Who is Mene Smith?

[zumaro]

Appropriate comparison I think!

Looking at Robert and Jane Smiths daughter Marjory, she is relatively well behaved across censuses, until she changes to Margaret, so that there are two daughters Margaret in the same house.

[Rosinish]

Zumaro,

You're not alone.

I have a family of 4, 3 boys named Donald!

My g/mother was Maggy & had 2 sisters Margaret!

Annie

ADDED, None were named after "deceased" siblings either!

[zumaro]

So my options are, Mene/Marjory is Margaret, Jean, Marrion or Mary. Now that scotlandspeople is finally back online, I have ruled out Mary. Mary marries Robert Garnock in 1796, and she dies in 1855. Mary Garnock's father is listed on the death certificate as Robert Smith, baker and she was born in Ormiston circa 1776/77, all of which is correct. Her mother is unknown, but how many bakers called Robert Smith will there be floating around Ormiston in 1776?

So Mene/Marjory is one of Margaret, Jean or Marrion.....

[zumaro]

Checking out the death certificates of the children I can trace, she is called Marjory, Menie and Margaret!

[Forfarian]

Checking out the death certificates of the children I can trace, she is called Marjory, Menie and Margaret!

At least that suggests you can rule out Jean

[J11]

Ah, the word "suggests" suggests a fellow genealogy cynic!  If it is a clerk mishearing the name, the family may never have known she was written in the record incorrectly.

[zumaro]

Out of perversity I am beginning to expect that she is Jean, as it is the only name not used. Or Robert - he is about the right age too.

Where do you go when you can't find any deaths of female Smiths in Ormiston, or further marriages beyond the Marion/Marjory/Andrew Smith and Mary/Robert Garnock ones already referred to. I suspect one of the boys is also married there, but the marriage entries are woefully lacking in detail. But no entries for Jean or Margaret, to help in tracking them down.

[marcie dean]

if my ancestral family is anything to go by, we have marjory, margaret and mary in abundance my grt gran on my grandads side was marjorie, her grt gran was marjory, her mother was margaret, and margarets' mother was mary.

[Rosinish]

J11,

Just because there was a possibility of a Cleric erring, that wouldn't follow on to subsequent documents from children's info. as they wouldn't be using docs. to find their mother's name would they?
They would have known her by whatever name(s) she used, not certs.
Maybe he did father kids with the sisters, hence the variation of names   
Not impossible!!!     

Annie