Murray Family - James and Mary Murray, Stoneykirk, Wigtownshire, Scotland.

My great great grandfather James Murray emigrated to New Zealand in 1866. Tracing James' family back in Scotland has not been easy with no recorded mother or father on his death certificate I have not had much to go by other than a very tentative link.

Over the years I have cobbled together a family tree, with information from other family trees on Ancestry.com, help from online researchers and one vital piece of information from a distant family member who's mother had visited a cousin Andrew Murray, Galston (my 1st cousin 3x removed) in Scotland in the 1970's. She had recorded details of her family in a diary. So this part of the story has no hard evidence but a lot of connecting the dots. The Scottish were very helpful in that they often used a naming pattern to name their children. Using names from their parents and grandparent and aunties and uncles. Scottish naming patterns.

The family which I think our James Murray belongs to is the Murrays of Stoneykirk, Wigtownshire.
STOPPRESS: This has been confirmed with DNA matches in Canada (August 2019).

James' father James was born in Mayo, Westmeath, Ireland in 1821. His mother Mary Bone was born on the 12th December 1812 in Kirkmaiden, Wigtownshire, Scotland. 

James and Mary were married in Kirkmaiden in 1839. They had 7 children follow Janet (1839-1900), Isabella (1842-1863), Jane (1845-1848), James (1846-1927), John (1850-1929), and William (1855-1887) and his twin Andrew (1855-1931).

In 1871-1881 James and Mary are lived at Glen Cottage, Ardwall, Stoneykirk and James is a shepherd. In 1891 James is retired and living at Drummantrae Cottage (Glen Cottage?).

Glen Cottage, Ardwell
Google Maps, 2016.

James passed away on the 21 July 1899 aged 78 and Mary the following year on the 27 December 1900 aged 88. James and Mary are buried together, along with their daughter Janet, at the Stoneykirk cemetery.