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Were they Scottish by any chance? Some of my Scots seem to have applied family naming patterns very rigidly, so that if the naming pattern called for the same name again (e.g. both grandfathers were called John) then they used John again. In real life they probably used nicknames for one or both.

Otherwise they sound exceptionally unimaginative as to naming!

Yes, they were Scottish! That's an interesting idea that hadn't occurred to me. Unfortunately I don't (yet) know enough about their parents/grandparents to prove it one way or the other but in the following generations the family certainly followed the Scots naming tradition.

In 19th century Britain when a child died in infancy it was common for the next child of the same gender to be given the same name. However I have a case where the parents appear to have named two boys the same even though the first one was still alive, and there were several intervening boys.

Of course I cannot be absolutely certain that a) the first one didn’t die, or b) that they’re different parents, but I am 95% sure that’s what happened - I have the death of the first one many years later, and the parents names are not that common.

Has anyone else come across this situation? If it really is extremely unusual then I think I have to conclude they must be different sets of parents.

Thanks for your helpful observations, and thanks generally for all the good stuff you post on this forum which I often find useful.

I've already been in touch with Angus Archives to check what they have specific to Inverquharity and they sent a catalogue of the Kinnordy Estate Papers which include two Series specific to Inverquharity Farm and Mill but unfortunately only goes back to 1867, but might still have something, and also they have newspaper archives for Forfarshire Advertiser and Montrose Review which start about 1811.

I'm planning to spend 2 days at the Scotlands People Centre beforehand. One question: do you know if you can just scroll through the OPRs for a parish in time-order, as opposed to looking at them online where you appear to only be able to conduct specific searches by name? What I am getting at is that since I suspect John Millar was born around 1783, I'd like to just sit and read backwards from say 1786 and see if I can spot any siblings or the marriage of his parents, but obviously I won't really know a specific name other than surname to look for.

Also, you mention a booklet of pre-1855 Angus graveyard inscriptions. Can you advise where I can find that or get a copy? Given that John's children moved all over Forfarshire, one angle could be to widen my search and look for other Millars born around the right time but elsewhere in the county, not just adjacent parishes.

Many thanks again for your suggestions.

Thanks!  Comparing with other names on the rest of the page I can see now that it must begin with M and that the second standalone is an S, i.e. it is Mer S.  (For some reason I was thinking the first letter had to be an A originally!)

I'm still not sure if that would mean Merchant Seaman (which to me would be someone sailing on the ships) rather than someone based at the docks and loading/unloading the ships, e.g. Merchant Service or Merchant Servant. Since its from a census I would guess the latter is more likely.

Thanks again for your help.