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Hi Forfarian,

I will answer your questions but I hope you can also tell me why you are so interested in this topic. It can't be a co-incidence that you are related to a family named Aitkenhead, even if they were in Lancashire. Is that family descended from a Scottish Aitkenhead?

> I take it that you have checked Cramond Kirk Session minutes ...
I checked as much as I could a few years ago. I even paid a researcher in Scotland to do some digging for me but she came up blank, Interestingly, she never found that Margaret Primrose's mother was Janet Rankin.

> What was the name of Daniel's mother?
I don’t know. Daniel was born in Caithness in about 1781.

>It could be that she was named after Isabell's sister, of course.
Yes, that’s possible.

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I did a check of familysearch.org and it looks like two-word girls’ names, such as “Mary Ann” DO come up in searches before 1800. However, no cases of “Helen Watson” are found before 1800. But between 1800 and 1900, dozens of examples of “Helen Watson” in Scotland are found. And the very first example is my relative, Helen Watson McGregor, born 1803, daughter of Daniel McGregor and Margaret Primrose!

So far, I haven’t studied all the cases to see if there any common denominators. It doesn’t look like all the family who used this name all belonged to the same religious groups but I might be wrong on that. To me, it looks like a case of some famous woman, perhaps within a certain religious group, being honoured, someone who was probably born in the second half of the 18th century.

Hi,

Here's a quick outline of my ancestors connected to this.

Margaret Primrose was born in Linlithgow, Cramond, Midlothian in about 1782. Her mother's name was apparently Janet Rankin, as shown on Margaret's death certificate. But the identity of "Mr Primrose" is unknown. This becomes something of a scenario out of a Victorain novel because the Linlithgow area was "Primrose territory", i.e. several estates owned by the Earls of Rosebury, i.e., the Primrose family. But no connection has been found between my Margaret Primrose and the Earl's family! She & her husband, Daniel McGregor seem to have been humble 'servants' or similar, according to the census returns. They married in 1800 in Dalmeny, West Lothian.

Their second child was named, "Helen Watson McGregor", b. 1803, Cramond, Midlothian.

Their third child was Isabell McGregor, b. 1806, Cramond. She married James Aitkenhead, probably in about 1825, and probably in either Cramond or Edinburgh city.

The seventh child of Isabell McGregor & James Aitkenhead was Helen Watson Aitkenhead, b. 1843, Duddingston, Midlothian.

I want to know why these two girls, in different generations, were using "Helen Watson" to name their daughters.

Hello again, Forfarian. I notice you are researching the name, "AITKENHEAD" in Lancashire. I am connected to the family by that name around Edinburgh. That family used the name, "Helen Watson", at least once, maybe more. My MCGREGOR line intersects with this AITKENHEAD LINE at the marriage of Isabella MCGREGOR & James AITKENHEAD. They probably married about 1825, they lived around Cramond, Midlothian and they had about 8 children until 1846.

I noticed that the girls' given names, "Helen Watson" were used several times after 1800 in Scotland but rarely, if ever, before that time. Was there a famous woman in Scotland who people were naming their daughter after?