Alison REID puzzle

[Jang]

Am I grasping at straws?

The death certificate for Margaret BURTON, nee MORRAY, formerly ERSKINE, gives her parents as John MURRAY and Alison REID. She died in Alloa in 1859, aged 88 years, so a birth date ca 1771.

I can't find a baptism in the IGI for these parents but did find one for a Margaret MORRAY in Clackmannan Clackmannan on 7 April 1772, father John Morray, mother Margaret Willie.

When I looked for a baptism for her first husband, John ERSKINE, an interesting one I found was for John Erskine baptised 23 September 1752 Clackmannan Clackmannan, father John Erskine, mother ALISON REID!   

Is it too farfetched to assume that the informant on the mother's death confused her grandfathers?

Feedback welcome :-)

Jan

[Gadget]

Hi Jan

It seems to me that  the informant on her death cert  was confused,  as you say, and gave the wrong mother's name. This does happen at times.  I've come across it about half a dozen times on here.

The informant would be far removed from the previous generation and thus confused them .

The best thing might be to try and find the death of one of Margaret's siblings and see what that says.


Gadget

[Jang]

Thanks, Gadget, that was my impression but I was wary of jumping to the conclusions i want to be true  :-)

I hadn't thought of looking at sibling's death certficates. The problem is that I only know of other children born to John Murray and Margaret Wylie, so they should have the right parents. Bit of a Catch 22 really :-(

[cookies4]

Doesn't help really but if they stuck to the Scottish naming pattern then they had Margaret before naming their next daughter Alison which would fit.

[Jang]

And they did :-)

Margaret Erskine born 24 Aug 1797 Tulliallan Perth
then
Alison Erskine born 27 Dec 1800
and another Alison born 4 Sep 1802

Thanks - it all helps to confirm my theory!

[Gadget]

I've been looking at marriages and birth/baptisms for this family and can only come up with Margaret Willie as her mother.  About the only other thing that I can think of is accessing the Kirk Sessions minutes or checking for wills.

You can say that it is highly likely and all the evidence points to it but I don't think you can ever  get 100% confirmation though. 

Who was the informant?


Gadget

[Jang]

Thanks for the suggestions Gadget.

The informant was her daughter Elizabeth Henderson, nee Erskine. Her mother had remarried to Martin Halliburton (aka Burton) in 1812. Elizabeth was born about 1805 so probably wouldn't remember her father. Maybe that's why she confused her grandmothers.