Is this enough "evidence"?

[stoney]

Hi, I've been trying to find out why my Paternal Grandmother had a particular middle name and I think I've cracked it, so can I run my theory past a few of you "seasoned campaigners" and see what you think?

Her name was Margaret CALDWELL Stevenson - but I couldn't find any link to the family name of Caldwell anywhere.

Then I went on the LDS site and just looked for any marriages between the names Stevenson and Caldwell and came up with Thomas Stevenson b.1808, who married Isabel Caldwell in 1825. Thomas' father is also named Thomas Stevenson, he married Isobel Selkirk and they had four children: John b.1804, James b.1806, Thomas b.1808 and Alexander b.1810.

Now, Margaret Stevenson's father was called Thomas Stevenson b.c.1837 - from his marriage registration I find that his father's name was John Stevenson, (this would be Margaret's Grandftaher).

The interesting thing is that this John Stevenson called his sons James , Charles, John, Alexander, Robert, and of course, Thomas. See the repeated family names?

So, I'm thinking that Margaret's Grandfather, John,  was the brother of Thomas who married Isabel Caldwell, and that Margaret's middle name was from her Father's Aunt, by marriage, Isobel Caldwell.

The dates seem to be compatible and the locations (Old Monkland, mainly) - do you think this is as close as I can get to solving the mystery?

[Su]

The dates seem to be compatible and the locations (Old Monkland, mainly) - do you think this is as close as I can get to solving the mystery?

Probably    Now can you find out for me where the Bradley came from in my Tom Bradley Yarwood, and Tom Bradley Gibbons please... It's a complete mystery to me, and even Tom Bradley Jnr didn't know where it came from. 

love
Su 

[LizzieW]

Su

Have you looked at the census to see if there were any Bradleys living near to the Yarwoods, or even with them?  I have the name Philips running through a few generations because two or three of the children of my ancestors lived with this lady and cared for her.  She was quite rich with lots of property etc.  When she died, she left all her extensive worldly goods to my ancestors.  They repaid her by using her surname as a middle name for a few generations.  Then the custom seemed to die out.  It could be that branch of the family died out, I need to look at my records.

Lizzie

[Su]

Hi Lizzie
I shall go through the census with a fine tooth comb and look for a Bradley.  Someone (sorry can't remember which post it was on) suggested it could be the Midwife or Doctor's name.  It just seems strange that the two boys (cousins) were both Tom Bradley for Christian names, so there must be some connection to both of them.

This Tom Bradley Yarwood has now caused me a further mystery by using an alias (see my Post) of Thomas McClean, so I think he was put on the earth to cause me sleepless nights 

Thanks for your input

love
Su

[Ann Baker]

Stoney

The middle name could come from a number of places could be family, married into family, family friend, employer, minister .

My gt gran's middle name is still a mystery to us all cos to date I have not found any family connection with her middle name.

You may want to cast net a wee bit wider outside of immediate family.
Am asuming your Stevensons were Scottish ? If so then looks like they followed the naming convention of eldest son named after dad's dad, next son after mum;'s dad etc. Not 100% foolproof but pretty good guide.

You could be absolutely right in your assumption but have you checked the records back from what you know to be right via e.g Scotland's People. Also
are the records on LDS extracted or submitted ?

So suppose round about way of saying I would dig a bit deeper

best wishes

Ann

[trish251]

Hi Stoney

Looking to see where your family was from I saw the "Old Monkland" & had to look that up (not to good on UK geography in my world) & was pleased to find it in Scotland. From my Scottish families (mainly Edinburgh, Fife and Renfrew) I would think the link is quite likely (although perhaps a generation out). When my folks had a dozen children in the 1800s - after using the stand 6 names from the naming patterns they then used the names of their sister/brother in laws - often using both the given and the surname as given names for their children.

Trish

[liz-bris]

Hi Stoney

My mother has an unusual name and I was told by her that her mothers sisters husband was the one who went to register the birth as he was going near the registry office and he named Mum after his mother, not the name that my grndmother had picked out

Don't know if this helps

Liz

[LoneyBones]

Oh the names that stuff us up! My own mother gave my elder brother her maiden name because she only had one brother and he was going off to war and she didn't want her family name to die out.
Then (well prior actually) she married her sister's husband's brother. I always thought that was cute, two brothers marrying two sisters but not since I started doing genealogy.
My other bugbear is John Cooper who named his son John Cooper who named his son John Cooper........so on ad infinitum.
These things are come to try us.
Well cheers anyway,
Leonie.

[stoney]

Oh the names that stuff us up! My own mother gave my elder brother her maiden name because she only had one brother and he was going off to war and she didn't want her family name to die out.
Then (well prior actually) she married her sister's husband's brother. I always thought that was cute, two brothers marrying two sisters but not since I started doing genealogy.
My other bugbear is John Cooper who named his son John Cooper who named his son John Cooper........so on ad infinitum.
These things are come to try us.
Well cheers anyway,
Leonie.

Repeated names!  I have several John and Thomas HOUNAM's, also Joseph Edward BEATTIE's - my grandfather (yes, JEB!) was a son of a JEB and one of 15 siblings and virtually all his brothers had named one of their sons JEB (and further generations!)
Then there's the amusing cachet of John Davidson's daughter marrying a David Johnstone - I get those two mixed up a lot!