Missing Marriages

[rupiezucki]

Hello all,

I am going through IGI files and am finding holes with my normally prolific Paton family in several parishes. I know that they were still marrying, although there may have been some reason that marriages were not recorded.  This family is normally found spread from Muirheadston, Gibbiestoun, Meikle Obney, Neither Obney, Belston, Balquharn, Glack and Farkhill.

Has anyone researching these parishes found an answer?

Here are the 4 parishes where I would expect to find them.


Auchtergaven

No marriages between 1771 and 1823

Methven

No marriages between 1788 and 1814

Little Dunkeld

No marriages between  1779 and 1803

Redgorton

No marriages between 1785 and 1815

Thanks in advance!

[Rosinish]

Are you finding the same problem on www.scotlandspeople.gov.uk

If so then you have the same problem as most of us all over Scotland with records not going back far enough for whatever reasons.

Annie

[Rosinish]

Here are the 4 parishes where I would expect to find them.

Auchtergaven

No marriages between 1771 and 1823  - There are 3 on SP

Methven

No marriages between 1788 and 1814 - There are 3 on SP

Little Dunkeld

No marriages between  1779 and 1803 - There are 2 on SP

Redgorton

No marriages between 1785 and 1815 - There are 2 on SP

Annie

[Forfarian]

I am going through IGI files and am finding holes with my normally prolific Paton family in several parishes. I know that they were still marrying, although there may have been some reason that marriages were not recorded.

First, the coverage of the IGI is not complete. There are sets of records that are not indexed in the IGI.

You need to use www.scotlandspeople.gov.uk which has a complete (E and O E) index to all the surviving registers of the Church of Scotland and Roman Catholic Church, and most of the surviving registers of the Free and dissenting churches.

There are, however, gaps in the records. Some registers have been lost, and some were less than meticulously kept. There is a list of all the surviving registers at https://www.scotlandspeople.gov.uk/guides/church-registers

[rupiezucki]

Thank you, both, for your kind replies.

My normal process, with UK records, is to raid the IGIs in a known parish, and surrounding parishes for every possibility, match up parents with children and marriages.  I don't usually have too many errors.  I do end up with a bunch of cousins, that I file away for a rainy day.  They always manage to tie in somewhere. 

Then I go to the pay sites. 

Some of these people are driving me nuts.  I know about naming protocols, and actually find it really helpful, normally, but this time I have people living next door to each other, with the same name, born less than 6 months apart, to fathers with the same name, marrying women with the same forename, having children with the same names - in one case the baptism was 3 days apart.  Add to that the interchangeable names...  Some were obvious, but Patrick/Peter and Isobel/Elizabeth had me stumped for a while.

Ah well.  It was good to hear about the missing records.  It was also good to have some hope that there are Patons in Scotland's People during that time frame.   I was hoping it wasn't something like a mass land clearing, or religious purge that made them not register.

I am about ready to buy some credits at Scotland's People for the first time.

Thanks again!

[Forfarian]

You do know, I hope, that you can search the SP indexes free of charge?

[rupiezucki]

I did, and I have been, but I haven't been getting as many returns as I would have expected.  Obviously, I have to learn the secrets of their database.

Cab you explain the difference between a fuzzy and a variant in a search?

Thanks, Forfarian, you are always a wealth of information for me.

[Forfarian]

Cab you explain the difference between a fuzzy and a variant in a search?

I think variants are names that have been specifically linked by someone looking at them and marking them as variants.

For example Bremner, Brebner and Brymer - there is no sensible fuzzy or wildcard method that would pick up all of those without adding all sorts of extra names.

I'm not at all clear about how fuzzy matching works, except that it will pick up some spelling variants.

Phonetic is sometimes useful but for instance using it for Moug collects large numbers of Mackays, which is not useful!

I tend to use wildcards for most searches, but sometimes I do try variants or phonetic, depending on the name I am interested in.

The IGI does manage to group some names together, but at one time it would not pick up Mac* or Mc* surnames if there was a space between the Mac or Mc and the rest of the name. And there were some variants it would never pick up - can't remember offhand. 

[Rosinish]

I have people living next door to each other, with the same name, born less than 6 months apart, to fathers with the same name, marrying women with the same forename, having children with the same names - in one case the baptism was 3 days apart.  Add to that the interchangeable names...  Some were obvious, but Patrick/Peter and Isobel/Elizabeth had me stumped for a while.

There should be no problem starting with SP Indexes for OPRs (as Forfarian has pointed out, are free) & as married women in Scotland are recorded on baptisms by maiden name, your problem with women with same forenames should be easier to untangle.

Annie