MAXWELL

My wife and I took a trip to the Youngstown, Ohio area to visit a college friend and his wife who lived in Sharon PA. While there, I took the opportunity to visit the New Castle, PA library and the Youngstown, Ohio "archives." I was looking for information on the birth of my grandmother Mayme Maxwell or her brother, Tom. I was in luck. I found birth records for a Thomas Maxwell, b 8/28/83, and a Maggie Gibson Maxwell, b 5/17/84, both to John Maxwell and Emma Bowers. (I later obtained a birth record for my grandmother, Mary Maxwell, b 8/2/1880.) My concern at that time was that my mother, when asked her about Maggie Gibson Maxwell, told me that she had never heard her mother mention that she had a sister, Maggie. However, from another discovery some time later, I learned that a Thomas Maxwell married a Margaret Gibson in Scotland. I also found an Ohio census record that had a Thomas Maxwell with wife Margaret and children, including a John of the correct age. I concluded that these records were for the same people. The Maggie Gibson Maxwell born to Emma Bowen and John Maxwell was named for John's mother, Margaret Gibson Maxwell who died in 1880. Furthermore, I speculate that both Maggie and mother, Emma, may have died during or shortly after childbirth, but no death date has been found for either person. John Maxwell later remarried, to Anna Rohrer, and had additional children in the 1890s and they, as well as his son Thomas from the marriage to Emma Bowen, lived in Iowa.

I found Scottish Church records, which had been copied by the FHC and were available in an electronic database held in the Kensington Temple. The records provided confirmation of the marriage in Lanark County, Scotland (this is near Glasgow) of Thomas Maxwell to Margaret Gibson in 1847. Ohio death records show that Margaret died in 1880 and Thomas Maxwell died in 1882, both in Ohio. The death location of Thomas contradicts an inscription on a picture of “Thomas Maxwell, First of the Herd” believed to have been written by a son of John Maxwell and the brother of Muddie. I spent considerable time searching these Scottish Church records for more information related to my ancestors and printed numerous pages. The Scottish records give names of siblings and their parents; therefore, the records were electronically searched by: 1) name with results in birth/christening date order which shows birth location and names of parents; 2) parents, listed by father with mother, and children in birth date order; and 3) marriage showing individual and spouses in marriage date order. I found that Angus Maxwell and Janet Thomson appeared to be the parents of my Thomas Maxwell. Angus Maxwell was not listed on any earlier record nor were there any earlier records having the name Angus Maxwell. However, there were about 50 Janet Thomsons born between 1790 and 1800, a guessed birth range for Thomas Maxwell's mother (her marriage date was 1819). Only 4 were born in the area south of Glasgow near the town of Lanark, but it was impossible to speculate which Janet was Angus' wife. The ancestral family of Thomas is suspect as his birth date in the Scottish records is 1822 versus about 1828 per numerous US census records. I recently found an 1870 census record for this Thomas Maxwell under the name Thomas Mikesel. Frequently a person got the name believed to have been heard and recorded by the census taker!

By multiple searches I was able to speculate and identify with some certainty the parents and grandparents of Margaret Gibson. Because I found a William Maxwell and Archie Maxwell in an Iowa Genealogical book where I also found reference to Thomas and Margaret Maxwell, I searched the Church record database in hopes of identifying them so I might find a relationship; I did not. Census records in 1860 show both a Thomas Maxwell family living next to a William Maxwell family. From the birth locations shown for the children, I concluded that William came to America before 1846 and Thomas came via Canada about 1850. This is consistent with the marriage record date for Thomas Maxwell and Margaret Gibson, of 1847 in Scotland. The will of Thomas Maxwell had a Archie Maxwell as a witness so I suspect that these Williams and Archies Maxwell were related somehow.