David WANTON, Craig by Montrose

[keebleancestors]

This gentleman married Hannah SMITH in 1815 in Craig. I am a realist and as soon as I find the name Smith (this is the 3rd time) I just give up. But Wanton cannot be a terribly common name, and I would love to hear from anyone who has details on the family, especially David's parents.

[ev]

hi 

don't know what you have so far ?
3 children on IGI - isabel(b. 1815) , robert(b. 1817) , charlotte wanton(b. 1829)
in 1841 an 11 year old charlotte wanton is with charles(75) & isabel(70) smith
craig angus - grandparents ?(freeCEN)
IGI has hannah smith born 10th feb. 1793 baptised 17th feb 1793 craig by
montrose parents charles smith & isabel strachan
there are other wantons on the 1841 census angus but none match above
apart from charlotte

ev

[Gordon Johnson]

I think you should perhaps also add Wanton to your Smith problems!
The parish listing prepared by the Craig minister in 1788 contained NO Wantons, but one spouse (to Robert Watt) is an Anne HAMPTON.
The 1841 census of Craig has NO HAMPTON, but has at least one WANTON (1841 parish surname index) ; while the 1851 census of Craig has NO WANTON or HAMPTON, but has two HANTONs, born Dundee but nephews of a local resident). The Craig OPR has at least one HANTON family (James Hanton and Barbara Walker married 20 march 1790). The pre-1855 Angus M.I.s don't show a Wanton in Craig or Montrose.
I conclude that there is a possibility of the surname being heard and written by session clerks in several ways, so look for the relatives under various spellings in locations up and down the coast (most of the Craig families were fishermen and seamen).
Hope this helps.
Gordon Johnson

[keebleancestors]

Thanks Gordon. I had seen it spelled Wantin, but didn't think of looking for really odd versions! Oh boy...............

[ibi]

It's not just 'really odd' version' that need to be taken into account starting with the same letter, but, as here, starting with an initial capital that could be confused by the transcriber who produced the original index in Edinburgh, where the previous years' registers were sent every year from 1856 onwards; but also later indexers' interpretations.

ScotlandsPeople is one of the few sites where a leading wildcard is permitted as long as there are at least two other characters in the search term.


There's a couple of very good ways to generate possible alternative spellings.

One is to search for the surname on the LDS 1881 census CDs for Scotland, and see what pops up, as the LDS search engine is very good in terms of including variants.

The other, much more powerful technique is to use the NameX system at Origins.net to produce variants.

I can virtually guarantee you that this will produce one or more spellings variants to which your reaction will be "Now why didn't I think of that, or those, previously?".

ibi

[Gordon Johnson]

Noticed the census advert at the side of many posts, so:
Please note that SCOTTISH census information is NOT available form the URL stated, but IS available from the scotlandspeople website
Gordon Johnson