Janet Armour

Through my research on the ScotlandsPeople website, I have been able to document a portion of the life of my husband’s fourth great-grandmother, Janet Armour. I successfully traced her marriage and the births of four of five children. My working hypothesis places her birth on September 27, 1777, in Kilmarnock, Ayrshire, Scotland—a town located about 25 miles from Glasgow. While I have a clue that her father was John Armour, the identity of her mother remains a mystery.

Janet married Moses Wylie in Kilmarnock after proclamation on December 12, 1796. The only detail I have for Moses is that he spent his entire adult life as a weaver.

During their marriage, Janet and Moses were blessed with at least five children: Moses Wyllie, Thomas Wyllie, James Wyllie, an unknown fourth child, and Margaret Wyllie. The birth registers for all four children clearly indicate the birth order of each child.

Their firstborn, a son named Moses Wyllie, was born in Kilmarnock on November 22, 1798, and received baptism just three days later. Interestingly, their surname was spelled Wyllie (with two ‘l’s) instead of the more common Wylie. 

Their second child, a son named Thomas Wyllie, was born in Kilmarnock on May 19, 1800. 

 

Their third child, a son named James Wyllie, was born in Kilmarnock on August 5, 1802. It is through this lineage that my husband traces his roots.

On August 30, 1808, birth records reveal that Janet welcomed her fifth child in Kilmarnock—a daughter named Margaret Wyllie. Regrettably, no records exist for the fourth child, but it is evident that there is a more substantial age gap between James and Margaret compared to the other children.

Janet’s paper trail ends here, at least within the records accessible to me. When her son James passed away in 1873, his death register revealed that both of his parents were deceased. James was laid to rest at Eastern Necropolis Cemetery in Glasgow. Given this connection, and the presence of other Wylie family members buried there, it seems possible that Janet may also rest there. Unfortunately, the Eastern Necropolis Cemetery files are unindexed on familysearch.org, requiring manual searches. Although I did manually search the index for burials dated from the early to mid-1800s, I did not find Janet.

References

• James Wylie, Statutory Registers Deaths 644/8 297, National Records of Scotland, 1873.
• James Wylllie, Old Parish Registers Births 597/Kilmarnock, National Records of Scotland, 1802.
• Janet Armour, Scotland, Select Births and Baptisms, National Records of Scotland, 1564–1950.
• Margaret Gilchrist, Old Parish Registers Marriages 597/100 141 Kilmarnock, National Records of Scotland, 1826.
• Margaret Wylie, Old Parish Registers Births 597/Kilmarnock, National Records of Scotland, 1808.
• Moses Wylie, Old Parish Registers Marriages 597/60 84 Kilmarnock, National Records of Scotland, 1796.
• Moses Wyllie, Old Parish Registers Births 597/Kilmarnock, National Records of Scotland, 1798.
• Thomas Wyllie, Old Parish Registers Births 597/ Kilmarnock, National Records of Scotland, 1800.