no mothers name on scottish death certificate.....

[baird]

hi there, i'm new to this so hope someone can help. i've checked out a relatives death cert from 1923. it gives her fathers name and says he is deceased but when it come to her mother it gives no name and only says "deceased" can any one help?

[nelmit]

hi there, i'm new to this so hope someone can help. i've checked out a relatives death cert from 1923. it gives her fathers name and says he is deceased but when it come to her mother it gives no name and only says "deceased" can any one help?

Hello and welcome,

Perhaps if you give us some names and places somebody may be able to help.

Kind regards,
Annette M

[baird]

thanks for quick reply. margaret flannigan wife of john flannigan died in tranent 11/4/1923. her father was peter burns but no mention of mother. does anyone know if there is a general sort of reason why a mothers name would be awol on the death cert? the cert is actually signed by her son so i would have thought he might have known his grandmothers name at least.

[WilmaM]

It will be missing if the information wasn't given to the registrar, if perhaps her mother died when she was young, the son would never have known her or her name.

Finding Margaret & John's Marriage certificate should give the relevant information.

[nelmit]

thanks for quick reply. margaret flannigan wife of john flannigan died in tranent 11/4/1923. her father was peter burns but no mention of mother. does anyone know if there is a general sort of reason why a mothers name would be awol on the death cert? the cert is actually signed by her son so i would have thought he might have known his grandmothers name at least.

Hello again,

Yes I agree with Wilma that the most likely reason would be that her mother died when Margaret was very young.

When was Margaret born?

There is a Margaret Burns born in 1874 - her father was Peter and mother Christina Bathgate. Could this be your family?

Regards,
Annette M

Later............sorry, strike that Christina lived to a ripe old age.

[emanday]

I also have a DC for the daughter of one of my rellies which gives her father's name, but not her mother's. Even more confusing is the fact that it was her father who was the informant.

I only found she existed because she was named as a daughter and as a beneficiary in his will, and census records showed her living with HIS brother and family (he seems to have spent most of his life between Scotland and West Indies and Singapore as a shipbuilder/owner). Also, although she was born after 1855, there is no sign of her BC. She was also at least 12 years younger than the youngest of her two older sisters!

Could she have been his illegitimate daughter, later accepted as his and given his surname at that point, and brought into his family? Who knows? Her own father was unwilling to name her mother on her DC!

[baird]

thanks for replies. can't find any marriage or birth certs on sp records and my mum reckons they might have been born and married in ireland (larne probably) so i'll check that out sometime.

[WilmaM]

You have the son's name [from the DC]
Have you tried to track down his BC?
If born in Scotland his parent's marriage date and place should be on there.

[DavidWW]

Forget marriage and birth register entries for the moment, and concentrate first on what you do know, - age at death and married and maiden names, and have a look in the 1901 census for a matching person, and family, i.e. hubbie's name William (not "John", - don't know where you got that from, "William" is quite clear on the 1923 death register entry!), with a son named Peter.

There's several Margarets of around the correct age, but go for the closest one first on the basis of an exact match, and the family does have a Head by the name of William, and a son Peter, but that's not absolute proof that this is the correct family (BTW Hubbie and wife are both shown as born in a County of Northern Ireland, not Co. Antrim which is where Larne is. The spelling of the county is quite fascinating as it's got an "a" where there should be an "e", but the former is how it's pronounced !!)

This 1901 census entry gives the age and Scottish parish of birth of wee Peter, - tracking that down on SP shows that the wife, Margaret, did indeed have the maiden name of BURNS, and that the couple were married in a townland which is in the same county in Ulster as above.

You will be able to get the marriage register copy from GRONI, - see http://www.groni.gov.uk/index.htm .

Unfortunately, Irish marriage register entries are the same as those in England, and show only the names of the fathers, not the mothers, (this may be why Peter couldn't easily check the situation) and Margaret's date of birth is before the 1864 introduction of statutory registration for births in Ireland................

From looking at the churches in which the kids got married, you should be able to determine if they were Roman Catholics or Protestants.

Her father Peter is shown on the death record as a crofter. If that's also the occupation, or there's a similar occupation for him, on the marriage register entry, then there's a reasonable chance that the family had lived in the townland concerned for several decades.

David

[Chris Paton]

A quick point on Larne, as I was born there!

In Gaelic, it is spelt Latharna, and so the spelling of Larna may reflect a local pronunciation - you would pronounce the final 'a' in Irish...

Mind you, it could be just a typo...! lol

Chris