So, how many Isabellas can there be in one family?

speleobat2 · Post by **speleobat2** » Tue Apr 17, 2007 1:49 am

When my sister and I started working on our family tree, we knew that our grandmother's name was Isabella Munro Clerihew and that our father's sister called herself Isobel, but that our mother had said that our aunt's real name was Isabella. Then I got on the internet and discovered that our grandmother had two aunt Isabellas one each Munro and Cadenhead. Also, our grandfather's mother's name was Isabella Longmuir Clerihew and his father had a sister, Isabella. She married John Still in 1857 and they named their first daughter Isabella, of course! That made seven. Our grandmother's brother John married Isabella Daniel in 1916. Somewhere around the same time our grandfather's brother John very sensibly married Barbara Jackson. Barbara's brother Henry married Isabella McDonald. Isabella Still (the daughter) didn't marry, but her brother George did--Charlotte Crichton--and they named a daughter Isabella. That makes 10! Our parents did the family name thing with my brother. He became James Longmore Clerihew III, then they named me Carol and my sister Phyllis. And my Aunt Isobel/Isabella? Well, she named her only daughter Marjorie!

Russell · Post by **Russell** » Tue Apr 17, 2007 5:25 pm

Carol

I hope you don't have a link back to the Western Isles

they have Angus, Donald and Archibald stretching in unbroken lines back to the horizon. Then they married folk with the same surname as their mother. At first glance it seems totally incestuous but by maintaing their oral tradition, they knew the families it was OK to marry into so the gene pool didn't diminish and genetic disorders were largely avoided.

Russell

Post by **emanday** » Tue Apr 17, 2007 6:31 pm

I've got Thomas's running through every generation in one line since the 1600's. The last one (that I know of) was born in London in the 1890's after his father, also a Thomas, left Glasgow.

The name was never used again in the Scottish line after he left

Post by **AnneM** » Tue Apr 17, 2007 6:39 pm

Hi

I did a quick count on my tree and discovered the following out of 239 females:

Elizabeth/Betty 32 13%
Margaret 30 12.5%
Mary/Molly 27 11%
Janet 21 9%
Ann/a/e 20 8%
Jane/Jean/Jeanie 15 6%
Catherine and variants 15 6%
Iaabella 13 5.5%
Maria 5 2%

This means that 73% of the females on my tree had only 9 names between them!!

Have not done the same calculation with the blokes.

Anne

speleobat2 · Post by **speleobat2** » Tue Apr 17, 2007 8:55 pm

I've done real well finding our relatives so far. I really need the 1911 Census now! I'm not sure how many more relatives I'll be able to find, but I'm hoping for a few Abcardinas or Elspets or Sophias!

On the male side, there are so many John's that I can't find John F. Tayor on SP. All I get is a message saying that my last search found too many results!

Carol

dstew · Post by **dstew** » Sun Apr 22, 2007 1:08 am

I have a picture taken some time ago with 7 people with the name Daniel Stewart age's ranging from 3 through to about 70

speleobat2 · Post by **speleobat2** » Mon Apr 23, 2007 11:22 pm

dstew,

That would be amazing. At least you won't have to worry about trying to identify the people in the picture!

Carol

David Lang · Post by **David Lang** » Wed Apr 25, 2007 10:00 pm

On my Paternal side we have an exact form of naming patterns up unto my father who is named Gillies (unusual but not th eonly one in our family).

On my maternal side there are so many blooming William Stewarts and John Browns i have given up for now .

Plenty of variation on the female son thematernal side including some quite obscure names for the late 1800s make sits so nice and easy

speleobat2 · Post by **speleobat2** » Wed Apr 25, 2007 11:28 pm

David,

I thought I had it made when I found an Elipt. Turns out it was a misspelling of Elspet! Or just bad handwriting!

Carol

StewL · Post by **StewL** » Thu Apr 26, 2007 2:20 am

Carole

found one of them to with a few obscure spellings