Thomson's & Tulloch's

[Skoosh]

Norh Ronaldsay had a partial clearance post the 1840's Famine. Its Traill laird had the land squared & surplus population moved off the island. My own ancestors were moved to Eday!

Skoosh.

[Morven]

Hi David

My grandmother's name was Catherine Campbell. She came from a very tiny place called Auchlunachan.

Regards

Morven

[davidr970]

Hi Morven

Thanks for the information,

Do you have any links with North Ronaldsay or have all our relatives gone to places far and wide?

Have you been looking into the family links for long?

Thanks

David

[PipB]

The North Ronaldsay TULLOCHs are probably impossible to sort out in the years pre-census returns. My four-greats-grandmother was a Christina TULLOCH from North Ronaldsay who married Robert SLATER/SLATTER/SCLATER of Sanday. There is a likely baptism for Christina, baptised on North Ronaldsay but written in the Sanday Parish registers. This is what I have written on the search for my TULLOCH ancestors:
That possible 1781 baptismal record for Christiana TULLOCH, despite naming her parents as Thomas and Christiana TULLOCH, does not, unfortunately, mention the house in North Ronaldsay where they lived. TULLOCH was possibly the most common surname on North Ronaldsay then (and still now), and the range of given names in use was limited too. 
Interestingly, in the year of her birth there was a major shipwreck, that of the East India trader, “Grevinde Schlemningen” on 20th December 1781 on North Ronaldsay . Of the total North Ronaldsay population of somewhere around 400 people, at least eight different men called Thomas TULLOCH were among the local residents who rallied and helped to salvage and guard the cargo in the ensuing months. They were from the houses of Westness, Longar, Midhouse (2 x Thomas) and Sennes at the north end of North Ronaldsay; and from Gerback (now Gerbo) and Gravity on the east coast. Additionally, about the middle of 1782, mention is made of an eighth Thomas TULLOCH, this one living at Dishar, who helped with his boat and 5 men from Dishar. With such a profusion of possible fathers for Christiana the search becomes an impossible maze!
Alex and I visited North Ronaldsay in 2018. One of the smaller islands of Orkney, and the most northern of those inhabited, it is only 690 hectares in size . It is a low, wind and wave-swept isle, surrounded by strong tides and rocky reefs. The population at its height in 1881 was 547; but has now dwindled to a mere 50 to 60 people that call North Ronaldsay home in 2018. Alex and I visited most of the houses listed above as we explored the island end to end – the current condition of the buildings varied widely, from a mound of rock in the corner of a field to well-maintained dwellings still in use today.

[rach2nz]

hi there,
I'm trying to find information about my great-grandmother, from north of Scotland somewhere. She had twins (Jemima my grandmother) and her twin (Ina) born 1901, died 1963. Jemima i know was Jemima Thomson. These two girls we now know, were adopted so they must be under the Thomson name, does anyone have any info about these two women - was the birth name Hart?
Jemima married a man surname Ritchie and had one daughter (Isobel), he died then she married my grandfather - Frances Collett. I want to trace my fathers maternal line and I've stopped short here.
any help would be greatly appreciated. Rachael from NZ

[Forfarian]

Welcome to RootsChat

i think we might need a little more evidence to allow us to home in on your twins. Are you saying that your great-grandmother had twins Jemima and Ina in 1901 surnamed Hart; that Jemima was adopted by someone called Thomson, and Ina died in 1963? Because I can't find anything to match that.

However in 1901 twins named Jemima Innes Thomson and Williamina Down Thomson were born in the district of Pitsligo in Aberdeenshire. The mother's maiden surname is omitted from the index, which usually implies that the birth was illegitimate.

There is a death of Jemima Innes Thomson or Ritchie or Collett in Pitsligo in 1963, so it was Jemima, not Ina, who died in 1963.

The original documents can be viewed at www.scotlandspeople.gov.uk for a modest fee. Either of the birth certificates will tell you the full name of the twins' mother and where they were born. This may allow you to find their mother in the 1901 and earlier census.

[rach2nz]

hi there,
Blimey that's right! Sorry i wasn't clear.
Jemima died 1963. I have a photo of the headstone. thank you so much!!
Shame about the maiden name of their mother. Apparently, their mother was a twin too.
thank you for being so helpful!!!

[rach2nz]

do you have the name of the father? I don't see any evidence of this family on ancestry.com

[Forfarian]

No.

You need to look at one of the birth certificates to see what they tell you. They will tell you the name of the twins' mother. The father of an illegitimate child can only be recorded on the birth certificate if he accompanies the mother when she goes to register the birth, and signs the certificate along with her. However I don't think he did in this case because the twins' births are indexed only under Thomson, and if he had co-signed the certificate they would also be indexed under his surname.

It is possible, if Jemima knew who her father was, that she might have named him when she got married. Have you got her marriage certificates?

And don't waste your time looking in Ancestry. Scotland's People is the primary source of this information, and if it isn't there it isn't going to be on Ancestry either, because Ancestry just transcribes or indexes primary sources. See https://www.rootschat.com/forum/index.php?topic=714261.0

BTW you need to ask a Moderator to move your part of this thread out of Orkney and into Aberdeenshire.