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Scotlands People Q

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  • Scotlands People Q

    I spent literally hours on Scotlands People last night, searching for the death of Mary Don, who I knew was alive in 1901, aged 84.

    Nothing came up no matter how I manipiuated the information. She was born McWilliam, married Milne, then married Don. There is also the possibility that she was illegitimate, so I searched under Wight as well for her mother's maiden name.

    I was just going to throw it all to you lot but decided to have one last go. Up it came. The death has been indexed as MILNE, but the cert lists her as Mary DON.

    Is there anyway of correcting this? Everything about the cert is correct, down to her mother's maiden name, it is just the index which is wrong.

    OC

  • #2
    I haven't come across exactly that situation, OC, but usually when you download an image on that site there is something you can click on to report a problem, so if I were you I would go that route. I think there are different descriptions of problem to choose from, such as "image doesn't match index", so there should hopefully be one for this case.
    KiteRunner

    Every five years or so I look back on my life and I have a good... laugh"
    (Indigo Girls, "Watershed")

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    • #3
      Thanks Kate, I didn't think of that, I was too delighted that I had found her finally!

      Not that her DC has told me anything I didn't already know, but you know what it's like - the more you can't find something, the more convinced you are that it contains valuable information, lol.

      OC

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      • #4
        OC - I just did a search for Mary Don, other surnames Milne, and got one result, but, of course don't know if that's your Mary.
        Did you see the note about the unindexed mother's maiden names?

        Incidentally, when I've queried a couple in the past which proved to be wrongly indexed, I was credited with the amount I'd spent to download them.
        Gillian
        User page: http://www.familytreeforum.com/wiki/...ustGillian-117

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        • #5
          JG

          I tried every combination I could think of! However, SP was very very slow last night and I am now wondering if it just timed out without saying so?

          I found the right entry today on the very first search I did!

          Header of the cert says " 1902 Milne, Mary"

          This woman is a total mystery and a pain. I have found her supposed parents with a batch of kids being baptised - but not her! She can never decide how old she is, which gives me a 15 year window to search.

          OC

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          • #6
            I've also found the people at SP very good at resolving problems - almost always with credits refunded even when they didn't really have to.
            Kind regards,
            William
            Particular interests: The Cumming families of Edinkillie & Dallas, Moray

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            • #7
              Thanks Wulliam, I shall try, although this fruitless search didn't actually cost me any credits because it never found any results!

              I am more concerned that it has been mis-indexed.

              OC

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              • #8
                OC - I had a similar thing yesterday with my Isabella Wishart, but on the 1901 census. However, yours is slightly different as it has been indexed incorrectly.

                She was born Isabella Johnston, then married John Baird, and after he died she married Robert Wishart.

                I searched for ages for her on the 1901 census. I couldn't find her, so I searched for her children in turn - she was with her son Isaac Wishart and was entered on the census (as clear as clear) "Isabell Johnston". She was 86 and hadn't been Isabella Johnston since 1839!!

                I did an alternate name on the Ancestry page, but didn't know whether you could do anything on SP. It's not a transcription error, just an incorrect surname.

                You would have thought her son would have given her as "Wishart"!

                You and I are having fun! However, my Johnston file is now pristine - all typed up and at least another 60 descendants added!
                Elizabeth
                Research Interests:
                England:Purkis, Stilwell, Quintrell, White (Surrey - Guildford), Jeffcoat, Bond, Alexander, Lamb, Newton (Lincolnshire, Stalybridge, London)
                Scotland:Richardson (Banffshire), Wishart (Kincardineshire), Johnston (Kincardineshire)

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                • #9
                  OC - My understanding is that married women are indexed individually under each of their surnames i.e maiden plus any married surnames.
                  e.g I have the death cert of an Elizabeth maiden name Birnet, married name Thomson. The cert is headed Mary Birnet. When I queried it with SP, they explained that the cert would also have been available under the heading Elizabeth Thomson. (That was one of the occasions when they credited me with 6 credits although I had, in fact, managed to download the correct cert)
                  Gillian
                  User page: http://www.familytreeforum.com/wiki/...ustGillian-117

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                  • #10
                    JG

                    That's the problem - I searched for Mary Don, Mary Milne, Mary McWilliam and even Mary Wight,with various combinations of "other surnames" and "maiden names" then all over again with MAY as a forename - nothing!

                    But today, searching for Mary Don, other surnames Milne, got me there.

                    Elizabeth - yes, same here, I found her in 1871 as Mary McWilliam - she hadn't been a McWilliam since 1838!

                    Mind you, I do wonder how much of that is down to poor transcriptions - maybe there was a ditto under the surname of her husband (Don). And poor old Daniel/David Don wasn't 14 at all - he was 78!!!!(And he wasn't a Tarmer, either, he was a Farmer, unless anyone can tell me what a Tarmer does for a living?)

                    Then in 1881 she is a widow again, calling herself Mary McWilliam Don - fine. She has two BOARDERS aged 9 and 8, who are in fact her GRANDCHILDREN - why didn't she say so???!!! I kept missing the link here for ages because I didn't know she had remarried. She is only with her first husband and children once, the rest of the time she's off gadding about, and I assumed at first that she had died.

                    OC

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                    • #11
                      OC - I think we have been adding heavily to SP's coffers over the past week.

                      I'm up to date with my Johnstons - will start soon on the Wisharts!

                      I need to order my father's birth cert. - 1920 - but I don't need to order his parents' marriage cert. because I have the orginal copy - my aunt put it in an album with a potted history of my grandfather's family (not Scottish - although Alexander). I also have the "Certificate of Proclamation" - the original. It's lovely with a beautiful border with flowers, ribbons and roses and torches.

                      My grandparents met because my grandfater was in the Royal Flying Corps/RAF and my grandmother was in the WRAF or whatever it was called then - Women's Royal AIr Auxiliary or something.
                      Elizabeth
                      Research Interests:
                      England:Purkis, Stilwell, Quintrell, White (Surrey - Guildford), Jeffcoat, Bond, Alexander, Lamb, Newton (Lincolnshire, Stalybridge, London)
                      Scotland:Richardson (Banffshire), Wishart (Kincardineshire), Johnston (Kincardineshire)

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                      • #12
                        Elizabeth

                        My parents met in Aberdeen during WW2. Dad was English, stationed there and mum was local, in the ATS.

                        Curious thing though - I do not have a copy of mum's bc, mc or dc. I do not know what happened to them. I suspect my brother pinched them when we were clearing the house, but he says not.

                        Considering my father never threw away a single piece of paper in his life, this is most odd. There is no mystery about either of their origins, nor the date of their marriage etc, so why would anyone THROW AWAY such documents?

                        All adds to the Scottish mystique, I suppose!

                        OC

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                        • #13
                          OC - like you, I was puzzled to find no trace of my mother's birth or marriage certificate on her death 3 years ago as she too never threw away any "official" papers. I had to smile though because I too suspect one of my brothers of pinching them! lol

                          My parents met in WWII - my Scottish mother being posted to Kent where my Londoner father was her CO. Strangely, I have discovered since their deaths that not only was my father's grandfather a Scot but that one of his "removed" cousins married my mother's uncle. It is a source of much amusement to my siblings and I as my mother did little to disguise the fact that she considered Scots far superior to those people of London origin!
                          Gillian
                          User page: http://www.familytreeforum.com/wiki/...ustGillian-117

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                          • #14
                            My dad was very proud of being one half Scottish, but otherwise he kept very little in the way of papers etc.

                            However, my aunt, his sister, put together 3 photo albums before she died in 1979 (only in her 50s). So I have lots of photos and papers. I came by them by default. I am the youngest of 3 and my brother was rightly given them. However, he died aged only 39 and my sister-in-law gave them all to me as she knows how interested I am in the family history.

                            I have pictures of my grandfather in the Royal Flying Corps, on a motor bike, in uniiform etc with a big Bleirot hangar behind him. Ther are a couple of my grnadmother - one looking very funny in a "boiler suit" type uniform complete with goggles puhsed up on her forehead and one of those little flying caps! And one of my grandparents side by side in uniform in Dec 1918 before they married.

                            All we knew of my Scottish ancestors were the surnames and christian names of a few. As my great-grandparents married in Dumfries and ended up living in Glasgow, I didn't expect to find that they came from Kincardineshire and Banfshire. I can now trace them all back to the mid 1700s.

                            I must say that I have enjoyed the journey!
                            Elizabeth
                            Research Interests:
                            England:Purkis, Stilwell, Quintrell, White (Surrey - Guildford), Jeffcoat, Bond, Alexander, Lamb, Newton (Lincolnshire, Stalybridge, London)
                            Scotland:Richardson (Banffshire), Wishart (Kincardineshire), Johnston (Kincardineshire)

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                            • #15
                              Like you, I knew nothing of my Scottish ancestors, just the names of my grandparents - and I wasn't even sure about my Grandmother's name, either.

                              I didnt start researching them till January last year because I thought it would be impossible. Within 5 days I had got back to most of my 3 x GGPs!

                              There is still an unsolved mystery about my Grandmother, supposedly an orphan, brought up in a terrible Children's Home. This is untrue (the orphan bit) as her mother died when my grandmother was 19 (and already married) and her father died when she was in her late 40s!!!

                              I had hoped to get a lead on this from her four remaining sons when I met up with them last year, but all professed to know nothing, although one of them did let slip that he had often visited his grandfather (granny's father). I got the distinct impression that I should mind my own business, and without their help, I don't know where to go with this. Perhaps the 1911 census will throw some light on it.

                              Like you, my Aberdonians all originated in Kincardine and Banffshire, with one lot from the Highlands.

                              The ease with which Scottish research can be done on line is balanced out with the extremely confusing information about names and ages and so on. I also think that I don't have a "feeling" for these people, partly because the research has been so rapid and partly because I only have bald, official facts - I know nothing of them as people, and their personalities do not come through in the way that my english ancestors do.

                              OC

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