Sue, I think you will find that census takers were often very imprecise in their recording of some data and sometimes the interviewee misunderstood the question. But information could come from neighbors or children if the adults weren't available. Some Canadian censuses would put "Dutch" for German or put German when the original immigrants had been in Canada for many generations - its very messy sometimes. The fact that some say England may not mean much since many in Canada and the US viewed England and Scotland as one place (and I say that with a grimace because I know some in my family was very sensitive about their Scottish roots.) In any case, if any census says Scotland, I'd be inclined to spend my effort looking there. One deviation from that may be, however, when a Scottish family moved to England prior to coming to North America - I know one of my collateral lines came from Aberdeen but moved to Durham for several years prior to Quebec - they might well be shown from England depending on how the question we understood by the interviewee. On 7/12/2011 10:03 AM, Sue Richart wrote: > Ah! Appreciate the answer. I know that I have to find my proof in Canada > if it exists. > > Sue > > On Tue, Jul 12, 2011 at 6:51 AM, Anne Burgess: > >> : >>> It's fairly likely that your ancestors didn't move >>> far, but on the other hand your one could be the one who moved >>> from the south of England to the Mearns about 1700. Unlikely, >>> I >>> agree, but you can't exclude the possibility. >>> Where can I find more about this reference to moving to the >>> Mearns? >> Sorry, that was a purely hypothetical ancestor of Wallace's - >> trying to underline the point that jst because he was married in >> the Mearns in 1739 doesn't necessarily mean that he didn't move >> there from the south of England. >> >> Anne >> >> >> >> ------------------------------- >> To unsubscribe from the list, please send an email to >> [email protected] with the word 'unsubscribe' without the quotes >> in the subject and the body of the message >> > > ------------------------------- > To unsubscribe from the list, please send an email to [email protected] with the word 'unsubscribe' without the quotes in the subject and the body of the message >

Wallace, If both the husband and wife were listed one way in one census and another in a second census, I would wonder about it, but might just chalk it up to bad census taking or faulty memory as they got older. In the 1881 Census, George Nelson was listed as born in England of Scottish ancestry, but his wife Elizabeth was listed as born in Scotland of Scottish ancestry, as such, it has my attention. Unfortunately, their death records only list the spouse and nothing about the parents. I cannot find a marriage record for them in Quebec Province, nor the birth records of their two children, Euphremia and David Ramsey Nelson. There is a likely marriage record in Arbroath, which might or might not be my George and Elizabeth. Census records for both children state they were born in Quebec Province. The US naturalization record for David indicates he was born in Quebec Province. Even the Montreal marriage record of the other Scottish gggrandparents, James Elliot and Marjory Falconer, only lists the witnesses, no parents. Now a bit of a chuckle for listers, most of my ancestors are Irish. I was very excited to see a witness to the Elliot/Falconer marriage named Alexander Falconer, because I hadn't seen any Alexanders in my Roman Catholic Irish lines or on the parish records and civil records I've looked at. Then I checked the Canadian censuses and discovered that seemingly every Falconer family had one Alexander per generation. It was quite disappointing. I must say in typing this, I've thought of a couple of things else I can do to hunt for the Nelsons and Elliots in the Montreal area. Thanks for the tips. Sue Richart On Tue, Jul 12, 2011 at 12:10 PM, Wallace Fullerton <> wrote: > Sue, > > I think you will find that census takers were often very imprecise in > their recording of some data and sometimes the interviewee misunderstood > the question. But information could come from neighbors or children if > the adults weren't available. Some Canadian censuses would put "Dutch" > for German or put German when the original immigrants had been in Canada > for many generations - its very messy sometimes.