Any suggestions to solve this problem?.....

[Maud Jarvis]

I was delighted when the 1841 Scottish census was put on Ancestry, I thought oh goody, I can find further back information about some of my ancestors.

My gt grandfather was George Nelson Grant, his mother Euphemia Nelson married John Grant in 1841, not long after the census was taken, and so this was my opportunity to find both John Grant and Euphemia, before their marriage.

I found John Grant without any problem, correct address (North Melville Place) and his occupation (Brass founder) along with his parents, thus giving me more information to go a bit further back.
Next I thought, I would find Euphemia, but to my surprise I did not find her, so then I tried her father George Nelson, again no luck.

So I then tried just putting in their address, India Place, Parish of St Stephen, nothing turned up for that either, I next tried going through everey Euphemia, again no luck, I also tried different variations of the surname Neilson etc, again nothing for either Euphemia or (Effie) or any of the variations for father George and mother Marion.
There was only one family of Nelsons, but they were miners and I do not think this was them either

I even tried looking for the Minister who married Euphemia & John, and found him easily enough (David Dickson)

So, I am really puzzled with this, the census had been taken shortly before they married so she had to be somewhere! (they married on June 15th)

Can anyone offer any advice as to where I could try next to find Euphemia before her marriage. She would have been born abt 1820

I was so disappointed by not finding anything about her, I wanted to try and find her parents and also to see if there was any siblings, but am now stuck.

If anyone else has researched the NELSON family, have they encountered my Euphemia?

[nelmit]

I was delighted when the 1841 Scottish census was put on Ancestry, I thought oh goody, I can find further back information about some of my ancestors.

My gt grandfather was George Nelson Grant, his mother Euphemia Nelson married John Grant in 1841, not long after the census was taken, and so this was my opportunity to find both John Grant and Euphemia, before their marriage.

I found John Grant without any problem, correct address (North Melville Place) and his occupation (Brass founder) along with his parents, thus giving me more information to go a bit further back.
Next I thought, I would find Euphemia, but to my surprise I did not find her, so then I tried her father George Nelson, again no luck.

So I then tried just putting in their address, India Place, Parish of St Stephen, nothing turned up for that either, I next tried going through everey Euphemia, again no luck, I also tried different variations of the surname Neilson etc, again nothing for either Euphemia or (Effie) or any of the variations for father George and mother Marion.
There was only one family of Nelsons, but they were miners and I do not think this was them either

I even tried looking for the Minister who married Euphemia & John, and found him easily enough (David Dickson)

So, I am really puzzled with this, the census had been taken shortly before they married so she had to be somewhere! (they married on June 15th)

Can anyone offer any advice as to where I could try next to find Euphemia before her marriage. She would have been born abt 1820

I was so disappointed by not finding anything about her, I wanted to try and find her parents and also to see if there was any siblings, but am now stuck.

If anyone else has researched the NELSON family, have they encountered my Euphemia?

Hello Maud,

Was Euphemia's mother's name Wilson?

If so I think this could be her. If you check the IGI George and Euphemia appear to be the children og George Neilson and Marion Wilson. Jane age 11 -father George mother May Wilson.

From FREECEN-

Piece: SCT1841/684 Place: Duddingston-Midlothian Enumeration District: 5
Civil Parish: Duddingston Ecclesiastical Parish, Village or Island: Duddingston/S Leith
Folio: 9 Page: 24
Address: High Street

Surname First name(s) Sex Age Occupation Where Born Remarks
WILSON Margaret F 49 Independent Midlothian
GILBERT Margaret F 62 Lodger Outside Census County (1841)
NEILSON Jane F 11 Lodger Midlothian
NEILSON Eupemia F 19 Female Servant Midlothian
NEILSON George M 8 Midlothian

A check of the IGI shows Euphemia's son's name is George Neilson Grant

Kind regards,
Annette M

[Maud Jarvis]

Thank you for your reply.
According to the information on Euphemia`s second marriage cert, her father has been recorded as George Neilson and mother as Marion Wilson.

Whether the surname has been mistranscribed as Neilson instead of Nelson, I do`nt know, later documents do record her as Neilson, but some as Nelson, and the name of Nelson has been carried through in the family as either first names or middle names, so it is a bit confusing

Her death cert also gives very confusing information given by her son of the second marriage, he appears to have known very little about his mother, according to some of the info given!
He names her father as the name of her first son George Nelson Grant and also his occupatioon, so he obviously must have heard him spoken of but thought this was Euphemia`s father!
Her mother he named as Jane Neilson, this could her been her sister, she was the witness named on the second marriage to James Martin.

So it is a bit confusing trying to find her either on a census or the IGI with the name being given with different spellings

I do not put much faith in the IGI, there are quite a number of errors about the family on there, which had been inserted by my cousin, I had not re-discovered him until a few years ago, we had last met in 1939, and he knew even less about our family than I did.
So, for instance, he recorded our grandfather as having been born in Canada, and his first name as John, when actually it was Stephen, and he was born in Stafford (I had his birth certificate, found in my mother`s effects when she died) he had been sent to Canada in 1885 and his surname changed from Geoghan to Gagan, as to why he gave himself the first name of John, we do not know, and he also stated on his marriage document that he had been born in Canada, hence my cousin giving the incorrect information on the IGI.
So as you can see, some of the entries given by church members for the IGI are not always accurate. and have to be checked with original documents.

So although some information is given about Euphemia under the name of Neilson, these have to be checked with details that are known about her to be sure if it is the same person or not.

I had thought to find her on the 1841 census, but have tried under both surnames without any success, but I shall keep on trying for any other variations to see what comes up.

On her second marriage she stated that her father was a horse dealer

[DavidWW]

This looks like a classic in terms not so much of mistranscription but quite possibly mis-recording, - I can well imagine NEILSON being heard and recorded as NELSON.

Up to the first decade of the 20th century, most, or at least many people weren't that bothered over how their name was spelt.

Indeed, it's far from uncommon to find a variant being adopted in later records and generations. Glasgow Celtic and Scotland's most famous recent football manager was Jock Stein, but his grandfather's surname was STEVEN

I'm coming around to the point of view that it was the 1911 National Insurance Act that led to the "fixing" of surnames and that widespread firm belief among many that "we've always spelt our name that way".

This involved the first ongoing national database including a record of every employee, with everyone having a unique identifier of the format XY 12 34 56 Z. If you lost your "card" (it's all electronic these days) your record could be located via your name and date of birth, but there'd be big problems if the spelling of the surname varied, before the days of computerisation.

David

[AnneM]

Hi all

The most recent inventive spelling of a name that I've come across was when searching for a friend. Her mother's own name was Macklin which was variously spelled Machlan, Machland, Macklan, Mackland etc through the years. You would however think that by the early 1930s they would have reached a consensus but I found one death where the unfortunate lady was registered as Mauchline.....in Aberdeen too. I didn't think they would know where Mauchline is!!

Anne

[nelmit]

Thank you for your reply.
According to the information on Euphemia`s second marriage cert, her father has been recorded as George Neilson and mother as Marion Wilson.

Whether the surname has been mistranscribed as Neilson instead of Nelson, I do`nt know, later documents do record her as Neilson, but some as Nelson, and the name of Nelson has been carried through in the family as either first names or middle names, so it is a bit confusing

Her death cert also gives very confusing information given by her son of the second marriage, he appears to have known very little about his mother, according to some of the info given!
He names her father as the name of her first son George Nelson Grant and also his occupatioon, so he obviously must have heard him spoken of but thought this was Euphemia`s father!
Her mother he named as Jane Neilson, this could her been her sister, she was the witness named on the second marriage to James Martin.

So it is a bit confusing trying to find her either on a census or the IGI with the name being given with different spellings

I do not put much faith in the IGI, there are quite a number of errors about the family on there, which had been inserted by my cousin, I had not re-discovered him until a few years ago, we had last met in 1939, and he knew even less about our family than I did.
So, for instance, he recorded our grandfather as having been born in Canada, and his first name as John, when actually it was Stephen, and he was born in Stafford (I had his birth certificate, found in my mother`s effects when she died) he had been sent to Canada in 1885 and his surname changed from Geoghan to Gagan, as to why he gave himself the first name of John, we do not know, and he also stated on his marriage document that he had been born in Canada, hence my cousin giving the incorrect information on the IGI.
So as you can see, some of the entries given by church members for the IGI are not always accurate. and have to be checked with original documents.
So although some information is given about Euphemia under the name of Neilson, these have to be checked with details that are known about her to be sure if it is the same person or not.

I had thought to find her on the 1841 census, but have tried under both surnames without any success, but I shall keep on trying for any other variations to see what comes up.

Hello Maud,

George Neilson Grant's entry in the IGI is an extract and not a submission as is his brother's in 1844.

Regards,
Annette m

[Maud Jarvis]

Thank you for your replies re the surname spelling.

It is very frustrating though to find so many variations, although it is possible to identify the people from other details thankfully.

However, just imagine the difficulties facing future family researchers in a couple of hundred years, when they start trying to sort out the various fathers involved with the many partners/husbands of today!
Not to mention test tube babies & sperm/egg donations!!!

And they are talking about men not being needed for a father, makes the mind boggle!!