Forenames.....

[PapaNeilson]

Happy New Year!
In my search of the 1851 census I found the children of George & Elizabeth Neilson listed as: James, George, Dundas Dalgleish, Jane Wood, Robert, and Elizabeth Ritchie. What, if anything, should I make of apparent middle names? Is there a naming conventional that I am unaware of? Dalgleish, Wood & Ritchie sound like surnames to me. All the children were listed in the census as sons or daughters of George & Elizabeth. Any help would be appreciated. Thanks.

[DavidWW]

Happy New Year!
In my search of the 1851 census I found the children of George & Elizabeth Neilson listed as: James, George, Dundas Dalgleish, Jane Wood, Robert, and Elizabeth Ritchie. What, if anything, should I make of apparent middle names? Is there a naming conventional that I am unaware of? Dalgleish, Wood & Ritchie sound like surnames to me. All the children were listed in the census as sons or daughters of George & Elizabeth. Any help would be appreciated. Thanks.

Middle names most probably relate to the maiden name of the mother, or those of the grandmothers or even ggrandmothers, but can, occasionally, relate to the doctor or the midwife involved in a difficult birth, the minister if it was his first baptism, or even national events or personalities, but most often in the latter case fairly obvious, e.g. Victoria in the years of her Silver of Golden Jubilees, or Mafeking in the year of the relief thereof, or Gordon in the context of the Sudan, etc., etc.

David

[JustJean]

Hi PapaNeilson

Welcome to TalkingScot!

An IGI search on the interesting name of Dundas Dalglish brings up an interesting entry that may or may not have any connection for your Neilson line....

DUNDAS DALGLISH - International Genealogical Index
Gender: Female Marriage: 18 FEB 1802 Saint Cuthberts, Edinburgh, Midlothian, Scotland

Spouse: James NEILSON

Were your Neilson's from the Edinburgh area?

Best wishes
Jean

[Tracey]

Happy New Year PapaNeilson and welcome to Talkingscot.

In my experince of "middle" names there is no pattern for half of mine although im sure some of them hold clues to who were their fathers.
Huston, Hutton, Townlie have no place concerning previous naming pattern but others have middle names Sim, Geddes, Hartley ect that are family sir names used as middle names.

One branch of the family i made contact with early last year (connected via Scotland but they didnt know it ) had no idea where one middle name Ledger came from untill i told them it was the child concerned grandmothers maiden name so, you may come accross them yet !

Once again, welcome aboard and enjoy!

Tracey

[StewL]

PapaNeilson

Welcome to TS, I hope the good people here can be of help to you.

Until a few days ago. On my maternal line, one aunt had the name Jessie Valentine Stewart (information I was given from a cousin, not her daughter though) and could not work out where the Valentine came from as all her siblings except my mother had very recognisable middle names. But just a few days before Christmas I finally got my great grandfathers second marriage certificate. He had married a Jessie W Ballantyne, and on my uncles DC my aunt’s MS was listed as Jessie Ballantyne Stewart. So I got a bonus of two for one so to speak, the first being her correct Sunday name and the source of the name, it was of course from her step-granny.

[JustJean]

Hello again PapaNeilson

I just couldn't resist looking a little further once I found that Dundas Dagleish on the IGI.

You know...when I first read your list of names I wasn't sure if Dundas was a male or female name....and you know what?? It can be BOTH! I found examples of both male and female Dundas's on the 1881 census!! How confusing is that!!!

You see.....I'm almost convinced (mind you I can't prove this just yet but bear with me) that Dundas Dagleish that married James Neilson in 1802 is George Neilson's mother. Yet I'm more than a wee bit confused just why George would give that name to his son! How about it experts??? Does this thing happen frequently????

The Dundas Dagleish that married James Neilson had the good sense to pass from this life in the year 1855 According to that DC document which you can easily obtain from ScotlandsPeople she has listed her living children...and the youngest is one George Neilson age 44 (in 1855). I was hoping to find George and Dundas living with each other in the 1841 census but no such luck. Even more confusing is the fact that Dundas has been indexed as a male! James is also one of her sons listed on her DC.

1841 Census


Piece: SCT1841/692 Place: Leith-Midlothian Enumeration District: 1
Civil Parish: Leith South Ecclesiastical Parish, Village or Island: Lady Glenorchy
Folio: 54 Page: 6
Address: East Side Low Calton

NEILSON James M 38 Labourer Midlothian
NEILSON Dundas M 73 Midlothian

While I was at it I nabbed your family.....

Piece: SCT1841/692 Place: Leith-Midlothian Enumeration District: 68
Civil Parish: Leith North Ecclesiastical Parish, Village or Island: Newhaven
Folio: 20 Page: 8
Address: Pier Place


NEILSON George M 30 Agricultural Labourer Midlothian
NEILSON Elizabeth F 25 Outside Census County (1841)
NEILSON George M 4 Midlothian
NEILSON Dundas M 2 Midlothian
NEILSON Janet F 3m Midlothian
BOAG Richard M 35 Mason Journeyman Midlothian

So you can see they weren't exactly neighbors but still I feel strongly that your George belongs to her. Unfortunatley her DC doesn't state her mother's name (but it does have her father!) and her husband James was already dead by 1855.

I'm not sure this is good enough to share with you but there it is....

Best wishes
Jean

[Bertha]

Happy New Year All
Middle names and the traditional Scottish naming pattern were very useful in helping me get my Neilson/Nelson line back to around 1780 in East Lothian.
Where are your Neilson's from originally.
Mine moved between Dunbar, Gladsmuir, East Linton & Edinburgh.. mostly agricultural workers, though in the latter part of the 19th century, some worked in the coalmines.
Regards
Bertha

[margaret1]

my great-great grandfather was dundas dalglish neilson, i believe he is the son of george and elizabeth neilson, his wife was sarah morris ,my great grandmother, his daughter was called miriam dalglish

[Alan SHARP]

Greetings margaret1

Welcome to TalkingScot.

Unfortunately for you PapaNeilson only visited this site for one week back in 2006 so for you to make contact through this site will require his registered email contact address to still be active. However Bertha has visited the site many times and last visited in April this year. If she ticked the box to this thread, when she posted, she will have got an activity email, and if not it will be possible for you to private message her by activating the [PM] icon under her user name. Then follow the prompts.

Best of luck.

Alan SHARP.

[PapaNeilson]

Margaret1-Thank you for your response last August. According to my research, your great-great Grandfather Dundas Dalgleish Neilson was the older brother of my great-great Grandfather Robert born 1 July 1843. (Robert is incorrectly listed in the North Leith Parish records as “Robert Nelson” so you may not know of him). According to my research the North Leith Parish records list six children of George and Elizabeth (Walker) Neilson: James (b 2 July 1835), George (b 18 Apr 1837), Dundas Dalgleish (b 4 May 1839), Jane Wood (b 26 Feb 1841), Robert, and Elizabeth Ritchie (b 14 Jan 1846). Robert was married to Jessie MacLauren in 1870 in Glasgow and shortly thereafter immigrated to the USA and lived in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. I believe Dundas eventually resided in Warrenton, Lancashire, England. I would be curious to know where Dundas descendants resided.Again, Thank you.