heehee! Hi Meg - I feel your pain :-) Don't want to have an extended conversation about the ins & outs of transcribing, but it really is "NorquAy" (sic). If you still have doubts, then explain why the similar "-Ay" in "RonaldshAy" should be "Ronaldsheny" ;-) This Registrar had the unfortunate habit of making "-a's " as both a normal-looking, small "-a" and also doing what looks like a capital "-A", choosing either whenever he felt like it. Truly. Once you get the feel for this Registrar's handwriting, it can be seen. And the Cumming I was referencing was not the "Ann Cromarty Russland M.S. Annal" in entry #68... but the mother's maiden surname I referenced in entry #69, where you had stated that it was Cromarty. That one is Cumming. Take a peek once more at your email to the list. No worries! I only wrote what I did so that someone wouldn't look for a Margaret Cromarty married to a Norquay, when she was a Cumming. Best wishes, Lisa ---------- Meg Greenwood wrote: > Norquay / Norqueny : I mused on this for quite awhile. I got a massive > spyglass to look closely at it. I found other NORQUAY names to compare > with since NORQUAY is the name we all know of and I'd never yet heard of > NORQUENY until the Informant was much clearer with his lettering. But > who am I to say there is no NORQUENY ??? That would make me equal to > one of those horridly bad transcribers for Ancestry that I've complained > about for years. HALERS ??? Who in the world sees HALERS when its > clearly HALCRO ? Well its one of those dysfunctional transcribers. > Surely I can't be equal to one of them.... > > If this is your family, then you are certainly more qualified than I am > to declare it NORQUAY....but I swear to Odin the name is spelled > NORQUENY. Yes, I realize Odin is the name of that huge white tiger in > California that swims and loves to be photographed underwater.... And if > I get a pencil and really get creative I can make an A out of the E and > the first leg of the N....that leaves the Y with half of the N and a > stem downward. And I did find a similar A further down the page...OK, > so its possible.....still, I'm not as bad as those Ancestry > transcribers.....Just agree with me for old time's sake and I'll not > feel so bad about first typing NORQUAY and then convincing myself it > wasn't so I changed it. > > Lisa - The Surname CROMARTY[CUMMING] was squeezed in between 2 > lines...but it ends in TY. I have to blame the Registrar for this > one....I really do see a -TY. Squint your eyes a lot until it looks > like a -TY.....please. OK squint more.... MegG > =========================== > > >> >> > ------------------ > List Archives, information on contacting list administrator, Subscribing and UnSubscribing can be found at: > > http://lists.rootsweb.com/index/intl/SCT/ORKNEY.html > ------------------------------- > To unsubscribe from the list, please send an email to ORKNEY-request@rootsweb.com with the word 'unsubscribe' without the quotes in the subject and the body of the message > >

That A in South RonaldshAy was the other one I saw that looked the same down the page. Its pretty much the one that made me think it was as I had [originally] thought. I hate it when I'm right, then convince myself I'm not and find out I really was. So do my kids. An the CUMMING ! Thanks for saying its the one in the last entry. Yep, I agree its CUMMING ! However, I was horribly misled by the interfering letter on the line above it. You just can't believe what you read anymore....MegG ====================== >

Yep, you were right at the first! To remove all doubt, in the Norquay signature for James... he just did not write a fully connected "-a", and left the top of it open, to confuse all of us trying to transcribe the words 133 years later. harumph. The little "-g" in Cumming looks like a figure 8. But I feel like you do -- I am still flummoxed over the "South Brooke" I seem to see in another birth register which looks to me like, "South Brooke", even though Bruce told me he sees South Brecks... and I know it is probably South Breck (with a fancy swoop at the end of the "-k"). [there is the mention of this topic in an earlier email of mine to this List] It is very hard when your eye is making your brain see something, and you can't shake it! Even with ten years of pouring over these registers for Burray and So Ronaldsay, I still have confusion and my brain balks. (List admin: sorry to stray off-topic, if we did!) - Lisa >