The Challenge of the SMITH Surname

I guess that everyone has a SMITH somewhere in their family tree, but my maiden name was SMITH, so I have a major stake in the game of SMITH. 

My SMITH family are from Scotland, and of course it is the most common name in Scotland.(1)

Alexander Dunn SMITH was born in Barrachan, Mochrum, Wigtownshire, to Francis SMITH and Agnes YOUNG.(2) He married Helen TURNER (3), and they emigrated to Australia in 1853. (4)

My challenge is definitely his parents. The Kirk Session records for Mochrum are sketchy, and although I have found records of Alexander's older siblings being born in the same place, there is no record of the marriage of Francis SMITH and Agnes YOUNG, and no records of their births/baptisms or deaths/burials. 

These are their children:

• Mary born 17 October 1809 at Barrachan
• Jane born 7 May 1811 at Barrachan
• Agnes born 20 December 1813 at Barrachan
• James born 15 November 1815 at Barrachan
• Sarah Cherrie born 10 May 1818 at Barrachan
• Robert born 15 May 1820 at Barrachan, and
• Alexander Dun(n) born 3 Oct 1823 at Barrachan.

Apart from the records of the births/baptisms of these children, the first record I can find for Francis SMITH is 14 Sep 1822 when he received 6 shillings distributed from the Poor money by the Kirk. (5) He was a weaver, and I conclude that he was 'of' the Parish as he was receiving this poor relief. He regularly received money from the Kirk until 20 Mar 1824. So far I've not discovered any record of his death, but it must have happened between that date and 26 June 1824, when Agnes YOUNG starts receiving money from the Kirk. Agnes 'seems' to be in the 1841 census, 53 years, living at Barrachan Farm along with Agnes McKOMIR (10 years) and Agnes BROWN (85 years).(6)

So, I wait patiently to see if my challenge of poor people called SMITH, in a place with no records can ever be overcome. I'm more than happy to receive suggestions.

(1) Scottish surnames - Wikipedia

(2) Results for Alexander Smith | Scotland's People - , "National Records of Scotland", [https://www.scotlandspeople.gov.uk/ ScotlandsPeople] Index for ALEXANDER DUNN SMITH, Parents: FRANCIS SMITH and AGNES YOUNG, Gender: M, Birth Date: 3 October 1823, Parish #: 892, Parish: Mochrum, Ref: 20///9; accessed: 31 January 2025

(3) Results for Alexander Smith | Scotland's People - , "National Records of Scotland", [https://www.scotlandspeople.gov.uk/ ScotlandsPeople] Index for ALEXANDER SMITH and ELLEN TURNER, Date: 4 December 1843, Parish #: 892, Parish: Mochrum, Ref: 20///211; accessed: 31 January 2025

(4) Queensland State Archives, Microfilm of passenger list "Agricola: arriving Moreton Bay 26 Feb 1853

(5) Mocrum kirk session Minutes (1826-1847), Poors' accounts (1794-1834), CH2/269/1, CH000200269-00001-00001-.jpg

(6) Results for Agnes Young | Scotland's People, "National Records of Scotland", [https://www.scotlandspeople.gov.uk/ ScotlandsPeople], 1841 Census Index: AGNES YOUNG, Gender: F, Age at Census: 53; Ref: 892/ 7/ 7, Registration District: Mochrum; accessed: 31 January 2025

Close to Home - my genealogical journey

I thought I might tell you about how I became interested, (although my husband says it is an addiction), in family history. Over the Christmas holidays of 1983, (I was 23), my parents came to visit us. They 'had' been visiting my maternal grandmother, and there was an argument, so they left and came to us.

Xmas 1983

I don't know if it was because he was feeling emotional due to the argument, but suddenly Dad blurted out that he had been adopted! It was a total shock, and I really felt as if I had been kicked in the stomach, (so, I can only imagine how much more of a shock it must be for adoptees to learn it about themselves in later life).

Jack Smith (brother), Barrie Smith (baby), Jean Exell (baby cousin), & Arthur Smith (father) Ross River, c 1934/5

Bill Smith (borther), Maud Butler (aunty), Jean Excell (baby cousin), Barrie Smith (baby), Aitkenvale, c 1935

Dad had always known and, apparently, my mother knew, but my brothers and I had never been told. It suddenly made sense why Dad had kept us away from his family in Townsville, (as much as he could), as I think he was worried that someone might say something to one of us. We grew up really only knowing our mother's side of the family. I later wondered if it also had something to do with Dad relocating our family every few years. Perhaps as people got to know us they started asking prying questions...

Dad 'was' interested in family history himself, and had a folder with certificates and charts, which he showed me, but as a teenager I wasn't 'grabbed' by it. It had never occurred to me that when he said his mother was 46 that she really was getting a bit too old to be having a baby. And when he told me that he had been raised on goats milk it really didn't hit home. 

Dad said that he had been adopted by his paternal grandparents, (Arthur & Clara Smith), but had been told his biological mother didn't want him and knew nothing about her. I determined that I was going to find his biological mother.

Clara (nee Melchert) and Arthur Smith, Aitkenvale, 1930s

Over the years Dad had written to the Department of Children's Services many times requesting information on his adoption, but what they sent back was very high level and if there was anything original it was heavily redacted. 

It wasn't until the Queensland Government allowed adoptees to receive their original birth certificates what we found out the name of his biological mother, Doris Bray. Unfortunately, the certificate was completely blank of information in the area where information on the father 'should' be. 

Doris Bray

I made contact with the Bray side of the family and, unfortunately, discovered that Doris had died in 1969. I met her youngest sister, Flo, who welcomed us warmly into the family. Flo would have been 7 years old when Dad was born, so she knew nothing of Dad, but I guess stories had gone around the family, and she said she wouldn't be surprised if there were others 'out there'. She had also been present when one of the other sisters had been tricked by their mother into signing adoption papers. 

Flo Nye nee Bray, me, Shane, and Marc in the background

The trouble was the Smith side of the family. 'Was' Dad really adopted by his paternal grandparents? There seemed no way to prove it one way or the other until DNA testing became popular. I was then able to persuade a cousin on that side to test, along with Dad, and the result came back that there was 100% match, confirming that 'Pop' who adopted Dad, was his grandfather. That really made Dad very happy. 

DNA Test Result

Subsequent DNA testing has proven over and over that we have the correct family. We were also then able to get a copy of the papers from the Department of Children's Services without any redactions, by sending them the DNA proof, along with a family tree of what we 'knew'. 

Of course, I also researched my husband's family as well. During my high school years we lived in Charters Towers. As a 13-year-old I really resented moving there, as I had left behind all my friends in Mt Isa, and I couldn't wait to leave once I finished school, although I subsequently made lots of wonderful friends. Imagine my surprise to find that both of my husband's grandparents were born there, AND Doris was born there too! Now I can't wait to go back to meet cousins and do research. This journey has been really close to home!

A Long Line of Miners...

Mining goes back a long way in my family.

The first miner I was aware of was my own father, Barrie Robert SMITH. In 1966 we shifted to Mt Isa in Northwest Queensland, as he had found a job working underground in Mt Isa Mines. Dad was a fitter and turner so would have worked on the machinery underground. He really hated working underground and re-trained in 1968 to leave and become a teacher.

Barrie Robert SMITH

Dad's adoptive father, (and biological grandfather), Arthur Douglas SMITH had many occupations, but one of them was as a miner. The electoral rolls don't say where he was working as a miner in his early life, but Dad did say that after he retired he went North regularly to do tin-scratching. I don't know how he got up there, as he never had a car or a driver's licence.

Arthur Douglas SMITH

Dad's biological mother, Doris Hamilton BRAY, applied for gold mining licences with her husband, Norbert SMANS, in 1938.

Doris BRAY

Doris was only following in her Cornish ancestral footsteps. Her father Abdiel was a miner at Moonta in South Australia, before relocating to Charters Towers to work in the gold mines. His father, Thomas BRAY, grandfather William BRAY, great-grandfather John BRAY, on and on back in the family were all miners. 

Abdiel BRAY

On Doris' mother's side there were also miners with grandfather William Henry Harris KESSELL being a miner, in Cornwall, Kadina in South Australia, and Charters Towers in Queensland. His father-in-law, Edward VIVIAN was a miner in Cornwall and South Australia, and his wife's grandfather John LAWN was a copper miner in Cornwall. 

An engraving of Cornish miners form the St Ives area in 1866, Source=French publication Date=1866 https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Cornish_miners_-_1866.png

A Grave Mystery

This is the gravestone of Alexander Dun(n) Smith in Toowoomba Cemetery (Presbyterian Section 1, Block 3 Allotment 40). He died 2 May 1877 at Emu Creek, on the Darling Downs.

Here is the mystery, back in the days when you could read it, this stone was transcribed, and it says "Native of Angus"! 

But, I found Alexander in the Old Parochial Register for Barrachan, Mochrum, Wigtownshire, Scotland (around 320km or 200 miles away), being christened 3 October 1823, he was the youngest of 7 children in the family, all christened at Barrachan, to Francis Smith (a weaver) and Agnes (nee Young). Alexander's wife was Helen (nee Turner).

I have a couple of theories:

1. The stone was originally made for someone else, and the family was too poor to have another made (in this case, why not have the incorrect text erased?), or
2. Angus is where his father Francis was from, and so he felt the family was from there..?, or
3. Alexander was actually born in Angus, and his family travelled to Barrachan for the christening (I don't feel this could be correct as all his elder siblings were also christened in Barrachan).

I would love to hear of any other theories, and any ideas of how I might prove/disprove them.

So far, I have been unable to trace the marriage, deaths or births of Francis or Agnes. Although, there is a possible marriage of a Francis Smith to Alison Young, St Cuthbert's Edinburgh, 6 March 1805, which is before any children I can find.

This is the timeline for Alexander:

Year	Date	Event	Age	Location	Comments
1823	3/10/1823	Christening	0	Barrachan, Mochrum	Father Francis, Mother Agnes Turner
1824			1
1825			2
1826			3
1827			4
1828			5
1829			6
1830			7
1831			8
1832			9
1833			10
1834			11
1835			12
1836			13
1837			14
1838			15
1839			16
1840			17
1841	4 Jun 1841	Census	18	Auchengellie Farm	Servant to James Muir
1842			19
1843	4 Dec 1843	Marriage	20	Mochrum, Wigtownshire	to Helen TURNER
1844			21
1845		Birth of Child	22	Whithorn, Wigtownshire	Robert SMITH
1846			23
1847		Birth of Child	24	Symington, Ayrshire	James SMITH
1848			25
1849			26
1850			27
1851		Birth of Child	28	Riccarton, Ayrshire	Alexander Turner SMITH
1851	31 Mar 1851	Census	28	Riccarton, Ayrshire	Head of Household
1852			29
1853	26 Feb 1853	Emigration	30	Australia	with family on “Agricola”
1853	13 Oct 1853	Birth of Child	30	Ipswich, Australia	John Turner SMITH
1854			31
1855		Birth of Child	32	unknown	Helen SMITH
1856			33
1857			34
1858			35
1859			36
1860			37
1861			38
1862			39
1863			40
1864		Electoral Roll	41	Ipswich, Australia
1865		Electoral Roll	42	Ipswich, Australia
1866		Electoral Roll	43	Ipswich, Australia
1867		Electoral Roll	44	Ipswich, Australia
1868	16 Sep 1868	Land purchase	45	Aubigny, Queensland
1869			46
1870			47
1871			48
1872			49
1873			50
1874		Electoral Roll	51	King's Creek, Aubigny
1875		Electoral Roll	52	King's Creek, Aubigny
1876		Electoral Roll	53	Emu Creek, Aubigny
1877		Electoral Roll	54	Emu Creek, Aubigny
1877	2 May 1877	Death	54	Emu Creek, Aubigny