"Supposed" great aunt Catherine McNeil Sinclair

[Dleewilson]

Except it says 9 born alive. Which means one more could have been still born ...doesn't it? I am trying to wrap my head around this...Guess I'll go look at the birthdates again.

[Dleewilson]

Yep. She could have gotten pregnant immediately after John (in Dec, Jan or Feb and lost the baby in March then gotten pregnant in June with Catherine ( my grandma) Doesn't explain the date of birth though if it was still born. Did they name still borns back then?

[AndrewP]

Except it says 9 born alive. Which means one more could have been still born ...doesn't it? I am trying to wrap my head around this...Guess I'll go look at the birthdates again.

No, I have listed nine names (#1 to #9 on my list), including two sets of twins, from before 1911 - all with birth certificates on ScotlandsPeople (so they were all born alive). Five of them have death certificates before 1911 (matching the info on FamilySearch) and four (surviving at the start of April 1911 when the 1911 census took place). These can all be verified on ScotlandsPeople, where you will find a birth certificate for all 9 of them, and #10 soon after the 1911 census. You will find the death certificates on ScotlandsPeople for all the ones that did not survive until the 1911 census, and #10 in 1911 (after the census).

The births and deaths up to 1904 are all to be found in Hamilton, Lanarkshire. The births and deaths from 1906 are all to be found in Larkhall, Lanarkshire. If you are searching ScotlandsPeople for them, when you look up the Larkhall ones, ignore any results given for Dalserf registration district (results are given for both Dalserf and Larkhall as they are both parts of Dalserf parish, but in that era were two separate registration districts).

The most direct method for finding the births starts with the 1911 census and a parent search on FamilySearch. With that information, you have names, locations and approximate years for all of the births you need to seek. So to get their birth certificates, go to ScotlandsPeople and do a search for surname SINCLAIR (don't input a first name or gender to catch all) births in Larkhall from 1900 to 1905 you can find your names and matched years in the search results to pick out your family group quite easily. Make the next search for all SINCLAIR births in Larkhall from 1905 to 1920. Once more you will find names and years to match the data gained from the 1911 census page and FamilySearch.

To find the death certificates, a similar process can be used. Search in Hamilton for all SINCLAIR deaths between 1900 and 1905 for ages 0 to 5; then search in Larkhall for all SINCLAIR deaths from 1905 to 1925 for birth years 1910 ± 10 years. Again, using the info already gained from FamilySearch, you can verify the deaths up to 1910. Take David (1911 to 1911) as a bonus that I found when looking at these.

All the best,

AndrewP

[Dleewilson]

Thank you Andrew! I will go have another look.

[Dleewilson]

We think we have solved the mystery. Because they did not record stillbirths until 1939, and because grandma said there were 14 children, we have come to the conclusion that a set of twins (grandma said there were THREE sets before her) and two other children must have been stillborn. There are no records for four of them. I think the "dates" that are in Familysearch were just a guess, because if there were no records how would they know?

So, Catherine McNeil, John and Margaret (twins) and Robin/Robert were probably stillbirths. Grandma probably knew the names, and guessed at the dates.

Thanks so much for all the input. We are happy with the end result!

Dixie