Adoption

[Forfarian]

On that note, who is usually a witness to a birth? Brothers, fathers or friends perhaps. Either way, it always seems to be a male. There were a couple of names unknown to me, so perhaps family friends?

Are you possibly confusing witnesses to a birth with witnesses to a baptism?

I have seen one or two pre-1855 records in the parish registers that give the name of one or more people who witnessed a birth. These are almost invariably female, and usually include the midwife and female relative(s) of the mother.

Witnesses to a baptism can be male or female. The practice seems to vary. In some parishes they are almost all male, but in others there can be an equal number of male and female.

If a witness' name doesn't seem to fit, they may be a friend or neighbour, or a more distant relative, such as the spouse of an aunt, uncle or cousin.

[brigidmac]

"cherchez la femme"
as has been said surnames may not be obvious if they match up or down thru the female lines

i suggest you add the mcgill ?Banks  couple as a floating branch build their trees down and add tag to each generation you have a dna connection to
you may find one of them is the ancestor of one of Marions parents or a different potential parent you can add child and not specify gender or birth year then grandchild then add surname of   a dna s ancestor of dna matches 

m not sure ive explained that well but the point is distant matches may look at your tree if they see a common surname and they may have knowledge of breaks in the official family line

for example i found a divorce record which names the man who is acused of adultery with the wife a few years after birth of child I added his surname as alternative father but tagged as hypothesis .he was SMITH but his maternal grandmother had an unusual surname .and low and behold there were matches to that surname .
Have you done a name search for Neilson as middle name could indicate a grandparent

[anne_p]

"However, I do have DNA connections to Edward McGill Neilson/Catherine Banks (B 1793) from the Invernesk area. "

Kazza,
Can I as you something about your DNA links to this couple?
Do your DNA connections stem from more than one child born to this couple?

My husband's ancestral aunt, (daughter of his 4x great grandparents) married one of their sons.
This son and his wife emigrated to the US and became LDS members.
Being LDS families, many descendants have undertaken DNA tests.

So far, my husband has 37 DNA matches to their descendants and the amount of shared DNA for each definitive relationship ( most are 4-5c ) is a bit too high. IE 40cM-95cM

I have never found any other connection, and no DNA matches with any other child born to the Neilson/Banks couple

[brigidmac]

I found the same when managing trees + DNA related to pioneers + latterday saints
huge families and often men have 3 different wives and lots of children but connect in different ways ..sometimes the dna is less than you expect because its descendants of half siblings of half siblings sometimes its higher because you descend from 2 lines ...In small religious communities its quite common to marry second cousins

anne P why dont you give the name and year of their son + grandchildren + some of the spouses surnnames down the line
so kassa can see if she matches any descendants ...

its very exciting .

[brigidmac]

if you do have matches in UTAH or LDS states 
I suggest you use location colour code .one colour for utah 1 colour for scotland check your matches trees around 1850 to see if you can find ancestors who left scotland and arrived UTAH

sometimes children were left behind with friends or neighbours .

[anne_p]

Within the family that I'm looking at, none of their children were involved in polygamy.
All had one spouse only.

Initially I wondered if the higher DNA matches were stemming from just one child where a possible connection was found in the spouse.
It's not the case.
The DNA matches are spread throughout  the descendants of all of the children and not an individual one.


I didn't give the details because I don't want to confuse Kazza with information but, wondered if her DNA matches were spread over multiple children born to the Neilson/Banks couple which would solidify her thoughts.
If it was just one of their numerous children, then it's possible that she is linked to the spouse rather than a Neilson/ Nelson child

[brigidmac]

the families I investigated werent all polygamous either but married young and separated or remarried when spouse died .

 I meant give  the surname of some spouses to look up in shared surname function for dna matches

why would it be confusing ?