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Family from Forfar - Introduction

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Confirming family legends, hundreds of years later, is not easy. In the 1700's the creation of paper records was not always a high priority for individuals faced with the urgent needs of daily living, and as historical research is based on locating records from a time of scarce sources, one can eventually reach a brick wall, beyond which there is no conclusive proof, due to lack of records or due to multiple records with the same names, making it difficult to determine which of many individuals the records apply to.  At that point, one is left with speculation, based on what records have survived.

For the families of Sarah Jean Dalgity and Serg. David Scott who married in Forfar, Angus in eastern Scotland, direct records linked to these individuals begin with their marriage record in 1795. Although lacking detailed knowledge of Scottish ancestry before this time, family legends - lasted 200 years - speak of ancestral connections to the family of Sir Walter Scott.  Family stories from a couple of sources also indicate an Edinburgh connection. The one Scottish record that provides a geographic link for the family is the marriage in Forfar, in county Angus and this remains a clue of possible deeper Dalgity and Scott ancestral roots.

Surname distribution maps from 1881 and currently show that county Angus, Edinburgh and the Borders district are among the areas where the Scott name remains most common. Dalgity is a name that tends to be unique to the Forfar area historically as this is the area where it remains in highest concentration. Current maps show there has been urban growth in the Edinburgh area, likely due to migration of residents finding employment there.  It is fair to speculate that since both Scott and Dalgity names have existed in good numbers in this part of Scotland for the past 130 years that it has likely been an area of concentration in prior centuries as well. While the names of Serg. David Scott and Jeannie Dalgity and stories of their lives, have been passed through successive generations of  descendants, we can only speculate on the names of their parents.  If David's age upon his death in Halifax was 28 - as cemetery records suggest - this would place him as being born around 1775. If we estimate that Jean was a similar age, then she might have been born around 1775 as well. A search of individuals born with this name in Scotland during the decade produces only a few possibilities and suggest that perhaps she was the Jean Dalgety who was born in 1774 to James Dalgety and Elizabeth Craik in Brechin, Angus, or the Jean Delgaty born in 1773 to John Delgaty and Ann Smith in Prestonpans, in East Lothian.

A search of all the David Scotts born in Scotland in 1775 indicate at least seven were born or christened that year with majority of these David Scotts being born in county Angus.  With a name this common, it is a challenge to confirm which if any of these Davids are the individual who married Jeannie Dalgity. Of the potential  David Scotts born during the assumed year of birth, we can determine various potential parents names, although there is nothing to confirm these individuals are the right match. It is possible that the continued use of the names like David and John, within the family could have been a pattern continued from Scotland and that the unknown ancestors included John and David Scotts, from an earlier time.  Without records for the exact lineage and Christian names, prior to 1795, we can still be confident that the Scott and Dalgity surnames extend back many centuries to an era when the usage of surnames first emerged.

Jeannie (Sarah Jean Dalgity) is remembered by family for being able to quote long passages of poetry from Sir Walter Scott and informed her children and grandchildren, that they were connected to the great bard.  As the connection to this lineage is undocumented, determining if the connection was kinship or distant clanship remains a challenge.

A Border Clan Scott genealogy covering 29 generations over 900 years, of a lineage which includes Sir Walter Scott, shows many unaccounted branches.

Scottish history tells of the first tribal uniting of Scotland under the Scots (a branch of the Irish Celts or Gaels) and the Picts (a tribal alliance known by the Romans as the "painted people"). Pictland, gradually merged with the Gaelic kingdom of Dál Riata to form the Kingdom of Alba (Scotland). And thus with Scott ancestry possibly from  the ancient Scots as well as Dalgity ancestry from the Picts the children of the founding couple had a rich background in their DNA when they left Scotland.

The passage of a small family from Forfar, Angus to a fortress town on the rocky shores of Nova Scotia, was the beginning of a new life, in a new world for the generations that followed.  While details of the years before 1795 may continue to remain a mystery, it is suffice to say that a young couple with family names Dalgity and Scott had roots steeped in Scottish history.