I am a Johnson, with my father's line coming from Ayrshire. My mother was a Pert, originating in Angus. Her mother was a Gillanders, originally from Monaghan, Ireland. There are lots of different surnames in my family tree, from all over the place. I can trace them all back so far, but some further than others. When I came to enter my family data into a computer file (using Personal Ancestral File (PAF), the first name that I typed was Hope, and the second was Bate.

It was an omen. My Bate section of the family have proved hopelessly evasive in the records. They still are, but I will hope to work on it more now, having taken early retirement from my local government work as a public librarian in the North East corner of Scotland.So, entry no.1: Hope Bate, wife of David Bennet.

Their first child, a daughter, was named Jessie Bennet, and my own mother's full name was Jessie Bennet Pert, named after an aunt of the same name, who had been named after the original Jessie Bennet. I therefore have a strong affection for that family line, and while I have had great difficulty pinning down David Bennet (born between 1784 and 1791, somewhere in Scotland), I found Hope easily because Hope is an unusual name in the locality - Craig parish in Angus, Scotland, on the south side of the River South Esk, opposite the East coast port of Montrose.

The church record (O.P.R.) is quite clear: Craig, 1789:"James Bate and Jean Addison his wife at Balgove had a child baptised 14th June named Hope - before the congregation."

Balgove was a local farm name, so I had an exact location for the family, the names of both parents, and a description of the baptism being done in public, in front of the congregation.

Having the parents names, I was able to trace all the other children of these parents, and draw up my Bate family: William, baptised 18 Aug 1776 at Balgove, Craig; Isabel, born 1777/79 (not in the register - I found her as one of the family in a list of parishioners of Craig, drawn up by the Minister in 1788 - a sort of local census, and published by Aberdeen & N.E.Scotland FHS as "Craig:Angus, 1788 + 1791" ); Mary, baptised 26th March 1780, Balgove; Betty, baptised 3 March 1783, Balgove; Jean, baptised 3 April 1785, Balgove; James, born 2, bapt.3 April 1787, Balgove; Hope, bapt. 14 June 1789, Balgove; Catherine (or Kate) born about 1790.

Where did I get Catherine? It is a useful guide for other such problems:by a process of elimination. Like Sherlock Holmes, what I was left with had to be the truth:

I checked all the Bate references in the IGI for Angus, and the only ones with a connection to Craig or Montrose were the one family. That family should have been expected to have a child about 1790/91, - one every two years is the norm - but there was none listed.

However, the only extraneous Bate in the parish not identified was Catherine/Kate Bate, wife of Robert Cargill. She died between 1838 and 1841 (husband is widower at 1841 census, she is noted as alive in other church records in 1838). There was no gravestone to help, no record of her marriage,- gap in the registers - but from other evidence such as the date of first child she was married about 1810; period of childbearing; husband's birthdate, etc., I concluded she was born about 1790, which fitted in to the only Bate family in the parish.

I dislike including someone on flimsy evidence, but once I had excluded all other possibilities, I accepted her.

I checked the Craig Parish Kirk Session (parish church elders meeting) minutes for the relevant period [in Scottish Records Office, Edinburgh]; death records in Montrose (none for Craig, for period 1800-1854), the Montrose newspapers,(there were two which started in the early 1800s), etc.

I came up with some tit-bits on the family.

I found two death records for a James Bate. One was in the Montrose interments: 21st Sep. 1850 - James Bate, buried Rossie Island (burial ground on the island between Craig and Montrose, the traditional burial place for Craig residents), and in the Kirk Session Minutes, 5th Dec.1816: "Paid to [Rev.]Mr. Brewster the sums advanced to James Bate, junr. on death bed, 5/-[5 shillings]......to James Mitchell for coffin for James Bate junr., 12/-."

If they are putting him in a coffin, he's dead!

Being junr.(junior), he is the younger of two people of that name, so the 1850 death might be his father...or might be someone else, so I don't dare jump to any conclusion.

One other child of the family appears: William.

Again, as the only William Bate to be found in the vicinity of Montrose, he can be identified. He gets married in 1803 to Helen Beattie in St. Cyrus, Kincardineshire, just a few miles up the coast. The marriage entry describes him as "soldier in the Angusshire Militia", which helps again. I find him in a militia list of 1809, held by the Montrose Museum. He is a private. I run across him in a Montrose census, living in Baltic Street. In his son's death certificate, he is described as an agricultural labourer, but in the "Montrose Review" newspaper,14th Sep 1849, I find "William Bate, well-known local porter in Montrose, intoxicated, knocked down by a carriage."

It might all be him, but...

Hey, you say. Enough about the children, what about the parents?

Ah, well, you see...

The marriage between James Bate and Jean Addison ------ is not recorded. There is a gap in the marriage register between 1774 and 1784.

There is no local gravestone for James Bate and Jean Addison - I personally examined them all.

I look for a possible birth/baptism of James Bate. There is none locally for the period when he might be born. The only possible that I can find recorded is in the town of Brechin, about ten miles away. Parents would be David Bait and Margaret Hendry. While I record that as a note, I do not enter them as his parents - I don't have proof.

His wife, Jean Addison, poses another difficulty: at the time of her birth, the minister recorded only the father's name at the baptism, and there are two possibles.

One is christened 28 Jan 1750, father-Robert Addison; the other is christened 17 May 1752, father William Addison.

Now comes the detecting.

As most of William Addison's family were born in Craig, and therefore more likely to remain in Craig, and as Robert Addison (married Katherine Baxter, Maryton, 16 Aug 1739) had only one child, Jean, in Craig, the others all born in Maryton, it seems reasonable to assume that the true parents of Jean must be William Addison and Jean Ramsay (married in Craig, 25 April 1730).

And there it stands for the moment. A few wisps of possibilities to pursue when time permits, but other priorities have forced me to leave them for the moment.

I have another 10,000 people on the family tree and linked families, so the tendency is to pursue the attainable and leave the more indefinite lines for later.

And then what happens?

I pursue another line entirely, and find a link into another Bate family in Montrose, who are bound to be linked, but I can't find it.

And then I do.

Several strands, including another person's pedigree chart with a Bate on it bring me to focus on George Bate, married to Margaret Duthie on 6th June 1829, Dun parish, Angus.

I pin down the children one by one:

Martha, born 11 June 1831, Edzell parish, Angus; married Edward McLaren, 9th June 1855, Craig. (I find her in the 1851 census at East Mains of Rossie, Craig, house servant to the Kydd family, age 19, unmarried, born Edzell.)

Ann, born about 1833, married James Arbuthnott, 5th June, 1858, Craig.

James Bate, born about 1834, Fettercairn, Kincardineshire (just a few miles away again), married Isabella Davidson, 18 Jun 1859, Craig. He is a farm servant at Maryton at marriage, and in 1863 when recording his father's death he is at East Mains of Rossie, where his sister used to work.

Christina, born about 1836, married Skene Thomson, 2 Dec 1874, Montrose. She is described as a domestic servant (meaning: living at home without an outside job), age 38, at 37 Melville Lane, Montrose.

I get much of the parentage through the marriage certificates, compensating for the non-appearance in baptismal records.

Mother Margaret Duthie I find on a gravestone as having died 29th Oct. 1869, aged 72 years, so from her death certificate I know her parents to be David Duthie and Christian Scott.

Father, George Bate, agricultural labourer, died on 9th October 1863 at Craig Braes, Craig, and his parents are recorded as William Bate and Helen Beattie.

Now wait a minute!

That William Bate, married to Helen Beattie strikes a chord. Yes, I know him.

William is one of the children of James Bate and Jean Addison, so we are back there again.

At least we can now add another branch: William and Helen's children:

George (just mentioned), born in St. Cyrus, 1st Sep 1803.

James, chr. 7 Dec. 1806, Benholm parish, Kincardineshire - just up the coast again, and a contender for the intoxicated porter getting knocked down in 1849.

Jean, born 6 Oct 1809, Benholm parish.

William, born about May 1813 (whom I find later, as a flaxdresser, in a census).

Alexander, born 10 Jun 1820, Ferryden, Craig

David, born about 1825, of whom I know little.

So there you have it, up to date. Not very much, and not very extensive, and worth deeper research some time.

But not today.