Elizabeth McAdie

Elizabeth McAdie was born at a time when there weren't any censuses to tell us about the home circumstances.  However there was one in her old age and this shows us a household with five surnames in it, an indication of the extended family and the multi-generation groupings which was the norm in the crofting communities of Watten.  Unfortunately there were no relationships given in the 1841 census so we don't know for definite who were children, grandchildren, in-laws or lodgers but all of these feature in other households in the later censuses.

It's interesting to see there's a 10 year old servant in the house.  There's no indication if he was their servant, however unlikely that would be, or who he worked for but ten years old seems very young even for the date.

This is one example of Monumental Inscriptions giving us information which isn't in the Church records.  Her husband's death is found from this (though transcribed wrongly).  Often the stones are so worn that guesses have to be made.  In this case the guess would have him married at the age of ten.  You might be working as a servant at ten but you can't get married.  She married George Swanston but little is known about him except that he was a farmer like everyone else in the area.  The Statistical Accounts tell us that even if another occupation was listed in the censuses they would still be farming their own patch as well.