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Last updated 16 August 2002

Geography lesson:
Information sent to me from a researcher in Scotland~~~
Rumblingwell is 1 mile north west of the center of Dunfermline
Beath is 3 miles east of Dunfermline and 2 miles west of Cowdenbeath.
 
 

Harry and Helen Ramsay WALTER
1941

Helen's
 Ramsay Ancestors
Westmoreland Co. PA and Scotland

  Helen's Parents

William Sharpe RAMSAY was born 13 Mar 1846 in Dalgety, Fife, Scotland. He died in 1929. In 1870 he married Janet BONNAR [Bonnar Page] whose family was also from Scotland. She was born 11 Dec 1852 in Scotland and died in 1916. They are buried at Irwin Union Cemetery in Westmoreland Co, PA.  William eventually became the superintendent at the Morewood Coal and Coke Works of the Frick Carnegie Company.
 

Helen ("Nell") (back left) and Grace are in the back with bows in their hair. Mother Janet is in the center. The three ladies on the left are Janet, Anne, and Beatrice.  The four ladies on the right are Chrystine "Tine", Bess, Mary, and Marie. (all left to right)
 

Children:  [all born in PA]
Beatrice  born 12 Aug 1872   died 14 mar 1940  m. __?__ Clark
Elizabeth (Bessie)   born  18 Dec 1873    died 1948  m. __?__ Hill
Janet   born 22 Jan 1875   died 1936    m. __?__ Nicholson
Maria   born  8 May 1876   died 1965    m. __?__ Millward
One born dead
One born dead
William     died at 18 months
Anne   born 22 Jul 1883    died 1954   never married (Anne used to come visit in Wooster, OH)
Christinia   born 1885   died 1964   m. Frank SIMMONS
Mary  born 12 Jan ??   m.  __?__ Evans
Helen (Ellen, "Nellie") was born 9 Mar 1890 Mr Pleasant, PA and died 23 Oct 1976 in Aurora, OH. She was married to Harry W. WALTER They lived in Wooster Ohio most of their married life.
One died at 1 week
Robert  born 13 Feb 1893   died ?1967 buried in Shafton PA   m. Mary ___?___
Grace  born 16 mar 1895    died 1961   m. Paul Deffenbaugh



Helen's Grandparents

William RAMSAY and Elizabeth SHARPE Ramsay [Click here for the Sharpe Family]brought their family to the US in 1852 living at Port Perry, Allegheny County PA. (Grandmother's Notes: They went to Clinton, OH the first summer, but then returned to Allegheny County.) But because of the deaths of some of their children and supposedly because of growing unrest in the US, they returned to Scotland in 1855.  They then returned to Pennsylvania in the summer of 1863 where William worked at Hay's coal mine near Six Mile Ferry PA.  After about one year in 1864 they moved down to Larimer near Irwin in Westmoreland County PA. (Grandmother's Notes: They (?) visited Scotland in 1866 and 1867.)

William RAMSAY was  born 26 or27 Mar 1819 Dunfermline, Fife, Scotland ( Christened 4 Ap1819Dunfermline)   He died 16 Ap 1885 (66 yrs20 days),  Larimer, Westmoreland PA and is buried in Union Cemetery Irwin PA.  He marrried  Elizabeth SHARPE in Dunfermline in 1840. Elizabeth was born 26 Dec 1819 in Scotland and died 13 Aug 1889  (69 yrs, 7 mon. 18 dys). She is also buried in UnionCemetery Irwin PA (Shafton?)

The Ramsay Children:
Robert was born 23 Oct 1840 Dunfermline, Scotland and died 11 Aug 1899 in East Kilbride, Scotland while visiting there. He was married to  Janet (Jenny) ERSKINE. Eventually he became the Superintendent of Mines andGeneral Consulting Engineer for the Frick mines in the Westmoreland/Fayette area of PA.  Robert and his son Erskine had many inventions used in the mining industry.  (Grandmother's Notes:  Robert returned to Scotland many times and died there in 1899 at age 58.  He was superintendent for H C Frick Coke and Coal company for 16 years.  He was also pit boss and superintendent at Shafton Coal company and superintendent for Carnegie Coke at Monistery Coke Works at Latrobe.  He received a patent on the Ramsay Ram for pushing wagons on and off the cage....She listed these children who lived to adulthood: William, Erskine, Robert, Morris, John, Andee, Charley, George, Margaret, Elizabeth, Janet, and Mary....She wrote that mother Janet Erskine Ramsay died in 1916 in Greensburg.)

Go here for a newspaper story about Robert (and William, his brother, is mentioned).
 

Elizabeth (Bessie) was born 16 Feb 1843 Dalgety, Fife, Scotland and died 1889 at age 46.  She was married to Robert MORRIS  possibly in 1867.  Robert died at age 63 in 1900. They had 7 children: Son, Arthur married Emma Pastoria and had one child.  Arthur was killed at age 23 in Alverton. Son, Willis died young.  Daughter, Bessie lived in Greensburg PA[see 1920 census below].  Robert, George, Annie and Morris were the other children.

From Cousin Barb:  In the 1920 census, was listed the daughter Elisabeth Morris, age 48 and single head of household living in southwest Greensburg.  Living with her were her sister Annie, age 36 and single; her brother Morris R. age 34 a coal mine superintendent; her brother George age 41 a coal mining engineer and a widower.  His children were also living there:
Robert C. age 7, Ruth age 3, and Alice A., age 1.
-----
William Sharpe RAMSAY  [Helen WALTER's Father]

William Sharpe was born 13 mar 1846 in Dalgety, Fife, Scotland and died in1929 in PA.He married Janet BONNAR, daughter of William Thomson Bonnar and Beatrice McNeil. (Grandmother's Notes:  Her father, William Sharpe Ramsay, started working in the mines at age 10 years and 4 months...{now at that age the family would have been back in Scotland}..and continued working in the mines when they returned to PA.  He was pit boss at Shafton Coal Company, Bewin White Coal Co., Hecla Coal Co.,  Southwest Coal co, and H C Frick Coke Co. in Morewood where he became the superintendent.  He held that position for 22 years including the strikes of 1891 and 1894.  William and Janet's children were[see dates above]:  Beatrice (Clark), Elizabeth "Bessie" (Hill), Janet (Nicholson), Maria (Millward), two born dead, William who died at 18 months, Anne who never married, Christinia (Frank Simmons), Mary (Evans), Helen "Ellen" "Nellie" "Nell" (Harry Walter), child died at 1 week, Robert (Mary ?), and Grace (Paul DEFFENBAUGH).

From Cousin Barb:  PA census 1910 Westmoreland county PA
William S. Ramsey, age 64, b.Scotland
Jannet B., wife, age 56, born in Scotland
Annie, daughter, age 26 b. PA
Mary, daughter, age 23, PA
Hellen, daughter, age 20 , PA
Robert, son, age 17, PA
Grace, daughter, age 15, PA
William C., grandson, age 13, PA  [I don't know who his parents are.......~~Susie~~]
 

Morris was born 4 Jun 1848 in Dalgety or Fordell, Fife, Scotland. He died
29 Dec 1892 in Pittsburgh PA after beign injured in a carriage accident.  Henry Frick sent him to a hospital in Pisttburgh but he died in surgery.  He was married to Sarah (Sadie) Mariah GREER. Morris eventually became the Chief Engineer for the
H C Frick Coke Company. (Grandmother's Notes: He was General Manager of Southwest Coke Co. when he died.  He was superintendent at Clearfield Company, Merrill Coke Works, Loyal-Hanna Coal Co., and Morewood Coke Company.  He was pit boss at Shafton Coal Company.  She wrote that he was a good engineer and machinist.  He went back to Scotland four times.) (She wrote down these 13 children for Morris and Sarah: William, Sadie, Elizabeth, Hanna, George, Cristina, Robert, Nellie, Janet, one still born, Alice, Adelaide Frick Ramsay, and another still born.)
Addition:  Well, Grandmother's notes didn't have all the children of Morris and Sarah.
Go to the site of one of Morris' Descendants to see a more complete history of that family and great pictures:
Cousin Barbara's Ramsay Clan Page

Peter   born 3 Feb 1851 Auchterderran, Fife, Scotland; died young
May   died 11 months
May   died 16 months
        Peter, May and May must be the children who died here in the US and whose deaths
        were part of the reason for the family's return to Scotland.
George was born 2 Sep 1857 Dunfermline, Scotland. He was still living at home in the 1870 census. He married Jeannie (writing hard to read)  CAMERON in 1880. (Grandmother's Notes:
George was a blacksmith and was pit boss for Loyalhanna Coke Company and Bewin(?spelling) White Coal Company.  He was then superintendent at Morewood, Monistery, Arvonia Company, Clearfield Company, Colorado Coal and Mining Co. in Colorado, the Davis Coal Company in West Virginia, a company in Wyoming, and was general manager of ??Shaw Int.
Coal Co. when he died. Their children were Cristina, Elizabeth and Grace.)

From cousin Barb:  In the 1900 census George S. was general superintendant of Shawmut Coal Co., St Mary's, Elk County PA.  It says he emigrated from Scotland in 1858.

Christine was born 5 Mar 1860  Dunfermline, Scotland and died at age 8 in PA.

Maria was born 18 May 1862 in  Dunfermline, Scotland. She was living at home in PA in the 1870 census.  (Grandmother's Notes: She married Joseph ANGUS in 1882.  She had three children.  Maria died at age 25 in childbirth (8 Feb 1888).  Her husband was killed by a streetcar.)
[From Cousin Barb:  Maria, Joseph Angus and second wife Jane Guthrie (1871 - 1926) are all buried at the Ramsay plot at Irwin Union Cemetery (also known as Shafton) along with son Robert (1888 - 1907).]

From Cousin Barb:  In the 1900 census, Mt. Pleasant, PA is listed Joseph Angus (b. Scotland, Sept 1856, age 43) who had apparently remarried about 1896 since it says that he and Jannett (b. Scotland, Jan 1869, age 31) are listed as having been married for 4 years.  The son Robert (b. PA) is listed as 12 years old, born Jan 1888.  So that must have been the death month and year for Maria, his mother.  Two more children are listed who fit into the years that Joseph and Jannett had been married:  William born Sept 1897 (age 2) in PA and James, born July 1899 (age 11 months) in PA.
 

Go here for a newspaper story about Robert (and William, his brother, is mentioned).



Helen's Great Grandparents

And we know one more generation back taken from my grandmother's notes and the book written by Erskine Ramsay.

Robert RAMSAY was born 1793 [see more below in next section] and died 1832 in Scotland Age 39 ( the book says 38)
He married Elizabeth MORRIS in 1814. He worked at mining in Scotland in the Dunfermline area.
I found a family in the IGI  that fits with my grandmother's notes.  Two of the children, Jean and the first Isabel,  I have found were not in her notes.  Perhaps they did not live long. ( Grandmother's Notes:  Elizabeth Morris had a sister ??Nunmi??Naomi?? who died in Scotland in 1875 at a very old age.)
The IGI says that Robert Ramsay, husband of Elizabeth Morris, was born about 1790  and that he was "of" Rumlinswell, Fife".  See my note on Geography at the top of the page.
Children:
Christine or Christian was born 21 Mar 1816 in Dunfermline and died age 94 in Scotland.
        On 11 (or 1) Dec 1838, she married James PENMAN (husband and children verified by
        Grandmother's Notes).Their children were Betsy, Margaret(the only one not in the notes),
        Christian (F), Richard, Jeanie, and Isabella.  Grandmother Notes said that Richard became a
        policeman and died in England.
 
 

NEW 15 Aug 2002 from Cousin Barb 
  Christian RAMSAY PENMAN as 1816 to 1910.  Christian's daughter Betsy married John Simpson on 2 Jan 1860 in Auchterderran.  Then Betsy had a daughter, Mary Simpson Mackie who was born 6 July 1862 in Auchterderran. Mary had at least 2 sons.  Another daughter of Betsy was Jennie Simpson Robinson born after 1874. Jennie married Lieutenant Arthur James Robinson and had 3 children. 

From the General Register Office for Scotland
Christian RAMSAY was christened 2 June 1816 in Dunfermline.  No birth record.  She married James Penman 1 Dec 1838 in Dalgety, Fife.

Children of Christian RAMSAY and James PENMAN
Margaret PENMAN, born 8 Ap 1843 in Dalgety
Christian (female), 8 April 1845 in Dalgety
Richard, 24 July 1847 in Dalgety
Jeanie, 21 Jan 1852 in Auchterderran
Isabella, 15 July 1854 in Auchterderran

 
William was born 26 Mar 1819 Dunfermline, Fife, Scotland and died 16 Ap 1885
        at age 66 in Westmoreland, PA.
 
NEW 15 Aug 2002 from Cousin Barb
From the General Register Office for Scotland.
William RAMSAY was christened 4 Ap 1819.  No birth record.  He married Elisabeth Sharp 16 Nov 1839 in Dalgety, Fife.

Janet was born 6 Jun 1821 Dalgety, Fife.    (Grandmother's Notes:  Janet married Henreich
        (BUNELL) which is probably BIRREL the brother of the man who married Isabella. She said that
        he was a coal miner.
 

NEW 15 Aug 2002 from Cousin Barb
From the General Register Office for Scotland
Janet RAMSAY, born 6 June 1821. Scottish birth records confirm this birth to Robert and Elizabeth.  There is a record that a Janet Ramsay married Archibald Penman 6 July 1844 in Dalgety, Fife. 

Children of Janet Ramsay and Archibald Penman identified so far:
Isabel, b. 1 Mar 1845 in Dalgety
Christian (female), born 30 Sept 1846 in Dalgety
~~~~Version Two~~~~~~
There are two sets of records involved here and we haven't determined which is for this child.  Janet may actually be Margaret since one of Barb's ancestors had her listed as Margaret.  [This Aunt Adelaide Frick Ramsay, daughter of Morris, said this: "The information concerning the two daughters, Christian Penman and Margaret Penman, were given to me when Jane Simpson Robinson, granddaughter of Christian Penman, when she, Jane, visited my niece in Westfield, NJ in 1964."]  And the IGI has a Margaret Ramsay married to Robert Penman on 17 Oct 1840.  Their children were John Penman, b. 27 May 1843 in Dalgety; Robert Penman, 18 Nov 1844 in Dalgety; and Jane Penman, 14 Feb 1847 in Dalgety.  

Now the question is:  "Were Margaret and Janet the same person?  Was this person married several times? But the children's births on these two conflicting records prevents us from saying that they are the same Janet/Margaret."
 

Morris died at age 58. He had at least two boys and married Jane Hodge. The IGI says he was Morice, born 5 July 1823 in Dalgety Fife.
 

NEW 15 Aug 2002 from Cousin Barb
From the General Register Office for Scotland
Morice RAMSAY, born 5 July 1823 in Dalgety, Fife.  Married Jane (Jean) Hodge 17 Jan 1853 in Auchterderran, Fife. He was a coal miner, according to 1881 census.  Died at 58 in 1882 according to death record.

1881 census listed Thomas born in Auchterderran, age 23, a coal miner, living with his parents at Twibaynes Row, Dunfermline.  His mother Jane was listed as being 48 yrs old, born in Cowdenbeath.

Jean  born  29 Aug 1825   Dalgety, Fife  (This child not in Grandmother's Notes.)
 

NEW 15 Aug 2002 from Cousin Barb
Information from the General Register Office in Scotland
From the General Register Office for Scotland
Jean RAMSAY born 29 Aug 1825 in Dalgety, Fife. Jean and Henry died after 1881 in Scotland.  Married Henry Berrie [a misspelling of Birrel] 15 Aug 1846 in Dalgety, Fife.  
Henry  BIRRELL (father William) was born Nov 12, 1823 in Dalgety, Fife, Scotland ,  Henry was a coal miner.

More About JEAN RAMSAY:
Alternate spelling: Jane
Census: 1881, lived in the Old Toll House, Dunfermline 
 

Children of HENRY BIRRELL and JEAN RAMSAY are:
Betsy BIRRELL, b. Sep 28, 1847, Dalgety, Fife, Scotland 
Janet BIRRELL, b. Jan 4, 1849, Auchterderran, Fife, Scotland 
Jean BIRRELL, b. Jul 15, 1852, Auchterderran, Fife, Scotland 
William BIRRELL, b. Jun 19, 1855, Auchterderran, Fife, Scotland 
Christina BIRRELL, b. Feb 8, 1858, Auchterderran, Fife, Scotland 
Robert BIRRELL, b. Nov 4, 1860, Auchterderran, Fife, Scotland 

Isabel   born 29 Nov. 1826 Dalgety, Fife  (This child not in Grandmother's Notes.)
 

NEW 15 Aug 2002 from Cousin Barb
From the General Register Office for Scotland
Isabel RAMSAY, born 29 Nov 1826 in Dalgety, Fife.  No marriage or death record.

Isabella was born 25 (or 27) Dec 1827 Crossgates or Dunfermline, Fife.  (Grandmother's Notes: Isabella  died at age 74.  Isabella, "Easey", married William BUNELL [seems to be BIRREL verified elsewhere])
 

NEW 15 Aug 2002 from Cousin Barb
From the General Register Office for Scotland
Isabella Lander RAMSAY, born 27 Dec 1827 in Dunfermline, Fife.  Married William Birrel 3 Dec 1849 in Dunfermline, Fife.

Agnes was born 24 Sep 1830  Beath, Fife.   (Grandmother's Notes:  "Agie"  married Thomas NESS  who was a coal miner.)   Marriage also found elsewhere.
 

NEW 15 Aug 2002 from Cousin Barb
From the General Register Office for Scotland
Agnes RAMSAY, born 24 Sept 1830 in Cowdenbeath, Fife.  Married Thomas Ness 31 May 1851 in Auchterderran, Fife.

Children of Agnes Ramsay and Thomas Ness found so far:
Elisabeth, christened 23 April 1854 at Cowdenbeath
Thomas, b. 23 Jan 1854 at Auchterderran
Hendry (probably Henry), born in Elie, Fife.......age 12 in the 1881 census living with his mother Agnes (age 50) at 1 Links Place in Elie, Fife.  Thomas not listed.



Helen's Great Great Grandparents???
Who were Robert Ramsay's parents?
And for one last generation, I have this from Grandmother's Notes:
Robert Ramsay was born 1793 and died   in 1832 in Scotland at age 39.  He was married to Elizabeth Morris in 1814.) Robert had brothers John (married twice and was well fixed for money), William, Tom, James and at least 2 sisters.
        I have found a family in the Dunfermline/ Torryburn/ Dalgety area of Fife which has the
        above named brothers and in addition had Alexander, and the sisters Margaret, Jean,
        Janet, and Helen.   They certainly are first names found in the family.  The parents are
        William RAMSAY and Janet THOMSON.  This is very likely the correct family.


Note~~~ Researcher Barb Ramsay says that her older family members had been given this couple as the parents of our Robert Ramsay.  So she looked in the Scottish records for their children:
 

Children of William Ramsay and Janet Thomson
From Scottish records
James Ramsay, christened 29 Oct 1786 in Dunfermline, Fife
John Ramsay, christened 4 May 1788 in Dunfermline, Fife
William Ramsay, christened 7 Mar 1790 in Torryburn, Fife
Robert Ramsay, christened 8 Apr 1792 in Dunfirmline, Fife
Margaret Ramsay, christened 2 Nov 1794 in Torryburn, Fife
Jean Ramsay, born 18 Jun 1797 in Dalgety, Fife
Jannet Ramsay, christened 23 Mar 1800 in Dalgety, Fife
Alexander Ramsay, christened 9 Jan 1803 in Dalgety, Fife
Thomas Ramsay, christened - Mar 1807 in Dalgety, Fife

Also on the Church of Scotland record, Parish Church of Dalgety, is listed child Helen born 30 Dec 1804 and christened 31 Dec1804.


 

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