Narrowing down the choices on SP searches

kathyc · Post by **kathyc** » Wed Mar 14, 2007 3:53 am

I've been trying to find the statutory birth records for my GG grandparents' first three children. All three were born in Glasgow/Lanark, as far as oral family history and their reported birthplaces on the 1901 census are concerned.

I thought I'd found the key to guessing which of the many same name/same year children listed at SP were theirs, but so far I've only found the first one and wasted a bunch of credits guessing at the others.

Do you have any ideas for narrowing down which entries might be the right ones, based either on your own experiences or perhaps knowledge of the Glasgow area that I lack?

Here's what I know:

John McLean and Mary Ann Macrae were married in 1878 at 50 Jane Street, Glasgow. They reported their address at that time as 164 Stobcross St.

On the 1881 census, they're recorded at 79 Raeberry St, Glasgow.

Their first child, Ann McLean, was born at 24 Anderstoun Quay, Glasgow.

To my knowledge, there was no family in Glasgow except an unmarried sister of John's who might have left town by the time Annie was born, so Mary couldn' t have gone home to her mother to give birth like so many other relatives seem to have.

The two children whose births I'm trying to find are Jessie and Catherine. Jessie was most likely named Janet after her grandmother and great grandmother, both named Janet called Jessie. She was supposed to have been born on December 31, 1884, according to a handwritten list of school-aged children's birthdates I have that was written by her mother. I have tried the two Janets without unconnected middle names that came up on the SP search, but am left with four possible Janes (a mistranscription, perhaps?) and one Jessie to pick from.

Catherine was born in 1886, supposedly the 23 May, and there are five possible Catherine M(a)cLeans in the right year on SP.

Any ideas at all about how to narrow down the choices would be very welcome.

Thanks!
Kathy

kathyc · Post by **kathyc** » Wed Mar 14, 2007 4:32 am

I realized it might be useful to know the locations of the other possibilities.

For Janet:

- Hamilton - not her
- Gorbals - not her

Jane:

- Hutchesontown
- Govan
- Cambusnethan
- Dennistoun
- Anderston - not her

Jessie:

- Blythswood

For Catherine:

- Cambusnethan
- Govan
- Maryhill
- Anderston
- Anderston

Kathy

Post by **AndrewP** » Wed Mar 14, 2007 7:49 am

Hi Kathy,

Jessie is there on ScotlandsPeople. As with a lot of children born at the very end of a year, she was registered at the beginning of the following year - as Jessie McLean.

The other clues used to hunt for her is that had she been registered at the end of theyear in a Glasgow disrict that the certificate would have had a high number (well over 1000, possibly over 2000). No sign of that, so seek a low certificate number in the following year. Her's is there, certificate number less than 100 for that district (registered almost 3 weeks after her birth).

Using the certificate number for Jessie above, you can estimate that about 75 to 80 certificates a month were issued in that particular registration district. So for mid May the certificate is likely to be in the range 300 to 400 if she is in that same registration district. And there Catherine is - same district, certificate number in that range. It doesn't always work, the family could have moved or the given information could have been wrong, but this example shows that it can work.

All the best,

AndrewP

kathyc · Post by **kathyc** » Wed Mar 14, 2007 3:37 pm

Thank you, Andrew!

I had included the following year in my search, but didn't know to look for the low or high numbers depending on the time of year. That's a great tip!

Kathy

kathyc · Post by **kathyc** » Wed Mar 14, 2007 5:47 pm

Andrew, thanks again for your help. I got them! I would have wasted endless credits before I picked that particular Catherine to try because her middle name (McBeth) is a complete mystery that doesn't match anything else in the family so far.

Kathy

Post by **AndrewP** » Wed Mar 14, 2007 6:17 pm

kathyc wrote:I had included the following year in my search, but didn't know to look for the low or high numbers depending on the time of year. That's a great tip!

The numbers approach to seeking out a certificate for a known date worked well in this case as we were dealing with a busy urban registration district and you knew the (probable) dates that you were seeking the certificates for.

In a rural parish, there may have been far fewer births in the year, so it may be more difficult to predict the certificate numbers at a particular time of year. Had the two births been in different registration districts then this method would have been of no use to find the May birth. All birth, marriage and death certificates should be numbered starting at one at the beginning of the year when new books are started for registrations.

All the best,

AndrewP