No name on cert

crayspond · Post by **crayspond** » Wed Apr 02, 2008 6:06 am

Hi to all,

I am still on the quest for the marriage of John Beveridge and Margaret Deal or Dale. I know they had a child in 1750 and then in 1765 in Dunfermline so i am assuming that they married round about 1750.
I found this in SP doing a marriage search from 1740 to 1760 does anyone know if this means the female name was not on the certificate?

8 01/02/1748 BEVERIDGE JOHN NAME NOT GIVEN//FR1427 M Dalgetty /FIFE 422/ 0020 0500

Thanks,

Ailsa

Currie · Post by **Currie** » Wed Apr 02, 2008 11:07 am

Hello Ailsa,

Maybe the bride was eaten by mice or the register was damaged in some way or it was just plain unreadable. There’s certainly seems to be something very strange about it.

If you go to the IGI and search in batch M114222 for 1748 without a name you’ll find other men listed without brides. The year before and after seem okay. On 3rd January James Cousin married Ann Kirkaldie and Alexander Dick married Jean Ged. On 20th May both the gentlemen appear again but without spouses. Peter Moor appears without a bride on 8th November and John Beveridge is just shown as February.

There’s probably a perfectly reasonable explanation but I’ll leave that for others.

Alan

crayspond · Post by **crayspond** » Thu Apr 03, 2008 7:17 am

Hi Alan,

As i quickly glanced at your posting i thought you said "Maybe the bride was eating mince"

I must brush up my geography of Fife. Most of my Belfrages/Beveridges lived in or around Inverkeithing and Dunfermline. Would i be right in assuming they would not have travelled very far in those days?

Ailsa

Post by **AndrewP** » Thu Apr 03, 2008 10:12 am

crayspond wrote:As i quickly glanced at your posting i thought you said "Maybe the bride was eating mince"

At my first read through, I thought he was suggesting that the bride had been eaten by mice. Big mice in your part of the world.

All the best,

AndrewP

Currie · Post by **Currie** » Thu Apr 03, 2008 1:33 pm

Hello Ailsa and Andrew,

I thought I’d check Scottish Parochial Registers: by William Barclay Turnbull – 1849 for any comments from the Dalgetty Clergyman about the state of his registers and for any evidence of mice, mince, missing or mayhem but all he could offer was. “There has been no obituary kept in the Parish for the last fifty years.” His report is on page 69 and apart from the relative few who didn’t bother replying is about the shortest to be seen.

http://books.google.com/books?id=aCELAAAAYAAJ&pg=PA69

The book makes very interesting reading and contains many horror stories. Probably should be compulsory reading for anyone wondering why they can’t find a record in a particular parish. It usually indicates what registers are missing and often touches on the reasons why and also mentions some clergy not even bothering to keep a register of baptisms and marriages. Many reports are very detailed and include comments on the handwriting etc. While some missing registers may have come to light since it was published it must give quite a good guide as to the state of the game in most parishes.

I’m not sure how far Inverkeithing and Dunfermline are from Dalgetty, I’ll have to check my map for that one. But Fife isn’t really such a large area that a marriage of people from anywhere within should be unusual. I guess the man would more likely be the one to do the travelling.

All the best,
Alan

Post by **AndrewP** » Thu Apr 03, 2008 2:45 pm

Currie wrote:I’m not sure how far Inverkeithing and Dunfermline are from Dalgetty, I’ll have to check my map for that one. But Fife isn’t really such a large area that a marriage of people from anywhere within should be unusual. I guess the man would more likely be the one to do the travelling.

Hi Alan,

Dunfermline, Inverkeithing and Dalgety parishes lie side-by-side. (The Kingdom of) Fife is about 50 miles west to east. The three parishes can be seen on a map on the following webpage - parishes numbered 4, 5 and 6.

http://www.fifefhs.org/Maps/parishmap.htm

All the best,

AndrewP

Currie · Post by **Currie** » Sat Apr 05, 2008 4:08 am

Thanks Andrew.

Alan

Thrall · Post by **Thrall** » Sun Apr 06, 2008 12:44 pm

Good to see this summary of the condition of the OPRs and Kirk Session minutes - thank you Allan.
The report is published 1849, but I would guess it took quite a few years to obtain all the information, so a cut off at, say, 1843, might well only mean that the report was sent from a parish that year, but records do in fact exist past the noted year.
I have read minutes from Kilchrenan from 1843-1847 despite the report claiming that they only exist until 1843.

Dinna despair!

Guid hunting,

Thrall

crayspond · Post by **crayspond** » Mon Apr 07, 2008 5:41 am

Hi To all,

Just to say thanks for the interest in the missing records.

Alan, i think it's maybe best not to read about the state of the registers! It's a wonder i got any information at all from the Iverkeithing records - recorded in 1755 "book was taken in 1750 to London to be used as evidence in a law suit and was never returned".

Andrew P - I have printed out the map and have it on hand whenever needed.
I think that people still tended to marry within the few surrounding parishes but of course the men would have travelled for work - i wonder would they take their brides back to their own parish or settle elsewhere?

Ailsa