confused

[flst]

Just remembered the name of the book ; The Christian Watt Papers;

Christian Watt was born in 1833 into a Fraserburgh fishing family. Hers was a life of toil and hardship during which she lost all seven of her brothers, two sons and her husband. Strikingly beautiful and intelligent, anxiety and grief eventually led to mental breakdown at the age of forty-seven and Christian spent the rest of her life as a patient in Cornhill Infirmary, Aberdeen. Her treatment there was enlightened and humane: she continued to work and travel and she began to write down recollections of her life. Her remarkable story paints a vivid picture not only of life in the North-east of Scotland during the second half of the late nineteenth century and into the twentieth, but also of major national and international events. Fuelled by a sense of family pride, anger at social injustice, hatred of war and profound religious faith, these memoirs show Christian to have been a woman of immense courage and compassion.
 flst

[ter153]

thankyou flst,
    think ill have a look for that book.its very sad to think how easy it was to put someone in an asylum in those days easy to hide an ''embarrassing'' relative away.wouldnt have been much of a life for them then.James had been boarded out to blankets farm then joined up 1n 1911.where will i get the poor relief information from? i too got medical records for mary,very sad that her sil called her the pauper! thanks again flst

[flst]

Click on this link to read about the information held by Aberdeen City Archives; http://www.aberdeencity.gov.uk/nmsruntime/saveasdialog.asp?lID=22836&sID=9978
You can ask them to do a look up for you if you cannot get to Aberdeen in person. They're very friendly & helpful folk!
flst

[ter153]

thanks flst ill call them tomorrow and see what i can find out,youve been a great help

[nolindr]

Hold on,first of all,let's recap on what information you've got.I assume you have a copy of Mary's marriage certificate to John Shepherd? William Fraser (crofter), is down as Mary's reputed father.This proves that William & Elizabeth weren't married to each other! There are only 2 possible births for a Mary Mavor.I have purchased copies of both which turned out to be the same birth.One was registered in Old Meldrum & the other in Ellon. Elizabeth was living at Broomfield, Ellon at that time. It was common for an illegitimate child to be registered under their mother's maiden name & to be brought up under another surname.  In instances like this it's always easiest to search for the least common surname first! The 1881 census that Malky spotted is not for your ancestors. I checked out the 1891 & 1901 censuses  & there is a patient Mary Ann Shepherd in the Royal Asylum. Her birth date & place of birth doesn't tie in with your Mary though. 1891 = born c1851. 1901= born c1852, Tarves. Don't know where cookies4 info on 1901 census comes from?
flst

FLST:  My Mavors are from Ellon. Elizabeth Ledingham married to John Mavor and lived in Broomfield.  I found 4 children (1828 - first born Alexander named after Johns Father and Elizabeth's father, 1834 - Francis, 1839 - John Ledingham, 1849 - Leslie) but not all. It would stand to reason that they had a daughter named Elizabeth, after her mother. The Ledingham name was passed down more generations.
Where would I find their birth certificates and more info of Elizabeth and Johns children?  The only info I got was from FamilySearch
Thanks / Dianne

[flst]

Hi, there weren't any birth certificates in Scotland till 1855.You could view the Old Parish Records on scotlandspeople website. The familysearch shows the indices of the OPR's ,the actual ones may show the place they were born (as opposed to the parish) & may also give names of godparents,addresses etc. If you read the rootschat notes on using scotlandspeople you will get a better understanding of what information they hold & tips on how to use the site. You may be lucky & find death certificates for Elizabeth & John which should provide their parents names.You can also search for marriage & death certificates of their offspring. Censuses & wills & inventories are also available on this pay to view website.Hope this helps,
flst

[Forfarian]

I think this could be her with her father at Methlick in 1881. This Mary Fraser is with the same family in 1871.
1881 Inverebrie, Methlick -
William Fraser   54 Farmer born Udny
Ann Fraser   62
Mary Fraser   16 born Old Meldrum
Isabella Fraser   52

Don't overlook the possibility that Mary is actually the granddaughter of William Fraser and Ann Thow. They had a son James in 1846 who would have been old enough to be Mary's father. It isn't unheard of for illegitimate grandchildren to be brought up as children of the grandparents, and it's quite possible, if Mary was as confused as she seems to have been, that she thought William was her father when he wasn't.

There are only 2 possible births for a Mary Mavor.I have purchased copies of both which turned out to be the same birth.One was registered in Old Meldrum & the other in Ellon. Elizabeth was living at Broomfield, Ellon at that time.

The rules were that a birth had to be registered in the parish where it was born, but if the parents' (or in the case of an illegitimate child the mother's) usual residence was in another parish the Registrar had to forward details to the home Registrar, who then registered the birth in the parents'/mother's home parish. Hence the double entry.

It was common for an illegitimate child to be registered under their mother's maiden name & to be brought up under another surname.

An illegitimate child could be registered under both its mother's and its father's names if, and only if, the father accompanied the mother when she went to register the birth, and signed the birth certificate. So even if the entire parish knew who the father of Elizabeth Mavor's child was, the child could only be registered under its father's name if he too signed the register.

It might be worth a look in the Kirk Session minutes for both Ellon and Old Meldrum, to see if there is any mention of Elizabeth Mavor's pregnancy; if there is it may say who the father was. These were in the National Archives Records of Scotland in Edinburgh, but may now be in the care of Aberdeen City and Aberdeenshire Archives in Aberdeen. They have been digitised and can be viewed at both locations, but they are not yet available online.

have just noticed the difference in the spelling of maver mavor! definitely mavER on my certs etc!! but certainly sounds like the one you found cookies4 were spelling mistakes often made on certs etc?

There is no such thing as a 'spelling mistake' before about 1900, when people began to be more literate, spellings of names became more fixed, and the idea of 'correct' spelling came in. Before that, your name was spelled however the person writing it down thought it should be spelled. So you can't say that 'Mavor' is correct and 'Maver' is incorrect. They are simply alternative spellings of the name, both equally correct.