Margaret Burt (née Fraser) (1826-11-20 – 1875-05-10) was my great-great-great-grandmother, being the husband of Elijah Burt and mother of my ancestor Jeannette Burt. She was the daughter of Scottish immigrants David Fraser and Alexandrea Maxwell. She may have been born during her family’s migration voyage to America.
Records vary as to whether she was born in Vermont (Hinesburg) or Scotland. The earliest available, the 1850 census when she was living with her parents, shows her as born in Scotland.
The most intriguing claim comes from the 1954 death record of her son John Burt. For the entry, “Mother’s birthplace”, it says “aboard ship—Atlantic Ocean”.ref This is very specific, and would be unlikely to be the result of guesswork or error. So, she may have born during the family’s immigration.
However, her sister Betsey, about two years younger, is consistently recorded as having been born in Scotland. This is hard to square with the above unless the family had multiple voyages.
Her reported age varies on records (e.g., she claims to be 35 at her 1857-03-08 marriage), but the exact date above is specified on her gravestone, and matches the age on her death record of 48 years, 5 months, 20 days.ref It also is consistent with the age on the 1850 census which her parents would have presumably reported.
Her six known children, all by Elijah, are listed under his article.
Her father’s 1883 will divides his property among his children but “excluding the heirs of Margaret (Fraser) Burt from all benefit to be derived from the kinship of their mother.” Why he excluded them (and me) is not clear. She had died 8 years earlier, and it is possible he disapproved of her husband (who had already remarried) and/or felt less affinity for those grandchildren.
I have not found Scottish records that would allow tracing beyond her grandparents.