Hi Ian, Just to add to the confusion. When one of my grandfathers died in 1916 his wife registered his death. In the space for parents was the helpful statement 'no information given'. But, like another lister, I have also come across grandparents being listed as the parents of the deceased. Janet

For whatever it might be worth (probably not much), one thing I have learned in doing genealogy research for more than two decades is that you can ill afford to take facts and details for granted. I have a good friend who lost both parents in an auto accident as a very young child, and it almost took his life as well. He was raised by his maternal grandparents, who legally adopted him just to make everything official, and to this day the names in most of his school and other records for "parents" is different than surname because they are actually his maternal grandparents. David E. Cann decann@infionline.net -----Original Message----- From: lanark-bounces@rootsweb.com [mailto:lanark-bounces@rootsweb.com] On Behalf Of Janet Smith Sent: Thursday, August 05, 2010 8:30 PM To: lanark@rootsweb.com Subject: Re: [Lanark] A name conundrum Hi Ian, Just to add to the confusion. When one of my grandfathers died in 1916 his wife registered his death. In the space for parents was the helpful statement 'no information given'. But, like another lister, I have also come across grandparents being listed as the parents of the deceased. Janet <snip>

Hello Listers Thank you all for the time taken to offer some insights into my "name puzzle". Hidden in the comments made were some useful hints on avenues to follow to resolve my dilemma. Unfortunately none of them has provided a breakthrough as yet but they have helped to eliminate some possibilities. The personal experiences related highlight how much art is still a part of what we would hope to be an "exact science"! Cheers Ian Mair Melbourne, Australia

Hi Ian, I missed your original question, but I can offer a brief story from my research in Massachusetts. The lady who adopted my grandmother when she was just turning 3 (1892) was Mrs. Mary Anna ("Molly") (CLARK) DEXTER.* Molly then died in 1899 and I was able to look at her death record. It listed her parents as James CLARK and Lavair. I had initially "assumed" that the couple was James and Lavair CLARK. Wrong. I found another lady researching that family, and she told me that Molly's mother's full name was Mrs. Rhoda (MANCHESTER) (LAVARE) CLARK. She had had a first marriage to Epaphroditis LAVARE. :o) (By the way, James married Rhoda, fathered his daughter, and then "left town." He got on a ship in 1844 which was heading out to the Indian Ocean and "deserted" in 1845 in NSW, Australia, presumably never to be seen again.) Betty (near Lowell, MA, USA) (Researching HANNAH / RITCHIE couple who married in Glasgow in Dec. 1854/Jan. 1855. Information is in archives of this List; I've posted about them many times.) * I believe that John and Mary DEXTER were the maternal grandparents of my grandmother. I believe their married daughter had a pregnancy outside of her marriage during the "summer of 1888" - and that fact is a "family secret" - to this day. My grandmother's reported birth-name was Daisy WATROUS, and it was changed at her adoption to Mary Anna Clark DEXTER. ----- Original Message ----- From: "Ian Mair" <r.i.mair@bigpond.net.au> To: <lanark@rootsweb.com> Sent: Thursday, August 05, 2010 11:31 PM Subject: Re: [Lanark] A name conundrum > Hello Listers > > Thank you all for the time taken to offer some insights into my "name > puzzle". Hidden in the comments made were some useful hints on avenues to > follow to resolve my dilemma. Unfortunately none of them has provided a > breakthrough as yet but they have helped to eliminate some possibilities. > The personal experiences related highlight how much art is still a part of > what we would hope to be an "exact science"! > > Cheers > Ian Mair > Melbourne, Australia > > >

I was talking to someone who worked on the Wills and Testaments project for ScotlandsPeople. She said that there was a lot of inconsistency in the spelling of surnames. In one document the surname of one person was spelled three different ways. The person who wrote the document was a solicitor's clerk, so I suspect that in the days when all these documents were hand written, exact spelling was not considered important. Iain McKenzie Glasgow