John Cook of Locharbriggs, Dumfries

[Annette7]

If his parents were Joseph Cook and Mary Blain he was 10 years older than he later stated as he was baptised in June 1824 (15 on 1841 census, and 24 on 1851 census when with his family.

Annette

[Rosinish]

A wee story...

Approx. 8 yrs ago I came across a very elderly woman (living at the time) being referred to & written by people as Jean/(Sheena) which initially had me raising my eyebrows & I enquired as to why the 2 names but nobody could tell me.

I thought about it & then the 'penny dropped'...

Jane/Jean in scottish gaelic is Sine (pronounced Sheena) i.e. I told those people I'd realised why both names & they looked at me as if I had 2 heads!!! 

I doubt they believed me 

Annie

[Russell48]

Thanks for the comments.  I agree about the age difference on the census which caused me to question if they are the correct parents.  I recently downloaded a copy of the marriage details from Scotlands People and found that there is no Mary Blain.  John Cook married Jean Bisset my ancestor in 1858, Jean was 20 at time of marriage , her birth I have is 1838, her parents were Thomas Bisset and Janet Bisset.  His parents are Joseph Cook (quarryman), His mother is Mary Cook nee Blawlean, at least that's what it looks like.  Too many letters for Blain.  Unfortunately I have no information as to what happened to Jean after John Cooks death.  I will keep looking.

[chempat]

Could you post a snip of that certificate, so we can look at 'Blain' ?

[Russell48]

Could you post a snip of that certificate, so we can look at 'Blain' ?

I would love to but I am not sure how to do that. I could email the whole thing to you I think, that may be easier.

[chempat]

For surname

[Russell48]

So what do you think, not Blain as some of the ancestry trees have.

[Forfarian]

Certainly not Blain - it is clear enough.

But if you search for Blawlean in the SP home page there isn't a single reference to it, so it has to be a variant spelling of another name, and Blain is reasonably close to it. Imagine it pronounced with strong emphasis on the last syllable - 'bl-LANE' and it's not that much different.

[MonicaL]

Widow of Joseph when she died in 1868, Mary Ann's maiden name is clearly written on register as Blain. Death reported by her son Samuel.

Added: Again from a/try trees with original images, Joseph and Mary Ann's son, also called Joseph, had mother reported as Blain on his death reg.

Monica