Author Topic: Scotland to Donegal: finding Margaret Steen?  (Read 3255 times)

Offline Martha5964

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Re: Scotland to Donegal: finding Margaret Steen?
« Reply #9 on: Wednesday 19 July 17 09:12 BST (UK) »
Statutory registration of births didn't begin in Scotland until 1855 so Margaret's birth may not have been recorded at all. A search of the 1841 Census on ScotlandsPeople for Margaret Stein (nothing for Steen) between the ages of 10 and 20 yields 3 results (search for names beginning with 'Ma' to allow for "Maggie, Margt. etc.) - age 12 in Currie, Midlothian (probably Margaret Steen 1829), age 14 in Muckhart, Perth and age 20 in Dunfermline, Fife. However, the Margaret you're looking for could have been born in Scotland some time in the 1820's and left for Ireland prior to the 1841 Census. I also looked on FamilySearch - there's a Margaret Stein / John Robertson (not Robinson) marriage in Paisley in 1839. However, I couldn't find this marriage on ScotlandsPeople.

I'm afraid I haven't been much help. Hopefully someone else on the forum will have some suggestions for other lines of enquiry you can try. 
KAY, CUTHILL, PATON, MCCALLUM, JAMIESON, CUTHBERTSON, WALLACE, HUNTER, ALLAN, POLLOCK (AYRSHIRE)
HILL, BARR (GLASGOW / AYRSHIRE)
JOHNSTON, RITCHIE, ELDER, GOLIGHER / GALLAGHER (LANARKSHIRE / LONDONDERRY)

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Re: Scotland to Donegal: finding Margaret Steen?
« Reply #10 on: Wednesday 19 July 17 10:18 BST (UK) »
Why would there be different dates & locations for the marriage?
The parish registers record the proclamation of banns, rather than the actual marriage ceremony. If the bride lived in one parish and the groom in a different parish, the banns would have to be proclaimed in both, which generates a double record of the same event.
Never trust anything you find online (especially submitted trees and transcriptions on Ancestry, MyHeritage, FindMyPast and other commercial web sites) unless it's an image of an original document - and even then be wary because errors can and do occur.

Offline Martha5964

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Re: Scotland to Donegal: finding Margaret Steen?
« Reply #11 on: Wednesday 19 July 17 10:58 BST (UK) »
Just a thought - a search for other people in Dunfanaghy with the surname Steen / Stein around the same time Margaret was living there could identify possible siblings or other relatives. That could help narrow down search results in the Scottish records for Margaret's birth / baptism and Census returns. It's been my experience with relations who migrated between Scotland and Ireland that siblings tended to follow each other (although in my family tree it's been in the opposite direction from Ireland to Scotland).
KAY, CUTHILL, PATON, MCCALLUM, JAMIESON, CUTHBERTSON, WALLACE, HUNTER, ALLAN, POLLOCK (AYRSHIRE)
HILL, BARR (GLASGOW / AYRSHIRE)
JOHNSTON, RITCHIE, ELDER, GOLIGHER / GALLAGHER (LANARKSHIRE / LONDONDERRY)

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Re: Scotland to Donegal: finding Margaret Steen?
« Reply #12 on: Wednesday 19 July 17 10:59 BST (UK) »
Please, please don't go down the road of 'there is only one possible candidate in the records so it must be the right person'.

There are many people whose births, baptisms and marriages were simply never recorded. If you latch on to this Margaret Steen born in 1829, you may be climbing a branch of quite the wrong tree. Or you may not, but you need more evidence to be sure.

In particular, the surname Steen could possibly be an abbreviation of 'Stephen' or 'Steven'.

The Margaret Stein who married John Robertson in 1839 cannot possibly be the one baptised in 1829, as she would not have been old enough to marry just 10 years later. I had no trouble finding the marriage in the church records on SP, by the way.

The 12-year-old Margaret Stein in Currie in 1841 is in a household headed by Thomas Stein, 40, and including Isabella Stein, 35 and six children aged 15 down to 1. None of these children's baptisms are indexed on FamilySearch (Scotland's People is offline at the moment) but it does not look as if this Margaret could be the daughter of John Steen and Janet Black.

John Steen and Janet Black had a son William, baptised in Bo'ness in 1831. I have not found him in the 1841 census at https://www.freecen.org.uk/cgi/search.pl so I am wondering if perhaps John, Janet, Margaret and William had left Scotland before the 1841 census.
Never trust anything you find online (especially submitted trees and transcriptions on Ancestry, MyHeritage, FindMyPast and other commercial web sites) unless it's an image of an original document - and even then be wary because errors can and do occur.


Offline Martha5964

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Re: Scotland to Donegal: finding Margaret Steen?
« Reply #13 on: Wednesday 19 July 17 11:31 BST (UK) »
Forfarian, I'm not suggesting that any of the records I've found are definitely the 'Margaret Steen' skirl is researching. I've only been trying to help by searching for 'possibilities' in the same way I would when working on my own tree. I don't add anyone to my tree unless I'm confident I have sufficient evidence to support it and I wouldn't expect anyone else to do so either.
KAY, CUTHILL, PATON, MCCALLUM, JAMIESON, CUTHBERTSON, WALLACE, HUNTER, ALLAN, POLLOCK (AYRSHIRE)
HILL, BARR (GLASGOW / AYRSHIRE)
JOHNSTON, RITCHIE, ELDER, GOLIGHER / GALLAGHER (LANARKSHIRE / LONDONDERRY)

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Re: Scotland to Donegal: finding Margaret Steen?
« Reply #14 on: Wednesday 19 July 17 11:45 BST (UK) »
I didn't suggest that you would - my comment was intended for any newbies who might be reading this thread. I made that very mistake when I was a beginner and wasted a lot of time on the wrong family.
Never trust anything you find online (especially submitted trees and transcriptions on Ancestry, MyHeritage, FindMyPast and other commercial web sites) unless it's an image of an original document - and even then be wary because errors can and do occur.

Offline Martha5964

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Re: Scotland to Donegal: finding Margaret Steen?
« Reply #15 on: Wednesday 19 July 17 11:58 BST (UK) »
It's an easy trap to fall into. Just have to take a wee look around Ancestry to see lots of trees where the owner has obviously just added whole families generated by Hints.
KAY, CUTHILL, PATON, MCCALLUM, JAMIESON, CUTHBERTSON, WALLACE, HUNTER, ALLAN, POLLOCK (AYRSHIRE)
HILL, BARR (GLASGOW / AYRSHIRE)
JOHNSTON, RITCHIE, ELDER, GOLIGHER / GALLAGHER (LANARKSHIRE / LONDONDERRY)

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Re: Scotland to Donegal: finding Margaret Steen?
« Reply #16 on: Wednesday 19 July 17 12:10 BST (UK) »
It's an easy trap to fall into. Just have to take a wee look around Ancestry to see lots of trees where the owner has obviously just added whole families generated by Hints.
The main reason why I avoid Ancestry, MyHeritage and all similar sites like the proverbial plague. In fact I more or less boycott them because of the huge amount of disinformation/misinformation they generate.
Never trust anything you find online (especially submitted trees and transcriptions on Ancestry, MyHeritage, FindMyPast and other commercial web sites) unless it's an image of an original document - and even then be wary because errors can and do occur.

Offline skirl

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Re: Scotland to Donegal: finding Margaret Steen?
« Reply #17 on: Wednesday 19 July 17 12:37 BST (UK) »
Thanks for the leads Martha & Fofarian.