I just wrote a guest blog post over at the Society for One-Place Studies, all about the Doctors in Unst in the late 1800s.
You can read it at A Doctrine of Doctors
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Death records
Almost…
Looking through the Statutory Death Records for Unst today, I came across this record. Normally the age of the deceased is recorded just with a number of years, except in the case of infant deaths which haven’t made it to one full year yet.
I get the impression in this case that her grand-nephew wanted to make sure it was known how close to 100 years she achieved.
| No. | Name and Surname. — Rank or Profession, and whether Single, Married, or Widowed. |
When and Where Died. | Sex. | Age. | Signature & Qualification of Informant, and Residence, if out of the House in which the Death occurred. |
| 11 | Elizabeth Sandison Widow of Charles Fisherman |
1899 February Twenty sixth 4h 30m P.M. Muness, |
F | 99 years 11 mo 25 days |
Thomas Gifford Sandison Grand-nephew |
While she and her family and friends may have celebrated had she reached 100, the telegrams from the monarch to congratulate a centenarian didn’t begin until 1917.
Elizabeth was born before the days of statutory birth records, so the only record of her early life is a baptism record for 10 Aug 1802. With this detailed age on her death record however, we can calculate her exact birth date to be 1 Mar 1799.
Inaccurate recording strikes again
I love it when you find a record and all the names match up, correct parents, spouse, any mentioned children. Tick, tick, tick. All good, it’s definitely them.
However, every so often you come across one where it doesn’t fit and you run around in circles looking for the other person with the same name that isn’t them, to whom this record must refer, and end up back where you started with the belief that the record must be wrong. And after all, records are sometimes wrong. It’s like a detective story, where you have to work out who is lying, except (one hopes) the person who recorded the wrong information wasn’t lying deliberately, they just didn’t know (and didn’t realise the frustration their inaccuracies would cause 200 years later!).
This evening I have a Thomas Jam(i)eson whose death record shows his parents as William Jamieson and Catherine Christie, and wife Jane Fordyce. The record was informed by his son Thomas, so you start off feeling you can trust the information.
| No. | Name and Surname. Rank or Profession, and whether Single, Married, or Widowed. |
When and Where Died. | Name, Surname, & Rank or Profession, of Father. name, and Maiden Surname of Mother. |
Signature & Qualification of Informant, and Residence, if out of the House in which the Death occurred. |
| 16 | Thomas Jamieson General Labourer Married to |
1887 August Twenty seventh 7h am Cathoul, |
William Jamieson Fisherman (deceased) Catherine Jamieson |
Thomas Jamieson
Son |
Prior to his death Thomas can be found in the census returns along with his wife Jane and their children, and in two of the returns, also his sister Janet lives with them – in 1851 and 1871. I suspect she also lives with them in 1861, but she is recorded as a visitor in another house on the night of the census so that secret is likely lost to the mists of time.
1851 Census
| Name of Street, Place, or Road, and Name or No. of House |
Name and Surname of each Person who abode in the house on the Night of 30th March, 1851. |
Relation to Head of Family |
Condition | Age of | Rank, Profession, or Occupation |
|
| Males | Females | |||||
| Catt Houl | Thomas Jamieson | Head | Mar | 42 | Day labourer, Crofter | |
| Jane Do. | Wife | Mar | 35 | |||
| Ann T. Do. | Daur | 4 | ||||
| Elizabeth Do. | Daur | 2 | ||||
| Janet E Do. | Sister | Widow | 49 | Pauper | ||
| Catharine Fordyce | Wife’s Sister | U. | 25 | Pauper, nearly helpless | ||
1871 Census
| ROAD, STREET, &c., and No. or NAME of HOUSE. |
NAME and Surname of each Person. |
RELATION to Head of Family |
CON- DITION |
AGE of |
Rank, Profession, or OCCUPATION | |
| Males | Females | |||||
| Catthoul | Thomas Jameson | Head | Mar | 67 | Quarryman Crofter | |
| Jane Do | Wife | Mar | 60 | |||
| Margery Do | Daur | Unm | 15 | Veil Knitter | ||
| Thomas Do | Son | Unm | 12 | |||
| Janet Do | Sister | W. | 70 | Pauper | ||
When I find his sister Janet’s death record however, I find that she is recorded with different parents to that on her brother’s death record. The informant for Janet is her brother Thomas himself – so I feel this record is more trustworthy than his one.
| No. | Name and Surname. Rank or Profession, and whether Single, Married, or Widowed. |
When and Where Died. | Name, Surname, & Rank or Profession, of Father. name, and Maiden Surname of Mother. |
Signature & Qualification of Informant, and Residence, if out of the House in which the Death occurred. |
| 24 | Janet Williamson
Pauper |
1874 June Fourth 5h am Baliasta, |
William Gilb’t Jameson Fisherman (deceased) Isabella Jameson |
Thomas Jamieson His X Mark Brother, present Peter Johnson |
Thomas clearly knows who his own parents are, so is the death record for a Thomas Jamieson actually for someone else? Perhaps there are two Thomas’s and both married someone called Jane and that’s what’s causing the confusion?
Looking at the Marriage record in the Old Parish Records it shows the names of the two parties but not their parents (that only comes in with the Statutory Records in 1855). However, it is likely that the witnesses are in some way related to the marrying parties, and looks like Thomas’ father William was one of the witnesses. (Note: The names Jane/Jean are often interchanged.)
| 1841 Contracts of Marriage | |
| Dec 2 | Thomas Jameson, Stutoft & Jean Fordyce, Greenroad, were married by the Rev James Ingram. James Johnson, Greenroad, William Jameson, Stutoft, Witnesses. |
This is clearly the same Thomas as on the Death Certificate because in both cases we have his wife’s maiden name. Here we can see that prior to getting married, Thomas lived in Stutoft. If we look at the census which was taken less than 6 months before (1841 census was taken on 6 June 1841) we can see all the people who lived in Stutoft.
| PLACE | NAME and SURNAME, SEX and AGE, of each Person who Abode in each House on the Night of 6th June. |
OCCUPATION | ||
| Here insert Name of Village, Street, Square, Close Court, &c. |
NAME and SURNAME | AGE | Of what Profession, Trade, Employment, or whether of independent means. |
|
| Male | Female | |||
| Stutoft | William Jameson | 75 | Farmer | |
| Thomas do | 30 | |||
| William do | 12 | |||
| Ursula do | 19 | |||
| Joan do | 8 | |||
| Catharine do | 50 | |||
| Isabella do | 70 | |||
1841 census don’t show all the relationships between members of the household (that doesn’t begin until 1851). The pattern I’m used to seeing, from extensive reading of 1841 census taken in Unst, is the Husband and head of household on line one, followed by his wife on line two, and then the children listed either in descending age order, or grouped into boys and then girls and in descending age order within each gender. This record has an odd order. William is listed first, and that is one thing all records agree on – Thomas’s father is called William. There is also a woman, of an appropriate age, called Isabella also living at this house, but she is listed last, like a servant or ‘other’ relation would be. If she had been listed second, that would have sealed it for me, but this record still leaves a small doubt in my mind.
Isabella and William Gilbert’s children span birth dates from 1791 (when Isabella was 20) until 1807 (when she was 35). I believe that the younger children on the 1841 census are not her children but in fact her grandchildren (and in one case step-grandchild), and that may account for the odd ordering.
Here are William Gilbert Jameson and Isabella Anderson’s children.
The red borders show the people present on the 1841 census
The green bordered person shows where the death record confusion may have come from.
Christie is not a common surname in Unst, and it always pays to have a wider look around when faced with confusion such as this. I see that Thomas’ brother James is married to a Catherine Christie. I have to assume that this is where the confusion came in for Thomas’ son when informing the register of the details for the death record.
So I’ve come to the conclusion that the death record is wrong.
Scotlands People Centre
Register House in Edinburgh
Whenever I’m in Edinburgh, I make sure I have time to visit the Scotlands People Centre in New Register House on Princes Street in Edinburgh. It’s a location where you can view, on computer, scans of all the records useful for family historians; the Statutory Records, Old Parish Records, Census Returns and many others.
Inside the building itself is very library like, it is lined with books (the old registers themselves) and everyone there works away quietly. However, the architecture of the building gives another sensation, perhaps one of a place of worship, and certainly it is where Scottish Genealogists come to worship the records of old. It is also a respectful silence, where people are looking for long dead ancestors.
These various links have more photos of the inside of the centre.
Book lined search room at the ScotlandsPeople Centre in Edinburgh.
Photo source: Telegraph article
The combination of all these things on your senses; the sight of the old books; the quietness of the sounds around you; and the library smell (old books do have such a wonderful smell) do provide a motivational ambiance which encourages you in your search for ancestors (although the £15 per seat per day may also have a motivational effect!).
I do love visiting the place for my ‘old records fix’.
This post was prompted by the WordPress Discover Challange: Blogging the senses
Presentation at Genealogy Group
I joined a local genealogy group, and today I gave a small presentation about James Moar, the man who turned to knitting when he do no other task to support himself. I’ve written about him in a number of blog posts before.
- Reading Old Handwriting
- Knitting is women’s work?
- An unusual breed – a male knitter
- Correction – James Thomas Irvine Moar
I created the presentation from the material I had in the above blog posts, using some of the photographs as illustrations as I talked. I also used old maps to show where they lived, and showed the various census records and birth and death records that I had discovered when researching James’ life. I also talked about getting his Death record updated so that he was finally recorded correctly, which seemed to be met with great approval.
Aberdeen Show Newspaper Cutting, from Dundee Courier, Wednesday, July 25th 1894
I had one new piece of information in the presentation that is not in any of the previous blog posts. As you’ll know if you’ve read the others, James turned to knitting when he was invalided, and while he had a slow start, he did clearly get better. In the 1901 and 1911 census he is listed as a Shetland Lace Knitter, which shows a certain skill as that is a complex and delicate knitting style. Well he, must have been quite good because he won first prize in the Aberdeen Highland show (held on Tuesday, July 24th 1894) for a Fine White Shetland Shawl, beating another lady from the same village, Uyeasound, into second place.
I brought along my copy of the Unst Heritage Lace book for the group members to look at as well, since James is also mentioned in there.
I think the presentation was well received, and I hope to maybe do another subject at a future meeting.
Look around for clues
It’s certainly true that you can’t always use ancestral records in isolation. Sometimes there is simply not enough information in them to be able to use them alone. However, the supporting information can sometimes be closer to hand than you realise.
I am gradually working my way through the Statutory Death records from Unst and trying to process one for a man called John Henderson. The record is quite early in the Statutory Records processing, 1857 – only a couple of years after they started in 1855, and they record whether a person was married, but not who to. I have a number of John Henderson’s but which one is it. How can I be sure? After trying a variety of different ways of looking at it (looking for siblings with the same parents; trying to track down the Brother-in-law who was the informant on the record) but I get the feeling I’m not going to be able to place this one.
I sit back and stare absently at my screen.
| No. | Surname and Name. Rank or Profession, & Condition, (whether Married or Single, Widower or Widow.) |
When and Where Died, with Hour of Death. |
Parents’ Names, and Rank, Profession, or Occupation. |
Cause of Death, and how long Disease continued. – Medical Attendant by whom certified,and when he last saw deceased. |
Signature, Qualification, and Resi- dence of Informant, If out of the House in which the Death occurred. |
| 16 | Henderson John Fisherman (Married) |
1857 June Eleventh 7.30 am Some miles |
Andw Henderson Fisherman (deceased) Margt Henderson |
Drowned at Sea in a gale of wind |
John Priest Brother in law of Deceased |
| 17 | Henderson Laurence Fisherman (Single) |
1857 June Eleventh 7.30 am Some miles |
John Henderson Fisherman (deceased) Mary Henderson |
Drowned at Sea in a gale of wind |
John Priest Uncle of Deceased |
Map showing Skaw in the north of Unst. Click on the map to go to the zoom-able version on the NLS website
This man, John Priest, is a Brother-in-law to the first man, Uncle to the second man, and neighbour to the third. The second man is recorded with a father’s name the same as the name of the first man. Given the relationship of John Priest to each of them, this means that the first man is the father to the second man. Father and son working in the same fishing boat is certainly a common occurrence.
This also means that the mother recorded on the second man’s death record is the missing spouse on the first man’s death record. Now I can place them both.
Knowing the spouse is Mary Spence, I am also then able to place John Priest, as there is a John Priest married to Catherine Spence (who lives in Norwick in 1851 which is not far from Skaw) which tells me something about the Spence girls – that they are sisters – that I didn’t previously know. Finding both their death records also confirms they have the same parents.
So, when all looks lost, sit back and look around you!
Some people just make it complicated
I’m continuing to work through all the records for Unst, and today I came across a death record for a little girl with the surname Meal. This was not a surname I had come across before, so I could tell straight away that this was going to be someone from outside of Unst, perhaps whose father had married an Unst girl. If nothing else, I knew this was not going to be an easy one to track down, because the death took place in 1857, so only a couple of years after statutory records began in 1855. We were into the less reliable era of Old Parish Records for any birth or marriage records. As it turned out, I had no idea how difficult it was going to be! A whole catalog of quirks made it very hard to track this little family down.
- Father’s surname spelling change
After a little research it became clear that ‘Meal’ was an alternate spelling of ‘Mail’, a fairly common surname from Dunrossness, Shetland. James Meal/Mail was a Boot and Shoemaker, which was an unusual enough occupation among the hundreds of Fishermen and Crofters to make him a little easier to find. - Mother’s names – all change
Janet Elizabeth Jameson, the little girl’s mother, was baptised as Jenny Betty Jameson. I’m used to searching for both Jameson and Jamieson as those spellings get interchanged a lot; and I’m used to looking for Elizabeth’s and Betty’s interchangeably; but the Janet vs Jenny was a new one for me, and so the triple combination meant she was hard to find. She seems to be most frequently called Jane Elizabeth, from which it is easier to see how you get to both Janet, and Janey/Jenny. - They married in England
Finding the marriage record did help to figure out who the mother was, with her name on the marriage recorded as Jane Betty Jamison (yet another spelling) – and her father’s name which truly sealed the find. - They lived in England
Having married in England, in Monk-Wearmouth, Durham, they had two daughters there, and Jenny/Jane died there.
So the resultant family was Jenny Betty Jameson, from Unst, married James Mail, from Dunrossness, in Monk-Wearmouth, Durham. They had two daughters there, both called Joannah Elizabeth (a nod to the two grannies, Joanna Arnot and Elizabeth Leslie), both of whom died at a young age, the first in the same area, and the second in Unst – which is the death record that started this search. Jane also died in this area before the death of her second daughter. All this happened between the years of 1853 (marriage) and 1856 (Jane’s death) so this couple and their children never show up in a census record anywhere – both are in Shetland for the 1851 census. What is a mystery is why James took his daughter to Unst, after his wife died. Maybe a vist to the grandparents?
Joanna Elizabeth Mail’s Family Tree
