Hello Everyone, I am facing a challenge with my great grandmother's maiden name. On her marriage certificate to Daniel Ross, it is listed McNally. On the VERY SAME certificate, her parents are each listed McInally (with an I). When I look up all the children's birth cert., the informant my great grandfather, gave both versions several different times each. I will check the church records in Uphall when we are there - would they be any different from the SR marriage certificate? I have searched birth records with an asterisk. There is only one birth certificate from Scotland that looks palusible in that it matches her parents first names and her mother's maiden name (Muirhead). This one lists yet a third spelling McNalley (with an e). I don't feel this is enough to make sure I have the right person. Adding to this is the thought that half the family believes that she was not born in Scotland at all, but in Ballymena, Ireland. I have not been sucessful finding a database to look. The No. Ireland gov website indicated recored are few and not for that time period. This piece of information may a been a 'cover' as she was originally married in the Catholic Church but changed everything to Presbyterian at some point to 'allow' her husband to head the Shale Miner's Local (this from one of her older children). Her youngest daughter told me years ago her mother was "from the Protestant stronghold of Ballymena, Ireland." I have been unsuccessful in locating her death certificate as she died in the US - unable to return to Scotland due to WWII. There is no record on scotlandspeople.gov for a foreign return under any spelling. We have corresponded with each of the boroughs of the City of New York and they do not have anything for her. Of course, we've been searching for the McNally version. We are certain she died there, my mother and aunt were present and the wake was at their house in the Bronx. I will look at her tombstone that was errected in Scotland when we are there in Feb, but I'm not sure I'd trust that spelling as it's from yet another informant. Is there another source that I can look for (for the 1886 time period, she'd be about 18) that would have her name as SHE gave it?? From what I understand, she did not attend advanced schooling. I feel very suspicious. At what point do I accept what is our there and go with the McNalley spelling? If each of her birth, marriage, death records has a different spelling, how does that figure in genealogy? Are genealogical challenges typically this convoluted?? :) Thanks for any suggestions you can offer, and Merry Christmas to all! Allison

Allison, I'm up to 37 spellings of my mother's maiden name..... and 43 of one of my brick wall names (spelled Batchelder on the woman's marriage record). To give this a Midlothian connection, you don't want to know how many ways McGee (MacGee, McGhie, Magee, and so on....) was spelled in various mid/late 19th century Edinburgh records. So three different spellings is nothing! Just makes the hunt more interesting ;-) If you want ideas for searching in NY, email me off-list and I'll try to help. BJ > -----Original Message----- > Hello Everyone, > I am facing a challenge with my great grandmother's maiden name. On her > marriage certificate to Daniel Ross, it is listed McNally. On > the VERY SAME > certificate, her parents are each listed McInally (with an I). > When I look > up all the children's birth cert., the informant my great > grandfather, gave > both versions several different times each. I will check the > church records > in Uphall when we are there - would they be any different from the SR > marriage certificate? > > I have searched birth records with an asterisk. There is only one birth > certificate from Scotland that looks palusible in that it matches her > parents first names and her mother's maiden name (Muirhead). > This one lists > yet a third spelling McNalley (with an e). I don't feel this is > enough to > make sure I have the right person. > > I feel very suspicious. At what point do I accept what is our > there and go > with the McNalley spelling? If each of her birth, marriage, > death records > has a different spelling, how does that figure in genealogy? Are > genealogical challenges typically this convoluted?? :) >