A "Lost" Child - Henrietta Warrener

It isn't very often when I can discover a new close relative to add to my family tree. Today is one of those days.

While waiting for the January BIFHSGO monthly meeting to start I decided to pay attention to a hint on the FamilySearch one-world tree where it suggested that there may be a missing child for George Kaye Warrener and Henrietta Jane Whitfield McGregor, my great-grandparents. I've been researching my own tree for about 20 years and for the lines to my great-grandparents I thought I had everyone recorded but I figured, a quick check wouldn't hurt.

 

Looking at the family for George and Henrietta I have:

• Winifred Violet (1904-1983)
  
• Mary Adela (1906-1972)
  
• George (1908-1966)
  
• Ronald McGregor (1913-1943)
  
• Lillian Barbara (1916-1998)

You might notice that there is a larger gap between George and Ronald between 1908 and 1913 than between the other children. I also knew that George Kaye Warrener's family was residing in the Dalmuir area of Dumbartonshire, Scotland when the known children were born.

So it was off to do a quick check on ScotlandsPeople to see what might appears.

 

Screen capture from ScotlandsPeople of the Warrener 1908-1913 search query.

As you can see, my search is very simple, the last name of Warrener and the date range of 1908 to 1913.

 

Screen capture from ScotlandsPeople for Statutory registers results from Warrener 1908-1913 search query.

In the returned information there are 3 birth and 1 death record. Since the range included the birth years for George and Ronald I expected two records but not three. Since viewing the index return on ScotlandsPeople is free I clicked on the "view 3 records" to see what names appear.

 

Screen capture from ScotlandsPeople for Statutory birth registers results from Warrener 1908-1913 search query.

 

 

The RD or registration district that encompasses Dalmuir is "Old or West Kilpatrick" so seeing George and Ronald McGregor make sense. But who the heck is this Henrietta born in 1911 and registered in that same district? Henrietta is the name of my great-grandmother so could it be a daughter of George Kaye and Henrietta Warrener?

Now is when I needed to shell out a pound or so to view the digitized image for the record of Henrietta Warrener to learn who her parents are.

 

Dumbartonshire, Scotland, "Statutory Births 1855-2009," 1911 Births in the Parish of Old Kilpatrick, p. 228, Henrietta Warrener; digital image, General Register Office for Scotland,  ScotlandsPeople (www.scotlandspeople.gov.uk: 9 Jan 2021).

This is when my jaw dropped. I had missed a child of George Kaye Warrener and Henrietta Jane Whitfield McGregor. I had never heard of this child from my grandmother Winifred or my Dad. She was born 24 May 1911 at 1 Shaftsbury Place in Dalmuir. I know of that address since it is same place many of the children of George Kaye and Henrietta Warrener were born.

There is also a single death record for that period.

 

Screen capture from ScotlandsPeople for Statutory death registers results from Warrener 1908-1913 search query.

That looks to be the same person but the only way to be certain is to pay my 6 credits (£1.50) to view the digitized image of the death record.

 

Dumbartonshire, Scotland, "Statutory Deaths 1855-2009," 1912 Deaths in the Parish of Old Kilpatrick, p. 2, Henrietta Warrener; digital image, General Register Office for Scotland,  ScotlandsPeople (www.scotlandspeople.gov.uk: 9 Jan 2021).

And, unfortunately or fortunately depending on your perspective, it is the civil statutory death registration for Henrietta. She died on 31 Dec 1911 at about 11 p.m. from measles.

Why, until this time, was she missed by me and others?

One reason is that she was born just after the 1911 census of Scotland took place on 2 Apr 1911. If she had been born 2 months earlier then she would have appeared in that enumeration.

 

However, the main reason is on me. I just didn't pay attention to the several year gap between George and Ronald. It wasn't until FamilySearch prodded me that there may be missing child that I took the time to do a quick check.

So welcome to the family Henrietta. You are no longer lost to the sands of time and will now be remembered by generations to come.

My Top 10 Fee-Based Genealogy Sites

We all have genealogy sites that are our go-to places when doing any of our research. It has been a long time since I've listed mine so I figured I'd take a stab at it today. There will be two separate posts. The first, that of my top ten fee-based sites, and the second, to be published later, will be the list of my top free genealogy sites that I use often.

As with any top ten list there will be disagreements as to the order or why a site is included or missing. These are my top ten sites that I turn to regularly in my research. Your favourite site might not have made the cut due to various factors such as it was number 11 (or 12 or 13...) or I haven't had a subscription to it in the past year. A two sites that I make use of periodically that didn't make the top ten cut for me are Fold3¹ and MyHeritage³.Yes, they are useful but not vitally so over this past year.

Counting down from number ten...

10. The New York Times TimesMachine

In my research of a branch of my extended family that originally settled in New York City in the late 1800s the ability to read the death notices and even a few marriage announcements has answered a quite of few questions when trying to locate the next generation. As long as I've had the death date from a death index or registration more often than not I've been able to find a notice in The New York Times fairly quickly.

9. American Ancestors by New England Historic Genealogical Society

I don't have a current subscription but when they have had their free access periods their databases have shed light on a number of my early European settlers in the United States. Even their free databases have been useful to point me to documents I need to find and read at a later time.

8. Genealogy Quebec²

If you have ancestors that resided in Quebec then this site needs to be in your genealogy toolkit. They are constantly adding new images from various parishes in Quebec that you probably won't find any where else. They are also the home of the Drouin Collection Records. Yes, the Drouin Collection is available on other sites but Genealogy Quebec I consider the master source and all others will be behind the times when it comes to new additions. The site also has The LAFRANCE collection with early Quebec parish records starting from 1621. There is also a large obituary collection and a notarized documents collection. If that's not enough they have a collection of marriage and deaths records recorded in Quebec between 1926 and 1997 collected by the provincial health services.

7. The National Archives at Kew, England

The National Archives (TNA) in England (not to be confused with the other national archives around the world) has both free and fee based access to records. With the restrictions in place due to COVID-19 The National Archives has opened up their digital record downloads for free when normally some of these records could only be retrieved for free at their site or by paying a nominal fee. That is why they are in this list and not in my top ten free list. That said, this site is an important one for my British Isles and early Canadian research. Why Canadian? Prior to Confederation, many of the records headed back to England for government use and storage and thus ended in TNA. If you have come across WO or AO record mentions in your Loyalist research, those are collections originally held by The National Archives. Some of those collections are also held by Library and Archives Canada but it is always good to check the TNA site too.

6. General Register Office of England and Wales

We are all probably familiar with the various England and Wales birth, marriage, and death (BMD) indexes available on many genealogy sites. However, in order to make sure you have the right person you really need to order the certificate and, for England and Wales, this is the place to do it. It isn't inexpensive, £11 for a BMD certificate sent by post, but they do offer £7 for a PDF of a birth (1837-1919) or death certificate (1837-1957) sent by e-mail. One new feature is when you search the birth index on the GRO site the mother's maiden surname is now provided in the results. This can save you money or even provide a clue that helps you in your research without paying a penny.

5. GenealogyBank

This newspaper site is invaluable if you have branches of your tree that lived in the United States of America. This site has digitized newspapers that can't be found on other sites. In addition to digitized newspapers, some going back to the early 1700s, the site has a searchable copy of the Social Security Death Index (SSDI), an obituary collection from modern newspapers, some digitized books, and census records. All searchable by name, keywords, date ranges, and location (where applicable).

4. Newspapers.com¹ Publisher Extra subscription

Edging out GenealogyBank for newspaper collections is Newspapers.com with the additional Publisher Extra add-on. Much like GenealogyBank, the primary focus is on US newspapers but with the addition of the Publisher Extra add-on one has access to a number of Canadian newspapers too. The Canadian newspapers are heavy on the western side of Canada especially British Columbia but any indexed and searchable Canadian newspaper collection is a good thing in my books. Newspapers.com also has newspapers from Australia, England, Ireland, Northern Ireland, Panama, Scotland, and Wales in their collection. 

3. ScotlandsPeople

If you have any Scottish roots this is the one site you need to visit to locate the images of birth, marriage, and death statutory (civil) registrations, census returns, and parish registers that can't be found elsewhere online from home. Many sites will have the indexes of those records but not the images. Unlike many other fee-based genealogy sites that are subscription based ScotlandsPeople is credit based. For £7.50 you get a 30 credit voucher. The price for viewing and downloading, if you so chose to do so, is 6 credits for statutory BMD registrations, census returns, and church registers. Other records can be had for between 2 credits and 40 credits, depending on the collection.

2. Findmypast

Findmypast continues to be one of my primary research sites especially for the UK branches of my family. It isn't just because of their wonderful census, parish collections, immigration, and military collections that covers the British Isles and select parts of the world but also for their newspaper collections. With Findmypast I have access to English, Irish, and US newspapers from various other sites. There are also a number of Canadian newspapers buried in their collection.

1. Ancestry¹

There is probably no surprise that Ancestry is at the top of my list of fee-based genealogy sites. Combined with their record collections and DNA testing they have been my go-to site for many years. My primary cousin-bait tree is hosted on that site and I make use of the good...and not so good...user created trees to provide me with clues as to where to possibly look next for records in my research when I hit a stumbling block.

 

These are my top ten fee-based sites and they probably differ from yours. I'd be interested in hearing from you as to your favourites (and why) that I didn't include.

Stay tuned in the coming week or so for a list of my favourite free genealogy sites.

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Full disclosure

1. As a member of the Ancestry Canada Advisory Board this year I have been provided a free subscription to Ancestry, Newspapers.com with Publisher Extra, and Fold3. However, prior to this year I either held my own subscriptions or made use of those sites via other venues such as at my local Family History Center or a genealogy conference.

2. I was provided with a one year subscription to Genealogy Quebec last year. The subscription has since lapsed but my to-do list for that site is growing for the day when I can access those records at my local library.

3. In July this year I won a subscription to MyHeritage when I attended a Facebook presentation hosted by MyHeritage. I had a subscription in previous years but had let it lapse.

Did William Innes marry a Murdoch or Shaw?

A number of years ago I first came across the name William Innes, brother-in-law, as an informant for the death of John Smith Murdoch, my second great-granduncle. The name was a curiosity and I wondered which side of the family he was on. Since John Smith Murdoch had a sister, Margaret, did William Innes marry her or was William connected to Ellen/Helen Shaw, John's wife, side of the family?

Burgh of Glasgow, Scotland, "Statutory Deaths," 1858 Deaths in the Central District, p. 38, John Smith Murdoch; digital image, General Register Office for Scotland, ScotlandsPeople (www.scotlandspeople.gov.uk: 20 Jun 2009).

At that time and after a bit of researching I realized I would have to order some records from ScotlandsPeople to answer the question. However, I had more important records to purchase first so I put this question on the back burner.

Jump forward to the present day and I was filling in the gaps in my records using the Scottish Civil BMD Registrations found on FamilySearch and available for viewing at the Family History Centers and their affiliates and what did I see recorded as the informant of David Murduch, John Smith Murdoch's son, birth? You guessed it...William Innes, David's uncle.

Scotland Registrar General,  Registers of births, marriages, and deaths, 1855-1875, 1881, 1891; and general index, 1855-1956, (The New Register House, Edinburgh), 1858 Births in the Central District in the Burgh of Glasgow: 30, 90, David Murdoch; FHL microfilm 280,518.

This is where it gets into hazardous territory to a genealogy and family history researcher. Do I take the time to find out the connection or not. Since I'm writing about this you can well imagine the course I took. Time to set out and find how William Innes is connected to the Murdoch family. I did set one limit on my exploration: I could only spent time and not money to research William's connection.

I started off with a few assumptions about William Innes:

• He was about the same age as John Smith Murdoch, plus 15 or minus 5 years¹
• He married either a Murdoch or Shaw²
• He resided in Glasgow itself or in Lanarkshire around 1858³
• He resided in Glasgow or at least in Lanarkshire in the 1851 census⁴

Of course, these are only assumptions and might have to be re-evaluated as possible facts are presented.

I did come across a William Innes married to a Janet in the 1851 census of Scotland residing at 97 Saltmarket Street in Glasgow.

1851 census of Scotland, Royal Burgh of Glasgow, Parish of St. Andrews, enumeration district (ED) 15, page 1, schedule no. 1, William Innes; FHL microfilm 1,042,436.

• William appears to have been born about 1815 making him 13 years older than John Smith Murdoch.
• He resides in Glasgow in 1851
• It isn't a Margaret but this Janet could be a Shaw.

From this census I do have an address, 97 Saltmarket Street, and the statement that William is a spirit dealer. Might I be able to find details about the birth of his daughter Janet? Will it list her mother's maide surname? Also, is William recorded in a city directory of Glasgow?

William's daughter, Janet, was born before civil registration started so I have to rely on the Old Parish Registers available on ScotlandsPeople and also on FamilySearch. Since I'm being frugal it was back to my local Family History Center to look up the record.

Parish of Glasgow (Lanarkshire, Scotland), "Registration District 644," baptism of Janet Innes, 28 Sep 1845; FHL microfilm 102,921.

This looks to be the right person and look...her mother is Janet Shaw! This looks promising.

This is where luck is very, very important. I searched for Janet Innes on ScotlandPeople to learn when she died⁵. Assuming she is Helen Shaw's sister then I already know that Helen's parents are John Shaw and Janet White/Whyte.

Screen capture from ScotlandPeople for a search of the death of a Janet Innes started from 1851 with a birth year 1819 +/- 5 years.

Now not all the returned results include the mother's maiden surname but note the first result...Whyte. Even better, the death is in the time frame where I can view records for free from a Family History Centre or affiliate.

Scotland Registrar General,  Registers of births, marriages, and deaths, 1855-1875, 1881, 1891; and general index, 1855-1956, (The New Register House, Edinburgh), Registration District 644/04, 1856 Deaths in the District of Calton in the Burgh of Glasgow: 54, 162, Janet Innes; FHL microfilm 252,432.

This looks to be the right Janet Innes. She is a wife of a spirit merchant and the daughter of John Shaw and Janet Whyte. However, she died at 93 Saltmarket Street. That's only 2 doors down from the address in the 1851 census.

This is where the Scottish Post Office Directories becomes your friend. I started with the 1851-52 post-office directory for Glasgow and looked for Saltmarket Street.

Post-Office Glasgow, Post-Office Glasgow Directory for 1851-1852, 444; digital images, National Library of Scotland (digital.nls.uk/directories/browse/ : accessed 6 Dec 2019); Saltmarket Street odd numbers 3-95.

If you look at the second last line in the directory you will see that Wm. Innes, a spirit dealer, had the properties at 93, 95, and 97 Saltmarket Street.

What about a possible marriage for William Innes and Janet Shaw? That, as they say, is problematic. I've found an 1840 marriage for a Janet Shaw to a William James or Innes within the FamilySearch indexes for the OPRs and the image confirms that it might be James or Innes for William's surname but his occupation is a baker. Unfortunately the church register doesn't record the names of her parents.

I did come across the death of a William Innes, a spirit merchant, on 13 Jul 1858 at 93 Saltmarket Street. If I had been willing to spend a few pounds I could have viewed the documents pertaining to his will and administration on ScotlandsPeople. Additionally, I might have checked out the "Scotland, Lanark, Glasgow, Glasgow Sheriff Court, probate records" collection at my local Family History Center⁶.

Assuming that my research is good⁷ then it appears that William Innes didn't marry Margaret Murdoch but a Janet Shaw. Too bad that the line I'm researching is the Murdoch line. At least this is one mystery resolved.

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1. Why 15 years? Why not? If William married Margaret Murdoch (born about 1826) he could be older than Margaret by a decade or more. 15 years just sounded right as a starting point.
2. To be a brother-in-law and an uncle to the same family William had to have married either Margaret Murdoch, John Smith Murdoch's older sister, or a sister of Helen Shaw.
3. Since he is an informant he probably lived near to the John Smith Murdoch family and they resided in Glasgow.
4. This is a stretch but I had to limit the scope of my searching somehow. Helen Shaw and Margaret Murdoch were both born in the Glasgow area so I figured they were married there also.
5. I know, I'm not supposed to spend money on this research endeavor. However, searching ScotlandsPeople is free. It is only getting the images that costs you money.
6. That is for the new year I think.
7. I haven't recorded all the paths I took to get here in order to eliminate other possible people.

Scottish Civil BMD Registrations on FamilySearch

In Scottish Census and OPRs on FamilySearch I covered the available census returns and Old Parish Registers on FamilySearch. In this post I'm going to look another collection of Scottish records on FamilySearch, the civil registrations.

For civil registrations of births, marriages, and deaths in Scotland I had almost always made use of ScotlandsPeople. That was until I came across "Registers of births, marriages, and deaths, 1855-1875, 1881, 1891; and general index, 1855-1956" on FamilySearch. Now this collection only has the years 1855-1875, 1881, and 1891 but any time I can save a pound or two in my research I will gladly take it. Researcher beware, it does take a multi-step process to find the correct images and it is not as straight forward as just clicking a button, paying your 6 credits, and viewing the record. So patience and some practice will be needed. Like the other FamilySearch Scottish collections I mentioned in Scottish Census and OPRs on FamilySearch, you will need to visit your local Family History Center to do the work.

The Registers of births, marriages, and deaths, 1855-1875, 1881, 1891; and general index, 1855-1956 is composed of two parts, indexes and registrations. The indexes are broken down by year and the registrations are broken down by parish/registration district number and year. Depending on the year, the indexes are also broken down along gender lines. Some of the districts and years have been indexed by FamilySearch but most haven't so you will probably have to follow these steps.

Screen capture of McKinlay in Males, A-Z 1855 index in Scotland, Registers of births, marriages, and deaths, 1855-1875, 1881, 1891; and general index, 1855-1956, (The New Register House, Edinburgh); FHL 103244.

Here is an example of an index entry for a number of McKinlay births from the Males A-Z, 1855 index. The one of particular interest for me is that of James McKinlay registered in Paisley (High), number 387.

To make use of this index I first need to translate the registration parish from "Paisley (High)" into a number. To do that, go to the National Records of Scotland Registration Districts page and download the Parishes and Registration Districts of Scotland by name guide. Next, look through the name guide under the "RD Name" or "Registration District" column for the parish.

Screen capture for Paisley from the Parishes and Registration Districts of Scotland by name guide from the National Records of Scotland Registration Districts web page.

As you can see, there are a number of Paisley registration districts. However, in this example we are looking for the period starting from 1855 for one that has "High" in it. It looks to be number 573/1 since we want the district number as it was known back then. We also know that it is in the "County or Burgh" of Renfrew.

I could also have searched for James McKinlay on ScotlandsPeople. The searching on ScotlandsPeople is free but it will cost you money to view the images.

Screen capture of ScotlandsPeople.gov.uk for a search of the 1855 birth of James McKinlay.

Here it gives us the same information as found on the index on FamilySearch but without having to translate the registration district name into a number. The reference is broken down into two parts, the registration district, 573/1, followed by the number of the registration, 387.

We can head back to FamilySearch and the Registers of births, marriages, and deaths, 1855-1875, 1881, 1891; and general index, 1855-1956 to look for the digitized microfilm that has the parish/registration district holding the births we are interested in.

Screen capture of births for Scotland, Renfrew County, Registers of births, marriages, and deaths, 1855-1875, 1881, 1891; and general index, 1855-1956, (The New Register House, Edinburgh); FamilySearch Catalog 79310.

Just a heads up, the parish/registration microfilms aren't in alphabetical order but in numeric order by registration district/parish number. As you can see, the parish numbers for this part of Renfrew County follow the numbers from Buteshire. But don't let that confuse you too much.

For the 1855 birth registrations in parish/registration number 573/1 which can be found in Renfrewshire we will need to click on the camera icon for film 103367 (DGS 8045422). If you are trying to do this from home you probably have a key icon just above the camera icon. This means that you need to go to your local Family History Center to view the images.

Screen capture of births for Scotland, Renfrew County, Registers of births, marriages, and deaths, 1855-1875, 1881, 1891; and general index, 1855-1956, (The New Register House, Edinburgh); DGS 8045422.

Once you can view the digitized microfilms you will need to scan through the various images to locate the start of the parish/registration district you are interested in. Fortunately it isn't very hard to do and, once you get used to doing it, the microfilm pages with the district names and numbers will almost pop out for you. Next you need to find the page with number 387 on it.

In the case of James McKinlay I was very lucky to have him born in that year. When the civil registrations started in 1855 they used two pages to ask for the information. This meant I got a bit more important information about his parents that I wouldn't get in following years. But it also means I need to stitch together two microfilm images...but that process was already covered in my post Genealogy and Microfilm ICE.

You can do the same sort of searching for marriages and deaths that were registered between 1855 and 1875 along with the decennial census years 1881 and 1891.

One drawback of what is available on FamilySearch in this collection is that the Register of Corrected Entries (RCE) is not available. These are the documents referred to in a birth, marriage, or death registration that has corrections or updates to the registration. If there is a marginal note to a RCE then you definitely want to view that document. If that happens you will need to use ScotlandsPeople and pay to view the record.

I certainly hope that this helps you out in researching your Scottish ancestors.

Scottish Census Returns and OPRs on FamilySearch

I was recently wanting to retrieve census returns along with baptism, birth, and marriage registrations for several potentially connected branches of my Murdoch and McKinlay family that resided in Scotland. Normally I would head over to ScotlandsPeople and pay a few pounds to quickly access those records from the comfort of my home. However, being on a tight research budget for my own genealogy and family history, I was feeling a bit frugal and decided to see what FamilySearch had available.

First of all, the fine folks at FamilySearch have digitized the census returns of Scotland for the following decennial enumerations:

1841	Residence on 6 Jun 1841. Enumerators were instructed to round down the ages of persons 15 years and over to the nearest five years. Hence a given age of 28 would be recorded as 25, one of 63 as 60 and so on. If a person lied about their age, this, combined with the rounding down, could severely distort the actual age. You will find instances where enumerators did not adhere to this instruction on age and inserted the given age.
1851	Residence on 30 Mar 1851.
1861	Residence on 7 Apr 1861.
1871	Residence on 2 Apr 1871.
1881	Residence on 3 Apr 1881.
1891	Residence on 5 Apr 1891.

Due to the efforts of many volunteers the census returns have been indexed to make our lives a bit easier when trying to find our ancestors. Unfortunately the images of those records aren't available from home. Yet that's not too much of a problem for me since there is a Family History Center in Ottawa that isn't too far from where I live, even if I use public transit.

Once at the Family History Center I was able to search for the people I wanted to find in those census years. Then, by clicking on the image presented, I quickly viewed and saved the pages from the census returns to a USB stick. Of course I also made sure I saved the pages that described the enumeration districts in question.

1871 census of Scotland, Lanarkshire, Blythwood, Civil Parish of Barony, enumeration district (ED) 10, Description of enumeration district; FHL microfilm 104,026, image 465.

FamilySearch also has a number of the Old Parish Registers or OPRs searchable on their site. Again the images are only viewable from your Family History Center. But they are searchable on FamilySearch.

Other than expending time to save some money why would you want to use FamilySearch and not ScotlandsPeople to look through the census returns and Old Parish Registers?

On ScotlandsPeople there are 14 recorded Church of Scotland marriages in the Parish of Eastwood in Renfrewshire for people with the last name of McKinlay. To view all of those images it would require me to purchase 84 credits on ScotlandsPeople. That works out to be 2.8 packs of 30 credits. Since I can't purchase fractions of credit packs I would have to buy 3 bundles of 30 credits for a total of £22.5 or about $38 Canadian.

Instead I can copy the list from ScotlandsPeople into a spreadsheet to create a to do list for my visit to my local Family History Center. A check on FamilySearch reveals that the Parish registers for Eastwood, 1674-1854 are digitized and indexed. However, yet again the images are available for viewing only at the Family History Center. With this collection being indexed I can search FamilySearch from home using film number 001041057 to also create a to do list for my next visit.

Of course, the Family History Centers are only open on specific days and times and they do frown upon you wearing your pyjamas at their computers. Yet if you have a number of these records to review the necessity of having to get dressed and visiting your local Family History Center may just outweigh this inconvenience.

Next time I will write about some of the Scottish civil birth, marriage, and death registrations that are freely available on FamilySearch and how you can find them.

This hobby of ours can get quite expensive at times so finding ways to save money can be a big win.

The Mystery of Mary Ewart

Since I reside in Ottawa, Ontario, Canada I try to keep my genealogy "to do" list for records, books, and documents that are possibly held at Library and Archives Canada to a minimum. I usually set aside time to visit LAC when I have between 8 and 10 tasks to research. This week I had nine items I wanted to investigate and almost all of them were obituaries in newspapers that may (or may not) be held in microfilm format at LAC. One of them, the death of Mary Ewart, the wife of John Alvin "Jack" McMullen, is what I'm going to cover in this post.

What I had before finding her obituary was not extensive and primarily came from the Manitoba marriage registration document for her marriage to John Alvin McMullen:

• She is born in Aryshire, Scotland about 1896
• Her father is John Ewart
• Her mother is Margaret Kelly

Manitoba Vital Statistics, Marriages,   1914-130051, John Alvin McMullen-Mary Ewart; Manitoba Vital Statistics Agency, Winnipeg.

On Ancestry, as a hint, I came across the tree of another person also researching Jack McMullen and Mary Ewart. Even better, that tree had a specific date for the birth and death of Mary. Now the hint was a bit confusing since it had Mary's son, William John (1919-1961), listed under three spouses with two of the spouses being Jack McMullen. Yet I've seen this before when trees or people are combined so it wasn't too much of a concern especially since I am not merging this tree with my own on Ancestry.

Ancestry Family Tree hint for Mary Ewart, retrieved 18 Oct 2018

What I am more interested in is that this tree has Mary's death occurring 25 Sep 1984 in Prince Albert, Saskatchewan, Canada.

A check of the "Microform Holdings: Geographical List" at Library and Archives Canada for Saskatchewan seems to indicate that LAC had a microfilm copy of the Prince Albert Daily Herald for the year I was interested in so I was in luck.

Screen capture from Library and Archives Canada web site search for Prince Albert Daily Herald Newspaper, retrieved 18 Oct 2018

After requesting the microfilm and a few minutes reading through the newspaper starting from 25 Sep 1984 I found Mary's obituary in the 27 Sep 1984 edition of the Prince Albert Daily Herald. The first surprise was that it wasn't Mary McMullen but Mary Henry. It seems that John Alvin McMullen had passed away and she had married Alexander Henry. But all the other facts about her lined up, especially those of her children that I had already recorded in my master database.

"Deaths - Henry," (Prince Albert) Prince Albert Daily Herald, 27 Sep 1984, p. 13, col. 5.

At least I now know where that tree on Ancestry found the details about Mary's birth.

Even though Mary isn't blood she did marry into my extended McMullen family and I like to make sure that the details I do have recorded are as accurate as possible. So off I went to ScotlandsPeople to see if I could find Mary's birth registration. It should be a straight forward process since I've found that the civil records held in Scotland have been easy to search.

Only one problem. There was no Mary Ewart born in 1896 in the County of Ayr. There was one born in 1890 and another born in 1899. But none in 1896 or a year or two on either side of that date. I even tried using the possible variations that ScotlandsPeople can use for searching names but still nothing really matched. I opened up the possible matches by searching in Irvine for the period between 1895 and 1897 for females with the forename of Mary. A total of 96 names were displayed in the index but no Ewart or Kelly or variations got my attention.

Another tree on Ancestry had Mary Ewart listed with her being born in Dundonald, Ayrshire about 1896. Just how many females with the forename of Mary were born between 1895 and 1897 in the Dundonald registration district? Only seven popped up and there was a Mary Gray Kelly born in 1896.

Before getting too excited and paying the credits to see the record I wanted to check to see just how far Dundonald is from Irvine. A quick check with Google Maps showed that those two places were only about 4.6 miles apart. So it was very possible that this is the Mary I am looking for.

Google Maps walking route between Irvine, UK and Dundonald, UK, retrieved 18 Oct 2018

After paying my 6 credits to view the image it really does seem that this is the Mary I am looking for. Her birth date matches that from the obituary, the 12th of January, 1896. What it more interesting is that Mary is listed as illegitimate and her mother, Maggie Kelly, is a farm servant, and no father is recorded.

Ayrshire, Scotland, "Statutory Births 1855-2009," 1896 births in the District of Dundonald, p. 2, Mary Gray Kelly; digital image, General Register Office for Scotland, "Statutory registers Births 590/1 5," ScotlandsPeople (http://www.scotlandspeople.gov.uk/).

So how did John Ewart come into the picture?

Another search of ScotlandsPeople, this time for marriages between 1890 and 1899 for John Ewart and a spouse with the last name of Kelly, returns only one entry. That of John Ewart, son of John and Margaret (Brown), a ploughman, and Maggie Kelly, daughter of Thomas and Mary (Gray), a domestic servant, married on 2 Jun 1899 in Dundonald.

So with three hours of research and writing I was able to solve one mystery and get a blog entry done. Not a bad morning. Of course, I still have to go through the rest of the results from my Library and Archives Canada visit.

So don't completely discount those trees on Ancestry. There may be interesting errors and goofs but often there are clues to be found and followed up on.

Working Backwards to Move Forward

Much like many of you I too have a family tree hosted on Ancestry. I use that tree for cousin bait and also to let the computers at Ancestry do some of the easy research for me while I sleep. Many of those hints are for census records and after reviewing the documents I make an informed decision as to whether the person on the census page really does match who I am presently working on. With my world subscription (vital for my Canadian, USA, UK, Australian, and even some Irish research) I sometimes get some very strange possible matches to people in my tree. This is one of those cases.

In my tree I have a John McKinlay (my 1st cousin twice removed) born 4 Jul 1891 at 33 Maxwell Street in Pollokshaw, Scotland¹. He is the son of James McKinlay, a cloth bleacher foreman, and Mary Baird. I had found him in the 1901 census of Scotland living with his parents and siblings. The last record of him I could find was as the informant of his father's death in 1916. At that time John was residing at 6 College Street, Glasgow (same place his father's home). After that John disappeared.

In the waning days of 2014 a little hint appeared on John's page. This hint was for a record in the "World War II Draft Registration Cards, 1942" collection.

Ancestry.com, "U.S. World War II Draft Registration Cards, 1942," database on-line, Ancestry.com (http://www.ancestry.com/ : accessed 9 Mar 2015), entry for John Baird McKinlay, serial number U601, Draft Board 8, Elizabeth, Union County, New Jersey; citing Selective Service Registration Cards, World War II: Fourth Registration. Records of the Selective Service System, Record Group Number 147, National Archives and Records Administration.

The birth date was right and that document recorded that he was born in Glasgow, Scotland. Also knowing that a mother's maiden surname may be used for a middle name I was tempted to added that record. Yet a name and a matching birth date didn't necessarily mean it was the same person. It did mention that a Mrs. Lily McKinlay living at the same address was a "person who will always know your address". Could she be his wife? However, I had to put those questions to the side and deal with other branches of my tree first. Instead of getting distracted by this BSO² I created a To Do item and carried on with my research task I had initially started working on.

Today, while avoiding other activities, I decided to look into this To Do item³.

Instead of linking that record to my existing John McKinlay I created a new person John Baird McKinlay and connected that record to him. I also added a spouse with the first name of Lily. It was a guess that she was his wife but I needed to start somewhere⁴.

Next I looked for John and Lily in the 1940 US Federal Census. From the registration card I knew that John and Lily lived at 867 Sheridan Avenue, Elizabeth, Union County, New Jersey, USA and there I found them. But I still don't really have any additional details on John. I do now know that Lily is his wife and she was born about 1892 in England.

1940 U.S. census, Union County, New Jersey, population schedule, Elizabeth, enumeration district (ED) 23-90, sheet 4B, household 120, John McKinlay household; digital images, Ancestry.com (http://www.ancestry.com : accessed 9 Mar 2015); citing National Archives and Records Administration microfilm T627, roll 2400.

Can I find them in the 1930 Federal Census of the USA? I didn't really even need to search since an Ancestry hint popped up for that census. But I still needed to read and analyze to make sure it was the correct census for John and Lily ... and it seemed to be the right entry.

1930 U.S. census, Union County, New Jersey, population schedule, Elizabeh, enumeration district (ED) 66, sheet 23A, p. 35 [stamped], dwelling 387, family 574, John McKinlay household; digital images, Ancestry.com (http://www.ancestry.com/ : accessed 9 Mar 2015); citing National Archives and Records Administration microfilm T626, roll 1387; Original data: United States of America, Bureau of the Census. Fifteenth Census of the United States, 1930. Washington, D.C.: National Archives and Records Administration, 1930. T626, 2,667 rolls.

A few more facts appeared. The first is that they were both first married at the age of 27 years. This puts their marriage happening around 1919. As a starting point I'm assuming they were married to each other at that time and this is not a second marriage for both of them. The second is that they immigrated to the United States in 1920. So the odds are that they were married before they came to the USA.

With any luck they married in England (Lily's birth country) or Scotland (last place I found John). If England then I will need to order from the General Register Office for England and Wales for £9.25 and wait a few weeks to get a document. So off to FreeBMD to search for a John McKinlay marrying a Lily.

FreeBMD.org search for marriages for John McKinlay between 1st quarter 1917 and 4th quarter 1920

Only three matches and when I looked at each one none had a Lily or anything close as a possible spouse. So it was off to ScotlandsPeople to see if there was a marriage there for John McKinlay.

ScotlandsPeople.gov.uk search for statutory marriages for John McKinlay, wife's forename starting with "Li", with a year range between 1917 and 1920.

Since it only found two possible matches it was definitely worth spending the 1 credit necessary to see the search results (note that the image above was taken after I viewed the index that is why it is free to view the page).

ScotlandsPeople.gov.uk search results for statutory marriages for John McKinlay, wife's forename starting with "Li", with a year range between 1917 and 1920.

Usually I don't this lucky in my searches but there is John Baird McKinlay marrying a Lila Ada Dunbar in 1918. Since the Scottish statutory marriage registrations normally include the names of the parents of both parties it is definitely worth spending the 5 credits needed to view the marriage registration.

Lanarkshire, Scotland, Statutory Marriages 1855-2009, 1918 Marriages in the District of Garngadhill: 44, John Baird McKinlay-Lily Ada Dunbar, 1918; digital images, General Register Office for Scotland, ScotlandsPeople (http://www.scotlandspeople.gov.uk/ : accessed 9 Mar 2015).

There is the John Baird McKinlay that I was hoping to find. Here he states that he is the son of the late James McKinlay, a bleacher, and the late Mary Baird. I actually have documents for James and Mary showing that they died before 24 Dec 1918 so that helps confirm this statement. Even the address for John matches (spelling to be ignored) the information on his father's death registration and John's last known address. This is a definitely a match to my John McKinlay.

I now even have the full name of Lily ... it is Lily Ada Dunbar, the daughter of Oliver Dunbar and Lily Ada Adkins.

So the James Baird McKinlay initially flagged as a hint in the "World War II Draft Registration Cards, 1942" collection is the John McKinlay in my tree. Of course a new To Do item needs to be created: find their arrival in the New World.

Tip: Don't discount those hints that don't seem to fit at first. Form a hypotheses and work through the records. Sometimes you need to work backwards to find the answer.

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1. Renfrewshire, Scotland, "Statutory Births 1855-2009," 1891 Births in the Parish of Eastwood, p. 102, John McKinlay; digital image, General Register Office for Scotland, ScotlandsPeople (http://www.scotlandspeople.gov.uk/: 25 Aug 2011).

2. BSO: Bright Shiny Object - the bane of most genealogy researchers since one can easily distract you from what you are presently working on.

3. 530 open items with 239 just for ordering records from the General Register Office of England and Wales. That is over £2200 or about $4200 CDN! Maybe I'll get them when I win the lottery.

4. Always be willing to throw away a theory if it doesn't pan out. However, make sure you record in your Research Log what you found and why it didn't work out.