NINIANSON of Shetland.

[bitzar]

Hello

It appears that this surname is fairly unique to Shetland.  Can anyone assist further?!

The 1841 lists a single family but I've noticed baptism's in the 1700's.

tia, bitzar.

[Lauraine]

It is not a name I am familiar with but note that Bayanne has several of them listed:

http://bayanne.info/Shetland/search.php?mybool=AND&myfirstname=&mylastname=Ninianson&imageField.x=0&imageField.y=0

Could write my cousin and see if any of the family are familiar with them if you wish.

[bitzar]

Hello Lauraine

Thanks for your assistance.  I had a look at bayanne.... very interesting!  Anything further you could do would be greatly appreciated.

I had a look through the NINIANSON name on bayanne and none matched the ones I need BUT.... I did notice that a Ninian NINIANSON in the 1700's was AKA Ringan JAMIESON.  On the death of my lady her father was noted as Ringi NIMENSON but on her marriage she noted him as John.  So there are possibilities there. 

Excuse my ignorance but what language did / do people from Shetland speak.  Is it Scottish English or a something different because of the closeness to Scandinavia?!  Could John in English be Ringi / Ringan in a Scandinavian tongue?!

Many thanks, bitzar.

[bitzar]

Lauraine

I just google the name Ringan..... It means to be named after St. Ninian!!!

Regards, bitzar.

[lizci]

Hi bitzar

I'm doing a one-name study on the surname Ninian, and I'm including Niniansons from Shetland.  If you look at my Guild of One-Name Studies profile page http://one-name.org/name_profile/ninian/ you'll see some information about the name.  Ninianson was a patronym (meaning son of Ninian) and was used at the time when surnames changed with each generation - so if your father was Ninian and you were John you would be John Ninianson.  But if you named your son Ninian he would be Ninian Johnson.  When "settled" surnames were introduced in shetland, people kept the name Ninianson, but some later dropped the "son" part and used the surname Ninian. 

In his book "The Surnames of Scotland", George Black says Ringan is the vernacular Scots version of Ninian.

I have many instances of the surname Ninianson being used in Shetland (sometimes with slightly different spellings) from censuses, valuation rolls etc.  I won't be able to access all my files for the next week or so but if there's a particular person or family you're interested in, let me know.

Lizci 

[bitzar]

Hi Lizci

What an interesting read.  Thanks for making contact.

Below is the link to my other Australian thread re NINIANSON, much easier than typing it all out again.

I hope you can assist.  I'm really looking for info on the 4 ladies, Helen and Jane from Shetland, and most likely the Elizabeth and Isabella as well.

http://www.rootschat.com/forum/index.php?topic=756861.new;topicseen#new

Best Regards, bitzar.

[lizci]

Hi Bitzar

I’ve had a look at the various records and indexes I have, but unfortunately haven’t found anything conclusive about your Ninianson ladies.  The ages of Elizabeth and Issabella in the 1841 census (with parents William and Isabella) do match the women who went to Australia.  They appear in the 1851 census as Elizabeth Ninionson, 16, and Isabella Ninionson, 12, living in Sandsting and Aithsting parish – the same parish as the family in 1841.  Neither girl is with her parents, so it isn’t possible to say if they are the same ones, but I think it is likely.  It may be that they later went to Australia – to rule them out would require searching forward to see if there were marriage or death records for them in Scotland.  The 15-year old Gean Ninianson in the 1841 Census could certainly be Jean or Jane.  (Adult ages were "rounded down" to the nearest 5 years in 1841 so Gean may have been a little older than 15.)

I haven’t found baptisms that match any of the women.  The only possible is an Elizabeth Ninian baptised on the island of Yell in 1832, but her father was Gilbert, not William.  Of course not all baptisms were recorded, many church registers have been lost or destroyed, and families could have belonged to other denominations of the church whose records may not be online.

Don’t get hung up on different spellings of the surname.  At that time there was no “correct” spelling and people wrote names as they heard them (accents made a difference).  If you’re looking at modern transcriptions, remember that people often have difficulty reading old handwriting, especially if it’s a name they’ve never come across before.

I’ll keep a look out for the Niniansons in future research and let you know if I find anything relevant.

Lizci
 

[bitzar]

Thank for replying Lizci, and thanks for your info.

I found an old internet thread from 2005 that mentioned that Helen/Ellen and Jane Ninianson who arrived in Adelaide in 1850 were 'Highland destitutes'! 

bitzar.

[lizci]

Bitzar, there was a Highland Destitution Board which appears to have been trying to address the problems of poverty and deprivation in various areas, including the Shetland Islands.  They helped with the provision of food and seem to have been involved in road building and/or improvement.  However they also decided that the best way to improve the lives of the people was to encourage and aid emigration.
 
I found mention of the Shetland Female Emigration Society, which seems to have selected the 40 women who emigrated to South Australia in 1850.  This must have been the group that Helen and Jane Ninianson travelled with.  The HDB was probably instrumental in setting it up.  You’ll find a number of references online, including on the Trove newspapers collection and Google books – see page 206 of Emigration and the Labouring Poor: Australian Recruitment in Britain and Ireland, 1831-1860 by Robin F Haines.  There’s also information about the Highland Destitution Board here http://ica-atom.tasglann.org.uk/index.php/highland-destitution;isad  I also found a number of articles about the Board in archive copies of the Scotsman newspaper, though you have to be registered with National Library of Scotland (with a home address in Scotland) to access them.

This is turning into a fascinating story!

Lizci