My great-great-grandmother was known as Hattie Purvis. This is what my grandmother told me before she passed away and she is also listed as Hattie in New York State and US Federal census records. I hired a genealogist to help me because I could never find anything about her in Scotland, where both my grandmother and the census records told me she was born. The genealogist helped me obtain her marriage record. The marriage record (from New York) states her parents’ names as Thomas Purvis and Christina Akins. I have spent quite awhile trying to find Thomas and Christina in Scotland. The closest thing I have found is Thomas Purvis and Christina Aitkin or Aitken – a marriage record and a birth record for their daughter Hannah Purvis (and other children).
What do you think, are Christina Akins and Christina Aitkin/Aitken (and therefore Hannah and Hattie) Purvis the same? If so, there are a lot of records on Christina’s family going farther back so I am afraid I am jumping to conclusions! The marriage record is from 1891 and it lists Hattie as being 22, so she was born in abt. 1869 – in contrast Thomas Purvis and Christina Aitkin/Aitken’s daughter Hannah was born in 1861. HOWEVER the date on the marriage record is VERY hard to read. The 1891 date is handwritten over a typed date which looks like 1883. If Hattie was 22 in 1883, then she would have been born in abt. 1861. The record was transcribed as 1891 but I don’t how significance to put in that since they transcribed Hattie’s last name wrong. Do you have any idea what it might mean that the date on the marriage record was written over?
If Christina Aitkin/Aitken is NOT in fact my ancestor, why can I not find any record of Christina Akins or her daughter Hattie? Are there some areas of Scotland for which you cannot get records? (I have primarily been using ancestry.com and familysearch.org.)
This message turned out longer than I intended… thank you all so much for your insight! I have been thinking about this for months and feel so lost!
