Ross search

[katman]

In the 1861 census of Branderburgh, James Ross and Ann (Small) Ross, there is a Peter Ross aged 6.
A search on SP, confirms his birthdate as 15 May 1854. A SP check for any other siblings pre-1854 came up blank, but, an IGI check did find one, John Ross, born to the same parents, 10 December 1853.
   A quick count on my fingers showed this date to be a bit 'iffy'.
 As IGI appears to be the only source of such a birth, and knowing how lax the Ross mob were when it came to recording their kids' births, I believe this John Ross birth was genuine but the date was wrong.
Any tips?



 

 

[MonicaL]

H Katman

The entry on IGI for son John is a member submitted entry not an actual extract from the OPR. So, as you say, likely the person who has submitted the entry has got the details from somewhere but at the very least, the year is likely to be wrong.

Monica 

[Forfarian]

In the 1861 census of Branderburgh, James Ross and Ann (Small) Ross, there is a Peter Ross aged 6.
A search on SP, confirms his birthdate as 15 May 1854. A SP check for any other siblings pre-1854 came up blank, but, an IGI check did find one, John Ross, born to the same parents, 10 December 1853.
   A quick count on my fingers showed this date to be a bit 'iffy'.
 As IGI appears to be the only source of such a birth, and knowing how lax the Ross mob were when it came to recording their kids' births, I believe this John Ross birth was genuine but the date was wrong.
Any tips?

Tip No 1. The 1853 IGI birth is a 'submitted' entry and therefore to be regarded with great suspicion until you have tracked down and found the original document from which it comes. 'Extracted' information is usually reliable, bar the occasional indexing error. However ....

Tip No 2. For reasons unknown, the Duffus baptisms from 1820 to 1854 have been omitted from the IGI and from the Scotland's People index. This is why your search on SP came up blank. They have, however, been indexed by Moray Local Heritage Centre on LIBINDX at http://libindx.moray.gov.uk/mainmenu.asp

Having said that I don't think either of these tips is going to help because the LIBINDX entry more or less matches the submitted IGI entry. I think you have to assume either that there is an error in one of the dates, or that there were two couples with the same name having children at the same time in neighbouring parishes (unlikely).

Is there any sign of John in the census? Did you look at the original of the census or at a transcription?


 

[katman]

Hi Forfarian.   I have checked the original census, and no John Ross of that age appears on it.
 Back in the 1980s, I had an Edinburgh researcher looking for the Duffus/Drainie Ross family, come up with the 1853 birth of John, quoting the  Duffus OPR base as a source. When I tried it on SP last week, there was zilch, as was the previously recorded birth of a sibling, Elizabeth Ross, in 1848
  I'm beginning to believe that the dob of John was incorrectly copied into the good book, as such data was not always entered in real time, and this was confirmed when I looked up the OPR for John's brother, Peter Ross, (b Drainie 1854), On that page, the last five birth entries were in this order; 1854,1842,1846,1854,1853. I have cross-checked Peter's birth date with his age at marriage, and at least, that one appears to be spot on.
 
 Ta for the input.

Jim