I began researching the Beattie name in depth several months ago.  Since then, there have been several major breakthroughs.  But just today, I put the pieces together that clearly indicate that after the deaths of their parents,  the children of Robert and Eliza Beattie made a mass migration to the Liverpool / Birkenhead area in England.  In the 1911 England Census, there are just over 100 Beattie’s living in Birkenhead.

Below are the details that we know, of as of today. So the Beattie’s of Kirkcudbright are now the Beattie’s of Kirkcudbright, Liverpool and Birkenhead.

Elizabeth Gordon (b. abt 1804, d. 1850) and Robert Beattie (b. abt 1806, d. 1848)

Robert and Eliza lived in Kirkudbright, Scotland and had nine children there; Marion, Jonathan, Mary Ann, Robert, John, Elizabeth, David, William  and Charles.   Robert married Elizabeth in Gatehouse of Fleet Parish in 1826. Gatehouse of Fleet is just 8 miles northeast of Kirkcudbright.  Robert was a sailor with at least one boat on the River Dee while his wife, Elizabeth Gordon was an innkeeper on High Street. They died with two years of each other.  Their burial place remains unknown at this time but I suspect it is in Kirkudbright.

Marion Beattie (b. 1827 in Gatehouse of Fleet Parish, Kirkcudbright, Scotland, d. abt 1904 in Birkenhead England)

Sometime around the death of her two parents, Marion Beattie married a seaman named John Carson and took over duties of running the Inn on High Street .  She also stepped up and raised four of her younger siblings In the same house/inn where they had grown up.  Elizabeth, David, William and Charles were still too young to go out on their own, so their older sister raised them until they could go out on their own.  Marion later had a son named Robert while still in Scotland, but had moved to Liverpool with her new family by 1871.

Jonathan J. Beattie (b. 27 Dec 1829, d. 8 Jan 1913 in Brooklyn, New York.)

Jonathan is my Great, Great Grandfather. He arrived and settled in the Brooklyn area of New York around 1846.  He married an Irish woman by the name of Mary Dillon.  They had seven children; Francis, John, Sara, William, Charles, Mary Agnes and Elizabeth.

Mary Ann Beattie (b. 1 Feb 1832)

Mary Ann Beattie married a George Parkhill and had seven children.  The first five were born in Kirkcudbright before the family moved to 3 Rhyl St in Birkenhead, England sometime between 1861 and 1867.

Robert Beattie (b. 28 Sep 1834)

A while back, Janice Beattie, a cousin through John Beattie (below) called my attention to the 1871 and 1881 England Census records that mention a nephew living with John Beattie and his family.  The 1871 Census lists the nephew as “Bout J. Beattie”.  The 1881 Census names him as Robert J. Beattie.  What is interesting is that this nephew, born in 1866, was born in Hong Kong.  Janice remembers hearing a story that one of the Beattie brothers was murdered in China and that brother John had to sail out there to bring back the murdered Beattie’s son.  Having accounted for all the brothers except  Robert and David, I suspect that the nephew belongs to one of these two brothers.  I have requested what I believe to be the death certificate for the nephew, Robert J. Beattie.  If I get lucky, I may be able to put this mystery to rest.  But for now, the last we see Robert is in the 1841 Census.

John Beattie (b. 26 Apr 1837)

John Beattie seems to be one of the first brothers to leave Kirkudbright for England. He married Edith Mann and was a “Pilot” on the River Mersey.  The first  of five children was reportedly born in Liverpool, England in 1866. They include Robert John, Joseph Mann, Charlotte, Charles and Arthur.  John and his family  bounced around from town to town in the Liverpool.  Census records through 1891 indicate that they lived in the Liverpool towns of Everton, Kirkdale and Walton on The Hill (Walton).

Elizabeth Beattie (b. 26 Mar 1840)

I last see Elizabeth living in Scotland with her older sister Marion Beattie Carson.  She probably moved to England as well and married someone.  This make tracking her down a bit more difficult, but not impossible.

David Beattie (b. 25 Aug 1842)

David is another child that I last see in the 1851 Census, living with his sister Marion.  I suspect that he too may have moved to the Liverpool area, but I will need research this further to confirm this.  The other possibility is that he was the one murdered in China, although I suspect not.

William Beattie (b. 10 Sep 1844)

We last see William in Scotland in the 1851 Scotland Census, living with his sister Marion.  By 1875, he married a woman by the name of Mary and was living in Birkenhead, the same town where siblings Charles and Mary Ann’s family’s were living.  William and Mary had nine children; William, David, Mary, Edith, Alfred, harold, Miriam, Elizabeth and Sarah.  I suspect William and his wife spent the rest of their lifetime there too.  William’s daughter, Edith, is the one who notated the very old Beattie letter we have that contains various birth and marriage records of the Beatties in Kirkcudbright.  I have not ben able to track her down beyond 1901, but the research continues.

Charles Belford Beattie (b 16 Apr 1847)

By 1871, Charles moved to Liverpool to live with his sister, Marion and her family.  He was a seaman in his younger years but eventually became a dock laborer.  Somewhere around 1875, Charles and married a woman named Mary Ellen and moved to Birkenhead.  They had ten children; Mary Ellen, Charles, William, Robert, John, Edward, Helena, Edith, David and George.  Charles and his wife remained in Birkenhead through 1911, although I have not ben able to pin down any dates of deaths yet.  According to the 1891 and 1901 Census, a 62 year old aunt by the name Mary Macven was living with them.  Unfortunately, I don’t have any more info on her at this time.  Since Mary Macven is listed as being born in Liverpool, I suspect that she could be the Aunt of Charles’ wife Mary Ellen, but I will need to investigate this further.