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.
Tuesday, 26 July 2016
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).
Sunday, 17 April 2016
Children with the same name
I should have added this in the Scottish naming patterns post.
If, for example, you have done a parent search on familysearch.org and found 2 children with the same given name, it usually means the first one has died and the next child born of the same sex is also given that name.
If, for example, you have done a parent search on familysearch.org and found 2 children with the same given name, it usually means the first one has died and the next child born of the same sex is also given that name.
If the age of a child in a census is younger than you were expecting, this also may indicate it is a second child with the same name and you should look for another birth.
Friday, 1 April 2016
Ordering certificates from scotlandspeople
When you have found the record you were looking for you will usually see 2 options. View 5 credits or Order.
You don't need to order a certificate, just download it for 5 credits. The certificate won't give you any more information anti will cost you £12. The downloaded image at 5 credits is £1.50.
You only need to get a certificate if you need it for legal purposes or if the other option is not available, eg a modern record a 1918 birth record. This is because it is too recent. There's a 100 year cut off for births. However if you can bear to wait till next January, you will be able to download it then!
Your other option is to visit one of the scotlandspeople hubs where for a day you can look up as many certificates as you like for £15.
The hubs are in Edinburgh, Glasgow, Kilmarnock and Inverness.
Highland Archive and Registration Centre, Inverness
Hawick Heritage Hub
Clackmannanshire Family History Centre in Alloa
Hawick Heritage Hub
Clackmannanshire Family History Centre in Alloa
Always phone first to check computer availability and opening hours.
Wednesday, 23 March 2016
Enhanced family stories
Family stories get embellished or distorted over the years.
My grandfather "drove the first bus in Edinburgh" or that is what I remembered.
Today I found his licence
As he was driver no 258 he certainly wasn't the first, but he does appear to have been one of the first drivers on the Mound to Corstorphine route.
Both of these photos appear in the 1976 staff magazine of the Scottish Motor Group and I suspect my father or my uncle supplied the information. So it is a secondary source and should be viewed with some suspicion.
My grandfather "drove the first bus in Edinburgh" or that is what I remembered.
Today I found his licence
As he was driver no 258 he certainly wasn't the first, but he does appear to have been one of the first drivers on the Mound to Corstorphine route.
 |
| James Rolinson at the wheel |
Both of these photos appear in the 1976 staff magazine of the Scottish Motor Group and I suspect my father or my uncle supplied the information. So it is a secondary source and should be viewed with some suspicion.
Monday, 7 March 2016
Valuation rolls
Scotlandspeople have lists of valuation rolls online now for several years, namely 1855, 1865, 1875, 1885, 1895. 1905, 1915, 1920, 1925, 1930 and 1935
These records are free to search! The search will give you the name of the householder, either tenant or owner and the address, so you don't need to pay a further 2 credits to see the page.
Here are all the Flemings in Cumnock.
The page gives more information on who owns the property and the occupation of the householder plus all the neighbours, so not a bad result for 2 credits!
Here is part of the page showing Glengyron Row with at least 5 of my relations!
While this is not nearly as good as a census, it does fill in between the censuses, and they cover more recent records (post 1911) for which not much else is available.
So you have nothing to lose by typing in even just a surname and a county, as often as you like and see what comes up!
1930 valuation roll on scotlandspeople
updated 8 March 2018
These records are free to search! The search will give you the name of the householder, either tenant or owner and the address, so you don't need to pay a further 2 credits to see the page.
Here are all the Flemings in Cumnock.
Here is part of the page showing Glengyron Row with at least 5 of my relations!
While this is not nearly as good as a census, it does fill in between the censuses, and they cover more recent records (post 1911) for which not much else is available.
So you have nothing to lose by typing in even just a surname and a county, as often as you like and see what comes up!
1930 valuation roll on scotlandspeople
updated 8 March 2018
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