Two Martha Sommerville's

[J-Mac]

Whilst tracing a Martha Sommerville in my family line I came across details on Familysearch which listed her parents as John Sommerville and Elizabeth Bryce. All the children of this marriage are listed and it shows two daughters named Martha. The first Martha was born on 1st July 1817 in Carnwath and a second Martha was born on 17th Dec 1818 in Carnwath. I know both survived as the marriage of the first is also listed as Dec 1835 to William Robertson, born about 1810 in Carnwath and I found the marriage of the second Martha to Maurice Kay in 1853 on SP. The death of the second Martha was 1897, also found on SP.

Does anyone know if this was a normal practice at the beginning of the 19th century to give daughters the same name ?  It certainly complicates family tree searching !  Where does Familysearch get the information from ?
I'm still searching for the death of the first Martha and her husband William Robertson.

J-mac

[still_looking]

Is it possible that both grandmothers were called Martha? First daughter named after mother's mother, second daughter after father's mother.

With familysearch results if you click on the call no. link under the record it will tell you where the information was extracted from. The exception being ancestral files.

Hope that helps.

S_L

p.s. incidentally I think I've got a gravestone photo from Carnwath, it's an Agnes Somerville if that's of any help - no relation of mine

[Annette7]

These are all submitted entries -  not extracted - so probably one of them is incorrect.   As advised on this site, proceed with caution re. submitted entries.

The parish records for Carnwath are on SP and only show the Martha Sommerville bp.20/12/1818.

Annette

[apanderson]

I take it Martha's DC doesn't list her as being previously married?

Bear in mind with pre-1855 birth searches - in many cases it could take a year (or perhaps even longer) to have a child baptised/christened and it could be the case that only be the baptism which was recorded - not the actual date of birth. (See Annette7's post above, bp (baptism) 20/12/1818)

This can frequently lead to thinking there were children of the same name in the same family or even that the family had twins/triplets etc. as it wasn't unusual to have a whole squad baptised 'in bulk'.

Anne

[J-Mac]

The dates listed for the two Martha's are,
First Martha - birth 01/071817 christing 09/07/1817
Second Martha - birth17/12/1818 christing 20/12/1818
The death of second Martha doesn't list a previous marriage.

I think the key to this is finding the death of the first Martha's husband William Robertson (b.1811)
I am sure there is an OPR marriage for 1835 on SP.

The records I have show the paternal grandmother as Marion Tennent. Maternal grandmother unknown.

J-Mac

[Lodger]

Carnwath was full of Sommervilles', it is more likely that these two were cousins.
I have been tracing family trees in Lanarkshire for over 40 years and have never found a case where 2 sisters, especially so close in age, had the same name, unless the elder had died before the second was born. (That was very common).
Are we to assume that you found both marriages on SP pre1855?  If so, I doubt very much that both sets of parents were named, including maiden surnames. So you cannot assume they were sisters until you find both death certificates and prove that both have the same parents.

Lodger

[Forfarian]

The key to this one is the census!

In the 1841 census transcription on http://freecen.rootsweb.com/cgi/search.pl William Robertson, his wife Martha Somerville and daughters Mary and Helen, are listed living in Wilsontown Row, Carnwath. Martha's age is given as 40, which implies that she was born 1796/1801, so she is about 20 years older than either of your Marthas[/b].

In another household in Carnwath is Martha Somerville, aged 20, so born 1816/21. Others in the same household are John Somerville and Christina Simpson.  John Somerville and Christian Simpson were married in Carnwath in June 1831 (if you trust the IGI!) so it may be that Christina is Martha's stepmother.

There are three baptisms of Martha Som(m)ervilles in Carnwath in the index at www.scotlandspeople.gov.uk

1. daughter of William Somerville and Mary Gibson, baptised 7 June 1795
2. daughter of John Somerville and Elisabeth Brice, baptised 9 July 1817
3. daughter of John Sommerville and Elisabeth Bryce, baptised 20 December 1818. (I suspect that the reason Annette found only the last one is that the first two are listed with only one 'm' so would not have come up if she searched with 'mm'.)

I think the overwhelming likelihood is that No 1 married William Robertson, No 2 died in infancy and No 3 married Maurice Kay. Note that William Robertson's first child was named Mary (after Mary Gibson?) and Maurice Kay's first child is Elizabeth Bryce Gibson Kay (Gibson again? Can there be a connection between the two Somerville families?)

George Kay's 1855 birth certificate says that he was Martha's second child, which proves that it was not a case of the same Martha being married twice.

[J-Mac]

Hi Forfarian,
Thanks for your efforts on this one. I agree that your explantion is very possible.
There is a OPR marriage for William Robertson / Martha Somerville in 1835 on SP.
If I could find the death of William R and/or Martha S (b.1795) it would close this
one off.

J-Mac