MY RESEARCH
I started researching when my own father died aged 58. It was something that he had said we would do together when he retired. Unfortunately he died not knowing anything about his family or his history.
I began with a one name study (ONS) of the surname Gulline. I never realised at the time that was what I was actually doing. All I was doing was trying to find all the living Gulline's and link them together - expecting to go back to one ancestor - a bit like Adam and Eve. I started to find some all over the world (I expected a little bunch still in Wigtownshire, Scotland). Then as the research developed information became harder to come by and I ended up with three different trees that I couldn't link together.
In Wigtownshire, there was a John Gulline who married very prestigiously (and dangerously!) Margaret Coltrane, probably a daughter of the infamous Provost William Coltrane. Margaret had a child, Agnes in January 1716 and a Simon in December 1716. Amazingly another John Gulline appears to have married Agnes Coltrane (possibly another daughter of the Provost) in 1715 and produced William in 1719, Alexander in 1721 and William again in 1724.
I also have an Alexander Gulline christened in 1706 in Millisle, Wigtown to John Gulline and Agnes McCulloch and he died in 1791 and was the Treasurer of Wigtown. He married in 1751 (aged 45) to Margaret McKnaight. They had two sons that I have found but more may have been born and not christened in Wigtownshire for whatever reason. John, born in 1759, died in 1816 in Kilmarnock. He was an Excise Officer and married Margaret Ewing in 1790 in Ayr. Stewart, his brother, was born in 1755. He married in Elizabeth McKeand and was a postmaster in Wigtown for 30 years. He was also a 'Hercules Insurance' agent for that area. I have found no children for this couple as yet. These two children are on the family gravestone in Wigtown with their parents.
I have managed to trace Alexander's descendants to the present day (nine generations), all through John. His descendants range from seven generations of Gulline's being born or living in Australia and around four generations in the USA. Many of John's descendants following in his footsteps and were involved in Customs and Excise or Inland Revenue so many of them and their individual families moved around the UK.
I believe that the above John was probably a brother of Simon the Provost from Wigtown as one of John's children was named Simon. Alexander had five brothers and one sister. No children have been found for any of them except Alexander himself.
Although I cannot find any true connection between these Gulline's and the ones in the following paragraph it is definite that they would be related if not directly descended.
My own Gulline tree follows eight generations all in Wigtownshire, back to Archibald Gulline and Mary Wilson both born approximately 1770. Although no record can be found of this pair on records I have checked, I have found them as parents on death certificates of three of their children, Margaret, James and Janet. James was my great, great, great Grandfather. A descendant of Janet has recently contacted me and between us we have established that the family were from Berwick area. This ties in nicely with the origin of the name and the fact that a few Gulline's have been found on the IGI (International Genealogical Index from the Latter Day Saints (Mormons) website) but why would Archibald uproot his wife and family to travel to Wigtownshire? The probable answer at that time, and probably still remains true today, was to find work and what better place to find work than a place where you have family already established.
According to other sources I have been able to ascertain that some Gulline's were operating Gulline's Mill in Wigtownshire during the late 1600's. The Mill was on an estate named Baldoon Estate owned by a very prestigious landowner Sir Dunbar. My only theory on this which will probably never be confirmed or denied, is that Sir Dunbar's second wife was from East Lothian and may have known the Gulline's and suggested them to operate her husband's mill. In the late 1600's Gulline's Mill was taken over by the McDowall's and renamed Milldriggan. The Gulline's were believed to be covenanters and persecuted as such. I have found that at least one of the Gulline's was involved in a murder of a traitor to the Scots and I'm sure that he would not have been alone.
My theory about the migration of this surname and its' people starts in the parish of Dirleton where there is the village of Gullane. Over the years 'my bunch' travelled to Wigtownshire and some also appeared across the Forth in Fife. They most likely come from the same stock and as the name Gulline means 'small lake' it was probably derived from "the folk that live beside the small lake" then being shortened to just Gulline or variations of Golin as it was then.
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