Possible to prove which Robert is the right Robert?

[Woolverine]

I am very new to this. At first I didn't realise what a trap the family trees on Ancestry can be, with people not checking or adding records.

I'm researching Nimmos based around Slamannan and Muiravonside parishes. I'm fairly sure about the line back to a certain point because of birth certificates, the census, etc. Then I got to Bethia Marshall.

She appears on baptismal records as Bethia Marshall. Many trees have her DOB as 13 January 1734 in Muiravonside, parents John Marshall and Marie Boyd. I and other researchers can't find a record of a Bethia matching any of that info.

Last week I found her as Elisabeth Marshell with a baptism date of 16 January 1734 - the parents and parish match. I was pretty excited and now want to verify her husband, Robert Nimmo.

Except Bethia seems to be a popular wife. I've found her marched on Ancestry and FamilySearch with at least four different Robert Nimmos who have different birth years and different birth places.

Even if I exclude geographically unlikely husbands, such as someone whose records are all from Ayrshire when Bethia's are all Muiravonside and Polmont, that still leaves several possibilities.

I don't know how to narrow it down further because I don't have a great understanding of the records available for this time period.

Please point a newbie in the appropriate direction. If the answer is that, well, it isn't possible to get a proper answer, I shall leave the Nimmos there and work on another line.

Woolverine

[GR2]

One way to start is to look at the witnesses to the baptisms of Robert's children to see if there are any Nimmo relatives. Remember that any married women who act as witnesses will be recorded under their maiden name.

[Forfarian]

Good heavens, Robert Nimmo and Bethia Marshall certainly obeyed the biblical injunction! 15 children over 28 years, poor woman.

Their first son was Henry and their second daughter was Elizabeth; their first daughter was Mary and their second son was William. Their third son was Robert.

So if they followed the naming tradition you'd expect Robert's parents to be Henry and Elizabeth, and Bethia's to be William and Mary.

In which case Robert's baptism is missing from the surviving records because the earliest baptism of a Robert Nimmo with father Henry is in 1777 (probably Robert's grandson).

They did name a son John, but he was only the sixth son.

There is certainly a very short window during which Bethia could have been born. Her 15th and youngest child was born in 1782, so she can't have been born before 1732, and probably a year or two later; and although she could legally have married when she was 12, it's very rare for girls to marry at such a young age, and realistically she was probably at least 16, which would mean that she wasn't born after 1737.

If she was born in 1734, she had her last child at 48. Not absolutely impossible, but very unusual.

Incidentally a Henry Nimmo (1827-1891) married a distant cousin of mine. His parents were Henry Nimmo and Margaret Rankin.

I agree with GR2 that witnesses' names can be very useful, if they have been recorded. 

[Woolverine]

You're right, Forfarian, about the naming pattern. I've been a bit dubious about Bethia and her parents for that reason. My mum's maternal family were still using the naming pattern in the 1980s. There were seven female relatives with same name at my granny's funeral, and another two or three that were too young to attend It  left a big impression on me about the power of family names.

I'm going to double check (again) the line back to Bethia and Robert, to make sure it is as correct as it can be.

I've got another line where the sudden appearance of Simons has me scratching me head thinking I've gone wrong somewhere. I decided to leave it until I acquired a bit more experience. Simons shouldn't just appear out of nowhere!

Woolverine

[Forfarian]

I've got another line where the sudden appearance of Simons has me scratching me head thinking I've gone wrong somewhere. I decided to leave it until I acquired a bit more experience. Simons shouldn't just appear out of nowhere!

No, not usually.

But it might be worth trying to find out the name of the landlord, or the minister, teacher or doctor at the time. For example there was a sort of tradition that the first baby baptised by a new minister was given that minister's name.

I have, for instance, a James Gordon Mitchell Black baptised in 1838, and it turns out that Gordon Mitchell was the newly appointed assistant minister.

[GR2]

As Forfarian says, there can be reasons for an unexpected name suddenly appearing. In Aberdeenshire, for example, there are 31 Samuels in Aberdour who can thank Samuel Craik, the schoolmaster, for their name. The 9 children in Rathen with Cock as a middle name can be sure they were baptised by William Cock, the minister there.

[Woolverine]

In Aberdeenshire, for example, there are 31 Samuels in Aberdour who can thank Samuel Craik, the schoolmaster, for their name.

I hope they were spread out over a lot of years! I'm trying to imagine one school with a dozen or more Samuels possibly in a single classroom. I thought it was awkward being in a class with three Traceys, three Michelles and two Garys

[Forfarian]

I'm always a bit wary of assuming that a missing Bethia is Elizabeth, and vice versa.

There's no doubt that Bethia and her variations are derivatives of Elizabeth, but I wouldn't jump to the conclusion that Bethia is Elizabeth, especially when the baptism records are unanimous in calling her Bethia.

I'm also a bit wary of the idea of her having a child at the age of 48. I've been having a look on the internet, and of the more credible web sites, the consensus seems to be that a woman is very unlikely to conceive by natural means (i.e. without IVF or hormone treatment or other medical interventions) after the age of 45. Also that women's fertility declined earlier in the 17th and 18th centuries than it might nowadays. So it seems to me unlikely that Elizabeth Marshall, born in 1734, could have been the mother of Bethia Nimmo, born in 1782. But it's not impossible.

[GR2]

No doubt there is some confusion between Bethia and Elizabeth at times, but the origin of the names is different.

In the north east of Scotland the name tends to be Bathia.

In the OPRs on ScotlandsPeople:

Bethia: up to 1854 - 1,526 Bethias in all Scotland: in Stirlingshire 82

Bathia: up to 1854 - 831 Bathias in all Scotland: in Stirlingshire 24