Missing baby

[ficam]

Hello again everyone, Can I ask for your help again to try to find a missing baby...

My g-grandparents Robert Innes and Jemima Tait were married in November 1904 in Fraserburgh. The family story is that they "had to get married" as Jemima was pregnant. My mother was always told that the baby was born and named Jean and died in early infancy, but as I could not find a birth in SP for any combination of Jean Innes; Jean Tait or any other Tait or Innes in or around Fraserburgh any time from 1904 to 1905 ( which it wold have to be if she was pregnant at the time of marriage)I had dismissed it as another incorrect family story - or at the very least that Jemima had miscarried or the baby had been stillborn and thus not registered.

However , now that the 1911 census is out, it has confirmed that Jemima has given birth to 4 live children and only 3 are still alive. I have spent a small fortune in SP checking that another Innes child was not born in the period between 1904 and 1911 and can find none. So it looks like Jean (?) was born alive- so why can't I find her....!!??

Anyone got any ideas?

Thanks as always

[paddyscar]

Hi Ficam:

IsIs it possible the entire 'one-on-the-way' just a story to get the parents to agree to a marriage, or even that the child was born well before the wedding date of 1904? On ScotlandsPeople there are 17 matches for j*n innes born 1902-1903, which might be worth the credit to rule them in or out.

There is a family pedigree connected to Robert Innes and Jemima Helen Tait with son William at http://www.familysearch.org/eng/Search/ ... search.asp It has contact information and several ancestors listed, and may be worth trying to contact.

Frances

[nelmit]

Instead of looking at births I had a look at female deaths but only at Fraserburgh with a birth year of 1906 +/- 5 years.

There are 3 -

1 1907 INNES GEORGINA F 0 FRASERBURGH /ABERDEEN 196/00 0044
2 1909 INNES JEANIE SMITH F 0 FRASERBURGH /ABERDEEN 196/00 0085
3 1908 INNES JESSIE SIM F 1 FRASERBURGH /ABERDEEN 196/00 0094

Maybe one of these names will mean something to you.

Another way would be to look at the ages of the children who are alive in 1911 and look for 'a gap' in birth years for a missing child.

Regards,
Annette

[speleobat2]

Hi Ficam,

There is a tree on Ancestry: the Pithie Family Tree. Is that yours?

It gives the following as children of Robert Innes and Jemima Tait: Robert b. 1906, John Singer b. 1908, William b. 1909, and James Donald S. b. 1911. This would account for the four children unless James was born after the census was taken in 1911.

Carol

[speleobat2]

Hi again,

Another thought: Do you know which cemetery this family used? There would have to be a burial someplace.

The ANESFHS MI's show two Jeannie Tait's and a Robert Tait buried in Kirkyard of St. Combs in Lonmay. No dates given for the Jeannies, but the other burials range from 1908 to 1934 so they are in the right time period. Didn't see any Innes burials and this was in Lonmay, not Fraserburgh.

Carol

[ficam]

Hi all

Thanks for the replies -

Lots of good ideas as usual - unfortunately I have tried most of them.....

I have checked the deaths too and unfortunately none of the parents match up (part of the fortune spent on SP!)

The Pithie family tree is an in-law's , not mine- and James was born after the 1911 census; and all four shown there survived to adulthood ,so none of them had died by 1911 census. So the baby who died must have been someone other than those four.

Frances, thanks for the link , but I have a lot on this side of the family and the pedigree on Family Search has the wrong parents for Jemima ( and she had no middle name) The birth and death details are correct for my Jemima but it is a bit confused with a lot of the ancestors showing there! I have both lines going back a good way from these two, it is just this "missing" baby that is frustrating me now!

The gap in the births should be at the start of the marriage if it was the baby she was pregnant with at the time of the marriage, and they were married in Nov 1904 and the first birth I can find is August 1906, so there would be enough time for a baby to have been born and died in between. Subsequent births were in -
May 1908
June 1909
May 1911

So it is possible that the baby who had died was a subsequent baby born between no 1 & 2 or nos 3 & 4 but again I have checked SP for all other male and female Innes births and deaths in Fraserburgh with no joy - and if it was another baby who had died it would have been an Innes by that point and Jemima allegedly never left Fraserburgh , so no reason to think that one would have been born anywhere else when all her other babies were born in Fraserburgh...)

The cemetery may be worth pursuing..if it is the St Combs cemetery itself, then St Combs is just along the road from Fraserburgh - and the Tait family originated from Inverallochy which I understand is so close to St Combs as to be almost the same place these days. So it may be that Jemima was sent to a relative in St Combs to have the baby if it was just before the wedding rather than just after...? Although Jemima was still alive in my mothers youth and that is not the story that was told to her...that the baby was born after the marriage, so no need to hide away ( and my family did not appear to do that anyway!) and was a girl named Jean who died in infancy....so where is the registration!!??

Or there may have been a family plot in St Combs/Inverallochy which would hold a small baby at little cost...? I have not done much research around MIs as my family tended not to have gravestones...is there any way I can find dates for the Jeannies if they are not showing in the source you checked Carol? I presume if it is showing on an MI list then there is actually a gravestone with an inscription?
I think that St Combs and Inverallochy would actually have come under Fraserburgh for registration purposes by that time but I will go back and check that out too..just to make sure...
Thanks again for everyone's efforts so far....

[speleobat2]

Ficam,

I don't know what kind of records the church would have kept, but it would be worth checking. As to the MI's, the Lonmay booklet is available from ANESFHS for a small fee and the people at ANESFHS are wonderful. Their website is: www.anesfhs.org.uk/ You can get their phone number from that or email them. The MI booklet will give the full inscription of the gravestones and a map of the cemetery. Someone at ANESFHS will be able to give you further advice as to what additional information they have available and maybe some other ideas on how to solve your mystery!

Carol

[ficam]

Thanks Carol - I just spent yet more credits in SP and found what I believe are the two Jeanies in Inverallochy - and neither of them are mine...

where is this child????!!

[speleobat2]

How about a death notice in a newspaper? Don't know if those were legal notices published automatically or strictly submitted by the families.

Carol

[joette]

Maybe registered under her maiden name-some of mine have barely made it to marriage before the birth-the closest being 48hrs give or take the odd minute.? One is registered under the Mother's maiden name although they were married-which had me on a merry dance looking for marriages after the birth.