Have I run out of options?

[didactylos]

Ok on my paternal side I have got back pretty much complete records until I get to my 3rd GGrandfather John Neilson. I am used to dealing with the English records so I may betray an element of lack of knowledge here - or it may be I simply have hit a brick wall. I have located him and his wife Jane (Jean) nee Rankin (Rankine) in the 1841 Scottish census which gives me births for both of them in 1791 in Lanarkshire. I also have a 'bulk' baptism of the children in Bothwell in 1848 - children were born between 1808 and 1830. 

I cannot find any record of their marriage - Scotland's People and LDS searches, nor of their baptisms. I have tried variants on the surnames and still nothing although there does come a point where when broaden the search criteria on Scotland's People I get lots of possibilites - but I also do not fancy spending a fortune on checking every one of them in the hope one might be right.

I cannot locate death records either......

So, 1791 does not seem to me to be too early that there are no Parish Records, - but I may be mistaken. Also the 'bulk' baptism seems odd to me - was there some possible reason for this at the time -  is 1848 significant?

Its like after they got the kids baptised they vanished?

Any ideas, observations very welcome....

Roger 

[didactylos]

OK further and messier. His wife was Jane Rankin (or variants of that name) I am fairly sure her death was between 1861 and 1871. Born in 1791.

What should I put into a death search for her? This is very confusing. (Scotland's People) I have just lost umpteen credits by getting it wrong....

 

Roger

[Seoras]

Hi didactylos, have you checked the Jane Rankin marrying Glasgow 1807 or the John Neilson, Glasgow 1806.

[ev]

Hi ,

You say born 1791 but the 1841 Census instructions were to round down any ages over 15 , so could have been aged 50 - 54(However ages were not always rounded down)
Have you found them in the 1851 or 1861 Census ?
It could be that the couple died before the start of official registration in 1855 

ev
 

[didactylos]

Hi didactylos, have you checked the Jane Rankin marrying Glasgow 1807 or the John Neilson, Glasgow 1806.

Is that in Scotland's People?

Roger

[didactylos]

Hi ,

You say born 1791 but the 1841 Census instructions were to round down any ages over 15 , so could have been aged 50 - 54(However ages were not always rounded down)
Have you found them in the 1851 or 1861 Census ?
It could be that the couple died before the start of official registration in 1855 

ev

I think I have just found John living with his son and family in 1881, 90....

Needs more investigating.

Roger

[tidybooks]

Hi didactylos,

Have a look at this link, will save you credits/money on SP in the long run.

http://www.rootschat.com/forum/index.php/topic,562668.0.html

Tom

[GR2]

The "bulk" baptism you refer to is not so much a bulk baptism as a bulk registration. The children would have been baptised shortly after birth, but their baptisms not entered in the register. It is quite common for this to happen. Sometimes at a later date, perhaps when a subsequent child was baptised, earlier baptisms were also registered in a block. It is very common to find this in the 1850s, just before statutory civil registration began.

[JMStrachan]

Yes, I've found bulk baptisms entered in the register in the late 1840s/early 1850s, just prior to official registration. From this I deduce that a lot of baptisms which took place earlier than that didn't make it into the register at the time.

Jane, Jean and Jeannie were interchangeable and I have ancestorscalled a different version in each census.

When searching for a married woman on ScotlandsPeople, put her maiden name in the other surname box. But it's also a good idea to make sure you select "variants" when putting in names or learn how to use wildcards, as spelling was all over the place before the late 1800s.

For births and marriages prior to 1855, try looking for them on FamilySearch first, then switching over the ScotlandsPeople when you've narrowed down the field.