You are most welcome If you think about it the names like SMITH , BROWN etc are well known and are unlikely to be wrongly recorded or transcribed (although they still can of course) because people are familiar with them in most places But names which are a little more unusual such as your own are very open to errors Names are recorded in error, misheard, even when they are written down by the bearer of the surname the next person transcribing it may not understand what the bearer wrote Certain parts of names are more prone to error than others, the DALE part is more likely to be correct than the TEVIOT part So a search for *DALE may find some options that are not found using the whole name or even TEVIOT* Try all variations, and look for common denominators in the results Ancestrys transcripts, although rather mixed up at times are very useful as you can search for other factors and you will often pin down the person you want despite the transcription error If you have Ancestry do try and enter the correction or variation to the entries for Robert and family, it not only helps you when you want to find them again but may also be a signpost to any other researcher looking for them as your id is recorded for them to make contact with you I noticed there were a few possibles of your name in the Probate Calendars on Ancestry, just in case you don't have them Jane Teviotdale 1898 9 Jan 1898 Norwich, Norfolk, England David Wightman Teviotdale 1931 16 Jul 1931 Cardiganshire, Wales Edward John Smythe Teviotdale 1935 29 Sep 1934 Suffolk, England Elizabeth Fleming Teviotdale 1947 12 Mar 1943 USA David Teviotdale 1946 15 Jan 1946 Cheshire, England Annie Teviotdale 1947 4 Jun 1947 Cardiganshire, Wales William James Teviotdale 1949 12 Apr 1949 London, England Alexander Stuart Teviotdale 1954 9 Mar 1954 Renfrewshire, Scotland John Henry Teviotdale 1958 28 Oct 1957 Middlesex, England Margaret Teviotdale 1957 19 Jun 1957 Northumberland, England Lucy Maggie Teviotdale 1963 9 Mar 1963 Norwich David Frederick Teviotdale 1966 10 Dec 1965 Essex, England Helen Dishington Tevotdale 1891 7 Apr 1891 Nivard Ovington in Cornwall (UK) On 28/11/2012 23:20, EUAN TEVIOTDALE wrote: > Hi Nivard, > > > Believe it or not I thought totally wrongly as you have proven, that having a surname of Teviotdale would have made family research reasonably straightforward, compared to my wife who is looking for Jimmy Milne, no middle name, farm labourer in Angus. > > I know of a family with nine children and the spelling is three Tevendales, three Tavendales and three Teviotdales. > > I know of variations of my surname and include Twistdale in there, but Jeroldala is a new one on me. > > I had tried using soundex and other variant spellings but not sure if I had Teverdale. > > I have been to the GRO in Edinburgh a few times, but never found Teristdale either. > > > I greatly appreciate your help. I am now able to tie my Teviotdales to Ms Ramsay Teviotdale of Arlington, Virginia with whom I have been corresponding for about ten years, and met while in Washington D.C. on holiday. > > > Thank You. > > Euan.

On 29/11/2012 00:12, Nivard Ovington wrote: > You are most welcome > > If you think about it the names like SMITH , BROWN etc are well known > and are unlikely to be wrongly recorded or transcribed (although they > still can of course) because people are familiar with them in most places > > But names which are a little more unusual such as your own are very open > to errors > > Names are recorded in error, misheard, even when they are written down > by the bearer of the surname the next person transcribing it may not > understand what the bearer wrote I don't believe a name like TEVIOTDALE would commonly be mistranscribed by the Census Enumerator - as a surname, it is not particularly widespread, but it is also the name of a river valley in the Scottish Borders, and figures in Sir Walter Scott's pseudo-Jacobite song "Blue Bonnets Ower the Border", so is likely to have been perfectly familiar to an averagely-educated Scot of the mid-19th century. What is far more likely is that the name was mistranscribed at a much later stage (ie within the last few years) by someone entirely unfamiliar with Scottish names and 19th-century handwriting. Ancestry are rumoured to have had their Census transcriptions done in India, where data entry charges may be lower, but where familiarity with Scottish personal and place names cannot necessarily be guaranteed. But Ancestry's is not the only transcription available. Scotland's People transcriptions are generally more reliable, and Tay Valley Family History Society sell Census indexes for the counties of Angus, Perth, Kinross and Fife, and these will have been produced by people native to the area, who will be familiar with the names likely to be encountered. Gavin Bell

Hi Gavin With great respect you appear to be reading things into my post that I did not put I did not at any point say it was the enumerator who was mainly at fault What I said and stand by is that the more common names are more likely to be recorded or transcribed correctly than the more unusual names (by anyone, enumerator, volunteer or paid transcriber etc) We find similar problems problems with any form of record, birth, marriage, baptism etc etc There are various stages along the way from start to finish, an error can creep in at any point, that can be by the most fastidious of transcribers or recorders, they are human and make mistakes, I have done so many times without realising it Although transcribers should always transcribe what they see, one person will see one thing and another a different word or words Yes there are other transcripts but only Ancestry have a decent search engine which enables all manner of search techniques, which to some degree negate the poor quality of transcription My advice would be to use any transcription that is available but to always obtain the original page image if at all possible No transcript is without flaws, but at least with Ancestry you have a passing chance of finding people or places You also do not need a 2nd mortgage to use it as most libraries and the LDS have it if you can't afford it at home Scotlandspeople may be reasonably cost effective but it quickly mounts up, using Ancestry it can make your search on SP more targeted and therefore cheaper Nivard Ovington in Cornwall (UK) > I don't believe a name like TEVIOTDALE would commonly be mistranscribed > by the Census Enumerator - as a surname, it is not particularly > widespread, but it is also the name of a river valley in the Scottish > Borders, and figures in Sir Walter Scott's pseudo-Jacobite song "Blue > Bonnets Ower the Border", so is likely to have been perfectly familiar > to an averagely-educated Scot of the mid-19th century. > > What is far more likely is that the name was mistranscribed at a much > later stage (ie within the last few years) by someone entirely > unfamiliar with Scottish names and 19th-century handwriting. Ancestry > are rumoured to have had their Census transcriptions done in India, > where data entry charges may be lower, but where familiarity with > Scottish personal and place names cannot necessarily be guaranteed. > > But Ancestry's is not the only transcription available. Scotland's > People transcriptions are generally more reliable, and Tay Valley Family > History Society sell Census indexes for the counties of Angus, Perth, > Kinross and Fife, and these will have been produced by people native to > the area, who will be familiar with the names likely to be encountered. > > > Gavin Bell