Hi Gavin, Could I please impose on your vast knowledge and ask if it was possible that my James Stewart could have been a town councillor if there were such things around 1787 ? All the best Wendy -----Original Message----- From: Gavin Bell Sent: Wednesday, March 26, 2014 10:46 PM To: aberdeen@rootsweb.com Subject: Re: [ABERDEEN] James STEWART and Jane "Jean" SIM m.1801 Aberdeen On 26/03/2014 18:59, Wendy Burns wrote: > Hi All, Can anyone please tell me what the following means. It is on the > St > Nicholas burial records. > 13/02/1787 Teresa Buyers spouse to Jas. Stewart touncr. > > What would a tuoncr. be ? Bearing in mind that the "St Nicholas Burial Records" as available on the ANESFHS Databank are based on transcriptions of what was originally handwritten data, not all of which was very clear, I would guess it might be "townkeeper" which was a sort of watchman or constable. But the best way to check would be to raise a query to Aberdeen City and Shire Archives who hold the original documents and could check the reading. Gavin Bell (who indexed the St Nicholas Deaths, but did not do all the transcriptions). ------------------------------- To unsubscribe from the list, please send an email to ABERDEEN-request@rootsweb.com with the word 'unsubscribe' without the quotes in the subject and the body of the message

On 28/03/2014 12:43, Wendy Burns wrote: > Hi Gavin, Could I please impose on your vast knowledge and ask if it was > possible that my James Stewart could have been a town councillor if there > were such things around 1787 ? There certainly were Councillors at that date - and for many centuries preceding it. And if he was a Councillor, that fact will definitely be recorded among the extensive Council documents held by Aberdeen City Archives. But I am guessing this is part of your ongoing attempt to discover what a "touncr" was? I think you can be fairly confident that it was NOT an abbreviation for "Town Councillor". I would say again that the obvious thing to do is to ask Aberdeen City Archives to take a look at the original Burial Records and see if they can make the word out. The Burial records were transcribed some years ago by volunteers, and that transcription was subsequently re-transcribed into computer form, so there are multiple possibilities for misreadings. Gavin Bell

At this time we are thinking about the centenary of WW1. After wars children as old as 6 yrs might have had a strange man enter the family, or may never have a father figure or known of him. Hopefully nowadays it wouldnt mean not ever knowing about the family of a deceased parent but during the war people did marry in haste. The enquiring mind does need to know. I recently offered to find the family of a former secretary, whose partner asked if I would also assist him; he didnt know much about a parent although his mother had married. I happen to think it is important for us to know who we are. If nothing else the purposes of realising the struggle to survive all the challenges, in comparison with our way of life today has to be enlightening. My findings were to the contrary of any mystery that the ancestors I was searching might have been gypsy or travellers from Europe, and included some interesting families and the names with whom they married. I realised then, it is going to be more difficult for a forthcoming generation, those who dont know the other parent nor grand parents, let alone wish they had spoken more to grand parents as we do now. I hate to see names being bastardised. (lit.) varied beyond recognition. I am not alluding to those we search here. I saw in search results where several variations had been added on the same page, each person believing what they knew was right. A few of the names I found transcribed, LEPLAR, LEPLAW, LEPLOW, LEPLAT and I'll bet there are others. Traditionalist I may be but, what of the person whose birth certificate is written with those names when originally it was Le Pla? It doesnt look right capitalised. We dont normally get to choose what name we take unless there is a personal reason for it. I dont often use a Google search for names but I did, having completed my research, out of curiosity. I found the British History online site contains useful, interesting, and reliable documents and data. I dont remember it being suggested too often http://www.british-history.ac.uk/ Far from excluding Scotland as we might think, type in the word "Scotland" and one finds several pages of information and documentation. http://www.british-history.ac.uk/search.aspx?q=Scotland I searched a name, but specifically not Scottish. British History online confirmed my suspicion and produced a document of application for naturalisation going through legal purposes, to the House of Lords dated 1662 submitted by Huguenot religious refugees; what better reliable source! Ancestry took an interest initially and asked me where I thought it should be added on their site. They have Historical name pages I suggested, a link to it from search results. Ultimately a final letter from Ancestry thanking me for "allowing them to be of assistance to me" and suggesting I use their Forum! I think I would want my name to be as accurate as it should be from the earliest date in time. Sadly, there are those who dont share the same passion. On a final note, looking to what the researcher might also have to consider in future, someone may find they could once have been born over a different border in another "country" because of Local Government reorganisation which has happened between England and Wales. Janet --- This email is free from viruses and malware because avast! Antivirus protection is active. http://www.avast.com