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Hi there,

I'm hoping someone might be able to help me decipher the cause of death for Thomas J Alexander on this record, the first entry on the full image (included in next message). I've included a close-up of that section as well. The majority of his family died from TB so I was assuming it would be that, but obviously it's something different. The only thing I can find that's vaguely close is Orchitis, and maybe they just mispelled it or it looks mispelled due to their handwriting, but wanted to see if anyone had any other ideas.

Many thanks in advance!

As a partial favour/partial gift to two co-workers (sisters), I offered to do a quick family tree for them going back a few generations. Surprisingly (and a little annoyingly) their family has been pretty easy so far to trace. However I've run into a little name change and I'm not sure how to approach it. I'm mostly looking for help either uncovering documents that might register the change (though unlikely), or any ideas/general reasons why they might change the family name?

I have the Prince family in the 1911 census, 44 Lombard Street, Barry:

Henry Prince (b. about 1861 in Shropshire) working as a Lamplighter.
Margaret Prince (b. about 1867 in Penarth). They've been married about 25 years with 9 children, 8 still living.
Richard H (23, born in Cogan)
Ralph (20, born in Barry)
Alice (19, as above)
William (17, as above)
David (15, as above)
Thomas (14, as above)
Ida (8, born in Penarth)

In 1904 I find baptism records for William, David, Thomas, and Ida. All listed as Prince, abode listed as Y Persondy (The Parsonage).

In 1901 they are at 22 Lombard Street, as above but minus Ida and plus another daughter, Sarah (14, born in Penarth).

In 1891, it took a bit of hunting but here they appear to be, living in 24 Work Street, Cadoxton with another family (the Clarkes. Oddly enough daughter Sarah marries a Clarke, though I've yet to find if he's from the same family).
Henry (b. about 1863, born in Shropshire) general labourer
Margaret (b. about 1867, born in Penarth)
Sarah (4, as above)
Henry (who could be Richard Henry or the child who died by 1911) (2, as above)
Ralph (7 months, Barry)

Seems to fit, except now their surname is Fowler. The scan is not great quality but it's not a mistranscription. I've had a brief look through bmd for Fowler births for those children, and there are matches in the index for the right sorts of years, and no close enough results for those earlier children but with Prince as a surname.

Diolch for any ideas/hints/help!

EDIT: So another little search later and looking at ancestry's suggested documents, there's a birth and baptism for a Henry Prince. Then in the 1861 English census, a Henry Fowler/Prince appears. Emmanuel Prince is the head of the household and Sarah Fowler is a lodger, with three children, Samuel, Alice, and Henry. Samuel is listed as 'lodger son' while Alice and Henry are daughter and son. In the baptism Emmanuel is listed as the father. BMD tells me an Emanuel Prince married a Sarah Fowler in 1864. So was Henry born out of wedlock and named Prince once his parents married, changed his name mid-life to his mother's maiden name, then back again? It appears now that all of his children are registered on their birth certificate as Fowler, but later when daughter Sarah marries, she's Prince. Why?

While tracing the children of one ancestor and seeing where they all ended up, I came across a woman whose relationship to my own lot appears a little confusing. I've had a lot of trouble tracing her outside of these two census returns, and finding the other family involved in this is proving just as difficult, so I'd appreciate any help or ideas.

Okay, so I was following Janet Rankin (nee Alexander) and her children. In 1891 Janet Rankin and her daughter Annie Rankin are living with/visiting Janet's other daughter, Janet Leishman (nee Rankin) and her family. Janet Sr is listed as mother-in-law and Annie is sister-in-law, both in relation to Janet Jr's husband William Leishman. Simple so far!

In 1901 Janet Rankin has probably passed on, and her daughter Annie Forrest Rankin (b. 1848, but in some censuses she's listed as between 1846 and 1859) is still living with Janet and William Leishman. Annie is, again, listed as a sister-in-law to William. Then there is another family group in the same household, or at least this is what ancestry tells me. On ScotlandsPeople they're separated by a page turn, so I'm not sure if they're actually in the same household or separate. However the way Elizabeth is referred to as 'sister-in-law' rather than 'head' makes me think otherwise. Anyway, so this new group. We have Elizabeth McKinnie (or McMinnie) (54) and Elizabeth McKenzie, Robert McKenzie, Anne D McKenzie, Nettie McKenzie, and David McKenzie. The children aside from David are either born in Rangoon, Burmah or what Ancestry has transcribed as Moatmeson.

So Elizabeth is my sticking point here, because she's listed as single. If she's an unknown sister of Janet Leishman (nee Rankin) then she would be a Rankin, and if she was a wife of one of William Leishman's brothers, she'd be a Leishman?

I followed her into 1911 and found her away from the Leishman household but still with the McKenzie children and this time their parents, Archibald and Jemima McKenzie. For a second time, Elizabeth McMinnie is listed as a sister-in-law to the head of the household, Archibald. So now she's maybe Jemima's sister or wife to one of Archibald McKenzie's brothers, but again she's single. She could be Jemima's sister and Jemima was a McKinnie/McMinnie before her marriage, but I can't find a marriage for Archibald and Jemima (which, according to the 1911 census, was 29 years prior, so about 1882) and then how would I link her and Jemima to my Rankin/Leishman households?

I tried to find anything on the McKenzie lot to see if that helped me out, but I can't find anything that seems to fit. One child was born in Scotland apparently, and so were both parents, but I'm running short. Same for Elizabeth herself. I've had a brief attempt at searching through British Indian records and travel records but no luck either so far.

Can anyone help me get my head around this? Or am I just fixating and the 1901 census was just two households smooshed into one accidentally? I'd be happy to leave the McKenzie lot alone but I just want to make sure I haven't missed off a child from another branch of mine.

Any help or ideas of where to look next would be very welcome!

I was wondering if anyone might be able to help me with some missing birth records and a missing marriage record. I'm not sure if the records have just not been digitised or went missing/were destroyed, or if I'm not looking in the right places.

John Johnston(e) (b. 20th Jan 1806 in Glasgow to John Johnston(e) and Agnes Downie) was married to Marion Scotland (b. 22nd Dec 1815 in Kirkintilloch to William Scotland and Catherine Muirhead).

They had the following, that I'm aware of:
Catherine (abt 1836)
Agnes (abt 1838)
John (abt 1839)
Elizabeth (abt 1841) - Married James Strachan in 1862 in Bridgeton, died 1st May 1879 in Neilston
William (abt 1843)
Mary (abt 1845) - Married John Alexander in 1865 in Glasgow, died 30th Oct 1934 in New York [my 2x great grandmother]
Thomas (abt 1850)

Marion also had an illegitimate son, George Lumsden, born 16th March 1833 in Kirkintilloch. Father was George Lumsden.

Marion died 14th June 1857 in Kirkintilloch and John died 11th Sept 1871 in Royal Infirmary, Glasgow (usual residence Kirkintilloch). I've found the family in the 1841 - 1851 census, and then 1861 with John and some children, then John on his own in 1871 as a boarder.

Try as I might I just can't trace any birth records for any of their children and no marriage for the pair. I have got a birth entry for her illegitimate child, George, so I know there are some records from that area and time period, but am I just unlucky and those select years are sparse in existence? My family seems to have a habit of existing within years of missing records.

Any help would be greatly appreciated. Thanks in advance!

Could anyone help decipher the causes of death for John Cochrane Alexander (born 1906 died 1907) on the attached image. I can read the rest of it fine, probably because I know what should be there, but for the life of me I just can't work out the causes of death. He's in the highlighted section.

Many thanks in advance for any help!