Janet Allan

  General Notes:

There is a Janet Allan buried at the Lesmahagow Churchyard cemetery in Lanarkshire. James spent his latter years here so it is possibly her. She died 9 February 1815. There are also records for the deaths of TWO Janet Allans in Bothwell, Lanark (where all the children were born) in 1815 - one of 25 November, the other on 26 August. No ages are recorded for any of them,

Incredibly a large number of researchers at Ancestry.com record that she died in 1872 in St Ninians, Stirlingshire. However, a simple examination of the death record shows that she was one Janet Miller, nee Cowie and NOT this Janet. Clearly they've all copied the same thing from a completely false genealogy.

Her daughter, Elisabeth's, Death Certificate is interesting in that an "Ann Stedman Beveridge" is recorded last in the list of children. Her name is enclosed in parenthesis and her age is hard to read but may be twenty something. Interestingly, Elisabeth's son Michael had a daughter named Elizabeth Steadman Cadzow, and Michael's son James Mathew had a daughter named Helen Stedman Cadzow, and Elisabeth's daughter Ann had a daughter named Elizabeth Ann Stedman Thatcher. Female maiden names are commonly used as middle names in this family vis Crawford, Allan. An inference is that Steedman or Stedman is also connected through the female line somewhere in this family.

Investigation reveals that Janet Allan may be descended from a Charles Allan and Elizabeth Steedman who married 23 Dec 1733 in Alloa, Clackmannan parish. Whilst Charles & Elizabeth had two daughters named Janet (the first must have died young) the second one was born in 1736 and would be too old to be our Janet. However they also had a son, Francis, who had a daughter named Janet born 12 Jun 1785. this Janet would have been 15 1/2 years of age when Elisabeth was born, so is possibly our Janet. On Elisabeth's baptism record she is referred to as James' spouse and Elisabeth as their "lawful daughter" which tells us that they were married and the child was not illegitimate.

However, there are trees at FamilySearch suggesting her parents were Robert Allan and Elizabeth Thomson and she was born 8 July and baptised 12 July 1780 in North Leith, Midlothian. A mother's name of Elizabeth is considered likely given that James and Janet's first daughter was named Elisabeth.

Janet married James Cowie, son of Matthew Cowie and Janet Hill. (James Cowie was born on 1 Nov 1779 in Bothwell, Lanark, Scotland, christened on 10 Nov 1779 in Bothwell, Lanark, Scotland, died on 22 Nov 1859 in Bankfoot, Lesmahagow, Lanark, Scotland and was buried in Nov 1859 in Churchyard of, Lesmahagow, Lanark, Scotland.). The cause of his death was Asthma and old age, months.