This is a computational site. I'm sure it has lots of uses.
I use it to find the day of a week a certain date was. e.g. Try typing in your birthdate. It will tell you the day of the week and exactly how old you are with months and days. And lots more.
It comes into its own to pinpoint a date from a newspaper report.
For example I found a newspaper report of a death "last Tuesday". The date of the newspaper is 10 Sep 1864. So to find the date of death simply type in the date
http://www.wolframalpha.com/input/?i=10+sep+1864
10th was a Saturday so the previous Tuesday was the 6th September 1864.
QED
Monday, 10 July 2017
Wednesday, 5 July 2017
Scotlandspeople - name search
I had not really used this feature until recently.
I think the reason was that it gives far too many results if you type in a common name like Robert Wilson. Yikes!
You can restrict results by date e.g. from 1850 - 1950
However, if the name is less common or if especially you have a middle name as well, it will give you all matching records at once.
Here are the 3 results for Edna Stewart Sinclair. You can view at each and use the back arrow to return to this screen. Result!
I think the reason was that it gives far too many results if you type in a common name like Robert Wilson. Yikes!
You can restrict results by date e.g. from 1850 - 1950
However, if the name is less common or if especially you have a middle name as well, it will give you all matching records at once.
Here are the 3 results for Edna Stewart Sinclair. You can view at each and use the back arrow to return to this screen. Result!
Monday, 12 December 2016
Named after first wife
I have seen examples of this before but not documented it.
I was looking at a Jessie Guthrie born about 1852. Father William Guthrie and mother Jane McKerrow.
She was baptised as Janet Morrison Guthrie in Ochiltree on 28 June 1851. (Jessie is a variant of Janet.)
She was married in Maybole in 1872 as Jessie Morrison Guthrie. Her first husband died within a few months of marriage and she married again in 1874 as Jessie McKerrow Guthrie. The parents are the same on both certificates.
Looking more closely at William Guthrie; his first wife was Janet Morrison so she was named after the first wife. This seems a bit strange to us nowadays. I need to see if I can find the other examples of this I've seen.
Jessie must have decided to use her mother's name as her middle name in 1874. Her death certificate has Morrison again as her middle name.
Link to Jessie Guthrie on the Cumnock Connections tree
Here's another example: Ann Moodie Henderson b 1871 in Kilmarnock
I was looking at a Jessie Guthrie born about 1852. Father William Guthrie and mother Jane McKerrow.
She was baptised as Janet Morrison Guthrie in Ochiltree on 28 June 1851. (Jessie is a variant of Janet.)
She was married in Maybole in 1872 as Jessie Morrison Guthrie. Her first husband died within a few months of marriage and she married again in 1874 as Jessie McKerrow Guthrie. The parents are the same on both certificates.
Looking more closely at William Guthrie; his first wife was Janet Morrison so she was named after the first wife. This seems a bit strange to us nowadays. I need to see if I can find the other examples of this I've seen.
Jessie must have decided to use her mother's name as her middle name in 1874. Her death certificate has Morrison again as her middle name.
MOODIE/GUTHRIE
|
JANET MORRISON
|
82
|
1933
|
610/A 32
|
Old Cumnock
|
Link to Jessie Guthrie on the Cumnock Connections tree
Here's another example: Ann Moodie Henderson b 1871 in Kilmarnock
Sunday, 4 September 2016
Who was he named after?
Middle names are often seen through the generations and this can help you be sure you have the right family.
See my previous post on naming patterns here.
The middle name Bigby or Begbie crops up in the Thorburn family of Ayrshire and descendants in the USA and New Zealand. Originally though I think the name was Biggar and I think I have traced it back to a John Biggar in the 27th Regiment of Foot, possibly born in Ireland and his daughter Mary Biggar born 1814 in Ayr who married William Thorburn and died aged only 23. More about the Thorburns here
I spent a lot of time looking for the connection between several children with the first names William Vessie in West Kilbride, only to find that William Vessie was the local minister! So don't assume that the unusual name in your family tree must be an ancestor!
A female ancestor of mine rejoiced in the names Christian Straton Allardice Sievwright when all her siblings had a single given name. I thought I was on to something. But it turned out Christian Allardice Straton was the minister's daughter!
See my previous post on naming patterns here.
The middle name Bigby or Begbie crops up in the Thorburn family of Ayrshire and descendants in the USA and New Zealand. Originally though I think the name was Biggar and I think I have traced it back to a John Biggar in the 27th Regiment of Foot, possibly born in Ireland and his daughter Mary Biggar born 1814 in Ayr who married William Thorburn and died aged only 23. More about the Thorburns here
I spent a lot of time looking for the connection between several children with the first names William Vessie in West Kilbride, only to find that William Vessie was the local minister! So don't assume that the unusual name in your family tree must be an ancestor!
A female ancestor of mine rejoiced in the names Christian Straton Allardice Sievwright when all her siblings had a single given name. I thought I was on to something. But it turned out Christian Allardice Straton was the minister's daughter!
Tuesday, 26 July 2016
Scotland's counties and regions
The way Scotland is divided up into counties has changed several times and must be very confusing for researchers not familiar with Scotland.
Undiscovered scotland explains the changes in administrative areas.
For example Brechin was in Forfarshire but that is now Angus.
The county town often had the same name as the county e.g. Ayr in Ayrshire, Kirkcudbright in Kirkcudbrightshire, Dumbarton in Dunbartonshire (note the change from M to N), Inverness in Inverness-shire but there is no town called Argyll.
Kirkcudbrightshire is now part of Dumfries & Galloway.
What is now the town of Dumfries is split by the river Nith - the east side was in the parish of Dumfries, Dumfriesshire and the west side was Maxwelltown in the parish of Troqueer in Kirkcudbrightshire.
Other confusions are with similar place names e.g. Kilmaronock in Dunbartonshire and Kilmarnock in Ayrshire. Dalry in Ayrshire and (St John's Town of) Dalry in Dumfriesshire. There's also a part of Edinburgh called Dalry.
There is also the problem of parish names which may not actually be the name of a village or town such as the aforementioned Troqueer.
And the parish of Loudoun in Ayrshire covered parts of Galston, Newmilns and Darvel. There was no actual place called Loudoun although there was Loudoun Rows, near Loudoun Kirk.
Although I live in that area, I still get confused. I tend to go by the street name e.g. Brown street, Loudoun I know is in Newmilns.
The family search wiki on Scotland is very helpful.
Undiscovered scotland explains the changes in administrative areas.
For example Brechin was in Forfarshire but that is now Angus.
The county town often had the same name as the county e.g. Ayr in Ayrshire, Kirkcudbright in Kirkcudbrightshire, Dumbarton in Dunbartonshire (note the change from M to N), Inverness in Inverness-shire but there is no town called Argyll.
Kirkcudbrightshire is now part of Dumfries & Galloway.
What is now the town of Dumfries is split by the river Nith - the east side was in the parish of Dumfries, Dumfriesshire and the west side was Maxwelltown in the parish of Troqueer in Kirkcudbrightshire.
Other confusions are with similar place names e.g. Kilmaronock in Dunbartonshire and Kilmarnock in Ayrshire. Dalry in Ayrshire and (St John's Town of) Dalry in Dumfriesshire. There's also a part of Edinburgh called Dalry.
There is also the problem of parish names which may not actually be the name of a village or town such as the aforementioned Troqueer.
And the parish of Loudoun in Ayrshire covered parts of Galston, Newmilns and Darvel. There was no actual place called Loudoun although there was Loudoun Rows, near Loudoun Kirk.
Although I live in that area, I still get confused. I tend to go by the street name e.g. Brown street, Loudoun I know is in Newmilns.
The family search wiki on Scotland is very helpful.
Friday, 15 July 2016
42nd cousins
I shall explain how to work out relationships with cousins.
The starting point is the common ancestor.
If you both share a grandparent, you will be the same generation, you are cousins or first cousins.
Robert Murdoch and Hugh Fleming are first cousins.
If you both share a great grandparent ( and you will be the same generation) you are second cousins.
David Murdoch and Isabella Fleming are second cousins and her daughter Mary and David are second cousins once removed, meaning one generation removed.
See this chart for more distant cousins.
The starting point is the common ancestor.
If you both share a grandparent, you will be the same generation, you are cousins or first cousins.
Robert Murdoch and Hugh Fleming are first cousins.
If you both share a great grandparent ( and you will be the same generation) you are second cousins.
David Murdoch and Isabella Fleming are second cousins and her daughter Mary and David are second cousins once removed, meaning one generation removed.
See this chart for more distant cousins.
Wednesday, 25 May 2016
Illegitimate births - finding the father
There will be few family trees that don't have some illegitimate births in them. The question is - Who's the daddy?
I will share my experiences of researching illegitimate births here and I don't claim to have all the answers.
Most of those researched have been in Scotland the 19th century. I am not sure if the same stigmas applied then as is the 20th century. I suspect not.
If a daughter of the family had a child out of wedlock, in most cases the child was accepted into the grandparents' family. Sometimes the mother would be in a different household earning her keep as a servant. Sometimes when she later married her child would become part of her new family and sometimes would stay on with the grandparents.
The child if a girl would be named after her maternal grandmother following traditional Scottish naming pattern. A son though may have been given the name of his natural father. So do consider this.
Often the father would be someone close by, a neighbour as in the case of James Neil below. I have also seen cases where the reputed father suddenly upped sticks and emigrated!
As for how the birth was recorded, that depended on whether the father acknowledged the child.
From 1855 onwards either the mother alone is named on the birth certificate or the father also is named and signed the certificate. Illegitimate was written in brackets below the child's name.
If the parents subsequently married the child, under Scots law, became legitimate.
Where the father did not acknowledge the child there may well have been a paternity case where the mother sued the reputed father for aliment. You may be able to locate court records. More excellent information on this from Maxwell ancestry.
Pre -1855 the OPR baptism records have various wordings for illegitimate - natural son/daughter, bastard son/daughter, conceived in adultery, conceived in fornication. Sometimes the father is named and the parish he is from.
The mother would be brought before the Kirk Session (elders of the church of Scotland for each parish church and the moral compass for the parish) and asked about the father. If she named him he would be required to attend the Kirk Session meeting and they would be asked to repent and pay a fee in atonement. Similarly, if a child was born less than 9 months after the wedding the parents would be called up and accused of prenuptial or ante-nuptial fornication. So Kirk Session records can be a great resource. They can be accessed at your local archives centre. They have also been digitised but are not available yet to view.
If the baptism/ birth record doesn't yield any clues, the subsequent marriage or death certificates of the child may yield further information - the father may be recorded as "reputed father".
On several occasions I have found the child in a census with a different surname to his mother. I think to start with the child was given his father's name possibly in the hope that the father may do the decent thing and marry her or simply because that was the father's name and so the child should have its father's surname. Often the name later reverted to the mother's name.
Here is a typical example of Euphemia McCulloch born about 1850 ( no record) to Ann McCulloch, named Euphemia after her grandmother and recorded in 1851 and 1861 as McLeod. When Ann married Adam Todd she took his name. Euphemia Mcleod/ McCulloch/ Todd
And another the birth of James Neil in 1861 where his father signed the birth certificate. His father lived at 104 Peesweep Row and his mother at 103! The father soon married another girl and emigrated to Australia. Being illegitimate did not hold James back as he became Lord Provost (the Scottish equivalent of Lord Mayor).
I will share my experiences of researching illegitimate births here and I don't claim to have all the answers.
Most of those researched have been in Scotland the 19th century. I am not sure if the same stigmas applied then as is the 20th century. I suspect not.
If a daughter of the family had a child out of wedlock, in most cases the child was accepted into the grandparents' family. Sometimes the mother would be in a different household earning her keep as a servant. Sometimes when she later married her child would become part of her new family and sometimes would stay on with the grandparents.
The child if a girl would be named after her maternal grandmother following traditional Scottish naming pattern. A son though may have been given the name of his natural father. So do consider this.
Often the father would be someone close by, a neighbour as in the case of James Neil below. I have also seen cases where the reputed father suddenly upped sticks and emigrated!
As for how the birth was recorded, that depended on whether the father acknowledged the child.
From 1855 onwards either the mother alone is named on the birth certificate or the father also is named and signed the certificate. Illegitimate was written in brackets below the child's name.
If the parents subsequently married the child, under Scots law, became legitimate.
Where the father did not acknowledge the child there may well have been a paternity case where the mother sued the reputed father for aliment. You may be able to locate court records. More excellent information on this from Maxwell ancestry.
Pre -1855 the OPR baptism records have various wordings for illegitimate - natural son/daughter, bastard son/daughter, conceived in adultery, conceived in fornication. Sometimes the father is named and the parish he is from.
The mother would be brought before the Kirk Session (elders of the church of Scotland for each parish church and the moral compass for the parish) and asked about the father. If she named him he would be required to attend the Kirk Session meeting and they would be asked to repent and pay a fee in atonement. Similarly, if a child was born less than 9 months after the wedding the parents would be called up and accused of prenuptial or ante-nuptial fornication. So Kirk Session records can be a great resource. They can be accessed at your local archives centre. They have also been digitised but are not available yet to view.
If the baptism/ birth record doesn't yield any clues, the subsequent marriage or death certificates of the child may yield further information - the father may be recorded as "reputed father".
On several occasions I have found the child in a census with a different surname to his mother. I think to start with the child was given his father's name possibly in the hope that the father may do the decent thing and marry her or simply because that was the father's name and so the child should have its father's surname. Often the name later reverted to the mother's name.
Here is a typical example of Euphemia McCulloch born about 1850 ( no record) to Ann McCulloch, named Euphemia after her grandmother and recorded in 1851 and 1861 as McLeod. When Ann married Adam Todd she took his name. Euphemia Mcleod/ McCulloch/ Todd
And another the birth of James Neil in 1861 where his father signed the birth certificate. His father lived at 104 Peesweep Row and his mother at 103! The father soon married another girl and emigrated to Australia. Being illegitimate did not hold James back as he became Lord Provost (the Scottish equivalent of Lord Mayor).
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