper embossed; ” T  ,  1821 “, and with a shield design.
  6. Paper embossed; ” 1821 “, and with a shield design.
  7. Paper embossed; ” 1816 “, and with a shield design.

[I will post here links to family trees / genealogy reports relating to the Oliphant and Barker families described in these old papers.]

Grouping related documents;

I have posted the Oliphant papers onto AFamilyHistoryBlog in the order that I found them in their 2 envelopes. But muddled up within this there are several distinct groups of closely related documents, which I’ll try to identify here;

Additional sources of information I have about the OLIPHANT and BARKER families;

Hutchison family tree – compiled circa 1987, by Douglas HUTCHISON (C.B.E.), of Bolfracks, Aberfeldy, Perthshire.

OLIPHANTs of Kirkcaldy – Tree compiled by James Hunter MacGregor (genealogist), June 1917, now in the library at St Andrews University, Fife. Comissioned by Mary Christian HUTCHISON, dau. of Robert HUTCHISON and Mary OLIPHANT. Thanks to Roddy OLIPHANT for finding this document and sharing it over the internet with the current descendants of the Kirkcaldy OLIPHANTs. Also to the other relatives, particularly Anne HAENGA and Gordon McCONNELL (both in New Zealand), for their input – correcting some errors in James Hunter’s origional work, and adding new details. Several long forum threads between us can be found on the OLIPHANT GenForum at Genealogy.com

International Genealogical Index (IGI) – My own searches of the index, used mainly to double-check other sources. Not to be fully relied on by itself. Given the chance I like to look at the OPR microfilms (from which the IGI is transcribed), which tend to contain many more details than the IGI.

My apologies if I’ve missed any particular sources or credits that I should have given. I believe that these are my major sources.