Am I reading too much into this?

[greenvalley]

I found the death of Margaret Buchan Harris in 1911, which was reported by her daughter Sarah.

I was surprised though that Alexander Harris doesn't appear as her father, only as the husband of her mother.

I am unable to find the birth of Margaret in Auchterarder in 1846 on Scotlandspeople, the births of her siblings Jane 1843, Alexander 1848 also in Auchterarder are not registered either. I tried searching under every permutation I could think of, including just first names.

Is it possible that for instance Margaret was not the daughter of Alexander Harris, or do you reckon that the informer just messed things up?

Greenvalley

[RJ_Paton]

The problem is that both scenarios are possible.

The information on a death registration is only as good as the knowledge of the person supplying the information.

Re no certificate for the births - Civil registration in Scotland did not start until 1855 and so your birth dates are well before that. The Parish Records available on Scotlands People are for the Church of Scotland and the Roman Catholic Church - there are other faiths and the so called  dissenting churches whose records are not available online. Even those records which are available online are often patchy either through poor record keeping or poor preservation of those records. The National Records of Scotland in Edinburgh have more records available for examination there.

[Annette7]

I'm a bit confused - if I'm reading this right it says her mother Sarah was married to a James Harris Hood??

Annette

[greenvalley]

No, it is James Harris, Wood Turner 

I guess that what surprised me is that the name of the father is mentioned, but only with the details of the mother Sara Fyfe.

So this way it looks to me as if Sara gave birth to her daughter whilst being married to Alexander Harris, but that he was NOT the dad.

That would be news to me, as she is down as his daughter on census records and on her marriage certificate.

So I guess that Margaret's daughter must have given a confused picture. Why elso would the space for the father be empty?

Greenvally

[iluleah]

Just a thought..... could he have been mentioned in this way as he was dead ..ie an after thought by Sarah who may have or not known him

[ev]

Familysearch/IGI has this reference -
https://familysearch.org/pal:/MM9.1.1/XYP5-1RX

ev

[ev]

Try freeCEN , 1851 Census Alexander Harris age 31 wood turner with wife Sarah age 31.
Also daughter Margaret age 5 and mother in law Jean Fyfe age 65.
Other children James(10) , Jean( 8 ) , Alexander(2).

ev

[greenvalley]

Thanks guys, I assume it was her daughter who made the mistake.

[Forfarian]

Thanks guys, I assume it was her daughter who made the mistake.

I think it is more likely to be the other way round. The prescribed form would be to put 'Alexander Harris, Wood Turner; Jean Harris M S Fyfe'. That's what the Registrar would have expected.

The way it is written clearly implies that Margaret was born illegitimate and that her daughter Sara did not know the name of her grandfather. Accusing your grandmother of having an illegitimate child is not something you would do without having a good reason, and the Registrar would (or should) have asked questions intended to elicit the correct information, for example, 'What was the name of your mother's father?'

On the other hand, a 'normal' illegitimate child would have its mother's name recorded as 'Jean Fyfe, afterwards married to Alexander Harris, Wood Turner'.

Do you have a date of marriage for Alexander and Margaret?

If Margaret was indeed not the biological daughter of Alexander, there would almost certainly have been something in the Kirk Session minutes about it. If they have survived, the minutes should be in the National Archives of Scotland www.nas.gov.uk

Missing baptisms from 1843 onwards are usually because the parents adhered to the Free Church at the Great Disruption in 1843. Many of the surviving Free Church baptism registers are also in the National Archives of Scotland.