James Campbell

We don't really have a lot on James Campbell.  He was born in Killin, the son of a farmer, John Campbell and his wife Catherine McNicol from Weem Parish.  Weem Parish's full name is Dull and Weem and a look at this website sees it fully justify its name.  Of course it may have changed from when I looked at it so I've included a snapshot of the front page here.

Don't miss the opportunity to sponsor a brick as it's "a chance of a lifetime".  Maybe I'm being a bit harsh on a soft target and there is some interest in the site.  This page tells us that the parish is scattered in different-sized pockets of land around North Berthshire as the Menzies of Weem acquired land, suggesting that it was a parish dominated by a single family.  This map shows us at least four pockets including Aberfeldy and the peak of Ben Lawers as shown in the extract below.

The website also tells us that until the late 60s the minister had to be a Gaelic speaker.  That Gaelic was still spoken in Perthshire at that late date was a surprise to me.  Indeed Weem was instrumental in creating Gaelic Bibles, ministers from that parish translating both testaments.

Killin sits neatly between two fragments of Weem Parish and well away from the Aberfeldy section I had initially assumed to be Catherine McNicol's home.  I think we can safely say she didn't come from the top of Ben Lawers.

I was concerned about James's birthdate as censuses suggest it should be a few years later than 1802 yet his known parents had been having children since 1783 and would have been a bit old for a later birth.  I was encouraged therefore to find that someone on the Web suggested that they had a family tree for James and his ancestors.  It was nonsense.  It was based on finding the birth of a John Campbell in about the right year and fitted an Edinburgh lawyer up as the father of a joiner in Killin.  There is far too much of this sloppy attitude in amateur geneology.  Who are you kidding?  Mainly yourself.  I'm happier with the knowledge that I know the real father even if he is a lowly farmer.

As yet, I don't have enough confidence in my findings to publish any detail further back in these lines.