Janet I think that the main reason is that all legal documents had to be written in English, including signatures It's quite possible that many people who made the "X" could write in Gaelic My late mother born 1924 Gribun, had to learn English in school X (Gaelic for Michael, per Sue's post) www.mullfamilies.co.uk ----- Original Message ----- From: "Janet" <cilurnum@googlemail.com> To: <sct-isleofmull@rootsweb.com> Sent: Sunday, September 01, 2013 8:54 PM Subject: Re: [SCT-ISLEOFMULL] Name sounding...Re: Gillies > Michael, I think the cross in the box was sociological. It would take > someone to survey > and prove it. I am saying its down to family circumstances, ability, and > all the other > reasons for illiteracy and not just education alone. > > > Janet >

It is a point, I would agree and others have contributed well about it. Would you not think in the instance where English is not spoken or written, Scotland's People/GROS would have a note somewhere about it, in the same way they do about searching the maiden surname? Perhaps they have some guidance about it somewhere? I just wonder however whether women in particular would have learned how to write their name in English even if they could not speak or write in English, for the purposes of a legal document. The more I think about it, I find it a bit mean or even prejudicial to force someone to have to write their name in English. Janet ----- Original Message ----- From: "MF" <mf@mullfamilies.plus.com> To: <sct-isleofmull@rootsweb.com> Sent: Sunday, September 01, 2013 9:09 PM Subject: Re: [SCT-ISLEOFMULL] Name sounding...Re: Gillies > Janet > > I think that the main reason is that all legal documents had to be written > in English, including signatures > > It's quite possible that many people who made the "X" could write in Gaelic > > My late mother born 1924 Gribun, had to learn English in school > > > X (Gaelic for Michael, per Sue's post) > www.mullfamilies.co.uk > > ----- Original Message ----- > From: "Janet" <cilurnum@googlemail.com> > To: <sct-isleofmull@rootsweb.com> > Sent: Sunday, September 01, 2013 8:54 PM > Subject: Re: [SCT-ISLEOFMULL] Name sounding...Re: Gillies > > >> Michael, I think the cross in the box was sociological. It would take >> someone to survey >> and prove it. I am saying its down to family circumstances, ability, and >> all the other >> reasons for illiteracy and not just education alone. >> >> >> Janet >> > > ------------------------------- > To unsubscribe from the list, please send an email to > SCT-ISLEOFMULL-request@rootsweb.com with the word 'unsubscribe' without the quotes in > the subject and the body of the message