Margaret Susannah Keachie

From First Presbyterian Church early marriages as they appear on microfilm GS2987. The pages and inks range from the legible to quite faint which has produced uneven results.

Nbr. 51
By license in Dumfries 8 Novr. 1838
Angus Stewart
Susannah Keachie both of Dfs (Dumfries)
Witnesses Wm McKenzie and John Scrimgeour.

(Rev. Strang's entry in the First Church marriage record is clear enough. The marriage was held in the township, Dumfries, and not in Galt. While we can't be sure, almost certainly the marriage would have been held at the home of the bride's parents.)

William McKenzie married Christie Stewart, sister to Angus, on 14 June of the same year. William is the brother-in-law of Angus Stewart.

The witness surnames, McKenzie and Scrimgeour, are quite readable; the given names are not. See transcription of First Presbyterian Church Marriages, Galt, 1834-1841, by Dan Walker and Fawne Stratford-Devai, Vol. 9, Pt 2, Wellington District Marriage Register, 1852-1857, Global Heritage Press/Global Genealogy.com, 2013. The authors have gone to the United Church of Canada Archives and extracted their transcription of this marriage from United Church microfilm reels LCM 30 & 31. The pages on these reels also won't be perfect. 'Wm.' and 'John' are almost certainly correct for the given names of the witnesses. They interpret John Scrimgeour's surname as Scrimgeous. Scrimgeour is correct (A later spelling of this family's surname was Scrimger.)

First Presbyterian Church in Galt was never in the Wellington District. Galt was in the Gore District. The available Gore District marriage register begins in 1843. It is believed that there was an earlier one that didn't survive. Galt very nearly bordered on the Wellington District, however, and First Presbyterian (later First United Church) did pick up on marriages of some residents from the Wellington District. This isn't a great argument for placing First's marriages in a Wellington District volume, but...it is good to have these early First Church marriages appear somewhere in this series. Certainly, the First Church marriages as extracted from the United Church reel LCM 30 and as they appear in the Walker and Stratford-Devai work picks up two 1834 marriages which do not appear on the GS2987 microfilm reel. This reel begins with marriage nbr. 4 in October of 1835.

Beyond this, the handwriting as it appears on the documentation is almost certainly that of Rev. James Strang. A course in 'creative reading' would probably be of some assistance in the decipherment of this clergyman's script.

A further note here: Library & Archives Canada has an index for Upper and Lower Canada marriage licenses. A license was issued on October 26, 1838, for Angus Stewart and Susannah 'Kahey'. This can only be Susannah Keachie.