Mystery disappearing boy called Duques.

[reporter]

I'm researching the Rankins of Strontian Argyll and have come across a famliy member that has me completely stumped. According to the 1891 and 1901 Census returns my great grandparents John and Ann Rankin had a youngest son called Duques living with them at Anaheilt Strontian. Checks with Scotland's People have failed to come up with either a birth or death certificate for this highly unusually named boy. He was 11 in the 1901 census then simply seems to have vanished. Anyone have a clue how I can solve this problem?

[emanday]

Just had to have a look on SP...

DUGALD Rankin born 28 August 1889 in Anyheilt, Argyll

Father John, listed as a Crofter, and Mother Ann Cameron. They were married on 20 June 1871 at Corran.

Is this them?

[reporter]

Many thanks, Dugald was my maternal grandfather, but no one in the family ever recalls him being called Duques, far less him being officially entered in the Census as such. Very odd.

[emanday]

OK, so my curiousity (nosiness) got the better of me.

Have a closer look at his name on the 1901 census. It has been mistranscribed, but understandably so. It's only because I know what it really is that I can see why it might have happened.

Moderators Please Note: I've uploaded it to "Help with Deciphering" so if reporter has no objections, the other members might be able to confirm what I think.
http://talkingscot.com/gallery/displayi ... p?pos=-936

<image URL added, LesleyB>

[SarahND]

Looks like "Duguld" to me. The "g" is just like the one in "Hugh" three lines down and the "ld" like the end of "Archibald" 7 lines above. But it is easy to see why it was misread, as you say. The "g"s look like "q"s and the "l" is very short like an "e", and the vertical of the "d" doesn't go up all the way.

Regards,
Sarah

[emanday]

Wonder what the Ancestry "Human" transcribers would have got it as

[SarahND]

Wonder what the Ancestry "Human" transcribers would have got it as

It doesn't bear thinking about 8-[

[AndrewP]

The enumerator was not good at closing the tops of the letter "a", so I think that Duguld was in fact Dugald. (See Mary / Mury above).

All the best,

AndrewP

[DavidWW]

ui8o0p

The enumerator was not good at closing the tops of the letter "a", so I think that Duguld was in fact Dugald. (See Mary / Mury above).

All the best,

AndrewP

And there's a "Duncun" as well.

I think, or at least, I'd like to believe that I've have seen it as Dugald ..........

David

[reporter]

Many thanks for all your helpful contributions. After a lifetime's shorthand use, my own handwriting is worse than a doctors. But no matter how hard I look at this Census name I still can't see Dugald. A real Duques of Hazard.