I've been sorting one of my Scottish sidelines using Ancestry. The husband Hugh (a Free Church minister) came from Ardersier, Inverness-shire and his wife Isabella (my rellie) came from Ayrshire. In 1881 she, unmarried, is at her father's manse (yes another minister). By 1891 they are married and staying at a Temperance hotel in London and in 1901 they are at his manse in Kilmarnock with "their" 26-year-old daughter Margaret.
These two census entries gave me his first name (I already had his surname).
So, in 1881 I found Hugh and Isabella at his previous manse in Collessie, Fife, with a brood of children all born there including the above-mentioned Margaret. But Isabella is also from Ardersier, so clearly she died at some point and he married "my" Isabella.
So where are all these kids in 1891? At the manse in Kilmarnock being looked after by "my" Isabella's unmarried sister. The Ancestry transcriber was so overcome by finding a family with no Head (the eldest boy is described as Son and auntie as Visitor) that they combined them with the family next door. Fortunately they transcribed the address accurately for each person.
So it is possible to manage without ScotlandsPeople if you are lucky. Collessie didn't get mangled, though it is in Cafeshire on one census. But Ardersier had one or two odd spellings.
These two census entries gave me his first name (I already had his surname).
So, in 1881 I found Hugh and Isabella at his previous manse in Collessie, Fife, with a brood of children all born there including the above-mentioned Margaret. But Isabella is also from Ardersier, so clearly she died at some point and he married "my" Isabella.
So where are all these kids in 1891? At the manse in Kilmarnock being looked after by "my" Isabella's unmarried sister. The Ancestry transcriber was so overcome by finding a family with no Head (the eldest boy is described as Son and auntie as Visitor) that they combined them with the family next door. Fortunately they transcribed the address accurately for each person.
So it is possible to manage without ScotlandsPeople if you are lucky. Collessie didn't get mangled, though it is in Cafeshire on one census. But Ardersier had one or two odd spellings.
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