Memorandum regarding the Fairweathers of Menmuir Parish, Forfarshire, and others of the surname

14
But, fortunately, the mystery is of very small moment to
the bearer of the name, or anyone else ; while its investiga-
tion, may, for lack of better employment, have been to the
writer a profitless amusement, prompted by idle curiosity.
Whether or not, he here begs to record his sense of how
imperfectly he has been able to trace back his forbears, with
anything like legal accuracy, beyond the third or fourth genera-
tion ; arising from the want in former times of proper paro-
chial registers and other records of vital statistics. But there
may be some consolation in the fact that at least half the
people of Scotland are in similar case.
(Note by the Editor. — He might safely have said nine-
tenths of the people of Scotland were in like case. How
many middle-class men can name, much less trace, a great
grand parent? The earliest extant Scottish parish registers
date only from about the year 1600 ; and are very imperfect
for a century later ; which is not surprising when the politi-
cal and religious turmoil in Scotland during the seventeenth
century is considered. The registrations, moreover, could hardly
be reckoned vital statistics ; as Deaths were not recorded, but
only Baptisms and Marriages.)