Thread: How do you know which is the right Thomas?

Hello,



I am fairly new to Genealogy and I have learned two things fairly quickly.



1) With the existance of;



Statutory Registers (Scotland)

Births 1855-2006

Marriages 1855-1932

Deaths 1855-2006

Cencuses from 1841-1901



There are loads of clues to help you pinpoint your ancestors.



2) However when you get to the;



Old Parish Registers (Scotland)

Births & Baptisms 1553-1854

Banns & Marriages 1553-1854



Things get a lot more difficult.



Here is my question which comes up time and time again.



For instance, lets say I'm looking to find the birth of a Thomas Smith. Now all I know about him is that he married a Jean Brown in 1770 in Newton, Lanark, Scotland. I dont know who his mother and father were (but I do know which pub he used to drink in)



Now my logical step would be to start looking on www.scotlandspeople.gov.uk



So to narrow it down my criteria is Thomas Smith, born in Newton, Lanark, Scotland, between 1730 and 1750 making him between 20 and 40 say when he got married.



Guess what, there's twae, sorry I mean there are two! one 25 and one 29.



How do you know which is the right thomas



Is there really no easy answer, or is there someone out there who possesses some sort of Genealogical Wizzardry which will give me the magic formula?



Or am I just being THICK?

[quote name='Silverfox2306'] is there someone out there who possesses some sort of Genealogical Wizzardry which will give me the magic formula?[/quote]



Hi Silverfox,



If you find that person, could you send them my way as well please. I have loads of branches that just come to an end. If they are born towards the end of the old parish register period, sometimes it is possible to sort them out if you can find their age at death. Not having their age at marriage doesn't help either.

A word of warning though, if someone was born in a certain county don't presume that they married there until you can prove it. My great grandmother was born in Scotland, married in Sunderland, England and went back to live in Scotland. When her first husband died she remarried in Hampshire England (South coast) and they both went to live in Scotland.



Sorry I haven't a helpful answer

I've had similar problems.



It does help a wee bit if you have an idea who the parents were as the minister recording the details didn't give a lot away as he entered them.



From my records I have:

MARRIAGES:

1810 Decr 16th

Donald Crawford & Mary Cambbell both in Sherdrim



BIRTHS:

1812 Jany 6th

Mary lawful daughter of Donald Crawford & Mary Campbell in Sherdrim



1814 April 15th

Donald lawful son of Donald Crawford & Mary Campbell in Sherdrim

... and so it went on until 1838 - although the family had moved twice by then!!



The first son was usually named after the father and the first daughter after the mother, then the grandparents and so on. The marriage/birth dates above are close enough together to be accurate but sometimes it needs a bit of speculation or even an educated guess and a fervent hope that the names in use aren't too 'common'.



It soon becomes patently obvious that they had no TV in these days!



It was a bit of a problem in bygone days however when there wasn't the 'selection' of forenames as available as we seem to have now!! It wasn't as common pre-1800's for families to move around either so that also helps.



Sorry I can't be of much more help either .



Chiad Fhear

I also have the name of a couple of "pubs" where mine married and probably drank as well.

I have found that pre-registration period mine tended to go by the Scottish naming system. It does get confusing when you are directly descended from the first or third son. Naming a son after his father not until a lot later. The ministers were not so kind to leave a lot of information on my Turnbull's, Wilson's, Welch's, Fairbain's, Maben's, Stevenson's, Douglas' etc. I get to about 1800 each time.



http://homepages.rootsweb.ancestry.c...gPatterns.html

I like this site ... things happen - and quickly!!



The practice of naming children after parents - male/female - wasn't without its problems, as you rightly say but 200 years, or so, ago it does seem to have been 'the done thing' ... at least in Scotland. I don't have much experience of how things happened south of 'the wall'!



As for pubs ... I've found a couple of Hotels - one in Musselburgh the other in Blairgowrie - where marriages were recorded.



I'm very sceptical of the place address given for marriages as they were usually 'according to the banns of the ..... Church'. Marriage in a house is more a 'civil' than religious thing ... but who knows?



Chiad Fhear

How do you think I am managing when the eldest males on my side of the family going back 9 generations goes like this; John, John , William, William, John, William, William, William, Thomas, eh?



Females go; Jean, Helen, Helen, Catherine, Jane, Katherine, Gillian



John.

Wouldn't it be great to go back in time so that you could see your ancestors in their environment. What they actually looked like, what the did for a living, were they happy? were they poor? Did the have to scratch a living out of the soil? Did the have a hard life? What were their clothes like? Did they wear shoes? If only they could tell us descendents what life was like. I suppose I'm lucky enough to have one photograph of my great grandfather. But to be a fly on the wall back in 1802 just to watch what your family were up to on a daily basis.



What was that guy who invented a time machine....................Oh Yes it was.........Rod Taylor, wher is he these days?

Hi Silver Fox



Seems as if ye've got mair than yer fair share o' Jocks, Wullies, Helens, Kates an' the like amang yer fowks!



Ah dinnae envy you yer research wan wee bitty!!



With apologies to all posters on the south side of the wall!!

Ach niver mind Chiad Fhear, it kin be ah soarte speshul seecrit coad wi kin yase whit the pare sassenachs ul nevur understawn!



Soapy Souter fur PM!

It's just as bad down South. Mine are Thomas, Thomas, Thomas, Thomas, James, Thomas, Ernest, Thomas, Ernest.



P.S - I can understand everyword .