Gold or Guild

[941pars]

Hi

I am needing a wee bit of a help.

I have found my great great grandmother Agnes Gold b 23/05/1822 St Andrews
and died 09/07/1894 Kilmany
However I  cannot seem to find her anywhere else before her marriage to James Taylor 1844 Ceres.
However what is unusual is that her sister (or mebbey see changed her name) was born Nancy Guild b23/05/1822 and died 09/07/1894 Kilmany.

Is it just a coincidence or were they twins and one died.

Can anyone help please or give me advice, I have tried to get Agnes Birth certificate without sucess, which makes me think that she was not born Agnes.

Thanks

[PrueM]

Hi 941pars 

Nancy can be a nickname for Agnes, so it may be that as Agnes grew up she decided to 'upgrade' from a nickname to a grownup name...just a thought.

You won't find a birth certificate in Scotland prior to 1855 - you may find a parish register entry for a baptism though.  Where did you find the dates for Agnes and Nancy that you've got already?

Prue

[941pars]

Hi

Thanks for the reply, I was looking at the parsih records for Ceres and found Agnes Gold and James Taylor marriage Nov 1844 and then their children but only females were registered.

The parents listed for Agnes were Joseph Guild or Gold and Betty or Betsy Scott.

I then went back and found Nancy records as birth in St Andrews with the same Joseph and Betty her parents, then moving to Ceres some of their childrens were born their around the time Agnes got married.

However I can confirm Agness record, I know that her date of bith was May 1822 and my brother has seen her death record.

I feel like I am going round in circles.

What I do know is that Agnes Gol and James Taylor had

Betsy Taylor 10/04/1846
Agnes and Isabella 22/03/1848
Mary Anne 02/07/1853
Euphemia  01/04/1850

I then could find no records for any of her sons until I realised that they only go up to 1854 her son
James Taylor was not born until May 1855

[PrueM]

In the absence of any other likely candidates, and the fact that the Nancy baptism has the same parents as Agnes when she married, if it were me I'd be content that I'd found my Agnes    IF you're sure the birthdates are the same...how do you know Agnes's date of birth was May 1822?

Not that it really matters for the purposes of proving who Agnes is, but have you checked the Statutory births registers for her son's birth in 1855?

Prue

[941pars]

Hi

Thanks once again

As you have gathered I am still getting used to that.
The date for Agnes cames from Ancestery I don't know how trusted that is.

Where do I check the statutory births?

[PrueM]

You need to check out Scotland's People:

http://www.scotlandspeople.gov.uk/

You'll need to register, and pay for credits to use on the site, but the value is quite good if you know what you're looking for.  YOu can search both old parish registers and the civil registrations, and once you find what you want in the indexes, you can pay and immediately view and download the records you want.

Hope that helps - good luck with the search!

Cheers
Prue

[941pars]

Hi

Thanks for that, I will give it a go and see where we get to.

[MonicaL]

Hi 941 pars and Prue 

Just a couple of additional comments to help out hopefully.

This is a good site for first name variants. Some names in particular were more prone to them as you have found with Agnes/Nancy. You will also find a third variant for this name in the way of Ann  www.whatsinaname.net

From what you said, your brother has seen Agnes' death cert which confirms parents as Joseph and Betty (and its many variants!) Scott. Did you also say that these names showed on her OPR marriage entry in 1844?

Agnes and James seem to have only had girls up to 1854, which are the one that you have...and then came all the boys! Other children showing to them also on IGI:

1. JAMES TAYLOR Birth: 20 MAY 1855 Ceres
2. JOSEPH TAYLOR Birth: 22 MAR 1857 Cameron
3. GEORGE TAYLOR Birth: 13 JUL 1859 Leuchars
4. JOHN GOLD TAYLOR  Birth: 13 OCT 1861 St. Andrews And St. Leonards
5. ROBERT TAYLOR Birth: 25 NOV 1863 Dairsie
6. DAVID BERWICK TAYLOR Birth: 19 MAR 1866 Dunbog

The 1855 cert as Prue said, will include lot of extra information. The first year of official reg., and for one year only, entries ran over two pages of the register. For births it should include, parents marriage, where they were born and ages, how many children they'd had (girls/boys, alive/deceased) which will let you confirm that you have all their children's births up to then.

You say that you have access to Ancestry, so you will have Agnes and James' census entries from 1851. Also, Joseph and Betty also show in 1851 in Ceres which will let you confirm ages and birth places.

There is a marriage date for Joseph and Betty showing on IGI as 23 AUG 1817 in Leuchars, Fife which is where Joseph shows as his birth place. Hopefully you can verify on Scotlands People (SP) with the link that Prue has given you. There are also 11 entries showing for their childrens' births/christening on SP, some of which appear on IGI as either submitted/actual extract entries.

Point to bear in mind when searching for the family in 1841, if they were in Ceres for that census (likelyhood they were given the birth entries showing for their later children). The original 1841 census returns for Ceres and other parishes were lost in transit to Edinburgh. This will explain why you are not finding an entry for them that year I would imagine.

By the sounds of it, you may not have used SP before. There are a couple of useful guides here on RC. One on SP in particular and the other in general Scottish Research:

www.rootschat.com/forum/index.php/topic,43916.0.html
www.rootschat.com/forum/index.php/topic,24468.0.html

As Prue has already said, hope your searches are successful!

Monica 

[941pars]

Hi

Thanks again for you replies, it is very much appreciated