How do you find mothers? .....

Alice Bradford · Post by **Alice Bradford** » Sat Mar 11, 2006 5:01 am

Is it possible to find a persons mother when they were born in 1723. After you get back so for the OPR just give the fathers names, so is a person at the end of the line then?
Thanks,
Alice

LesleyB · Post by **LesleyB** » Sat Mar 11, 2006 12:21 pm

Hi Alice
It depends really on the OPRs, how well kept they were and how much information they gave for the Parish you are interested in. Some OPRs are very informative, other are not

and just give the father's name and not much else.

It also depends on whether the family you are researching left any type of paper trial - wills, testaments and other documents, or appearances in front of the Kirk session for example. You need to start thinking "sideways" - births of siblings of the person in question may yield more info such as an occupation, mother's name or place of residence of the family - sometimes you might be able to cross check entries if the father had an unusual name, lived somewhere distinctive or a distinctive occupation (if this is given) and this might enable you to link up possible siblings.

You should be able to glean some clues as to the mother's name from the names of any children of the person you are interested in. Also try to find out what you can about that person's siblings and their children - again, you may need to think sideways to move backwards if you see what I mean

If you have not seen the original OPRs on film that should be your first task - you can order the films from your local LDS family history centre for a small fee (about £2 - £2.50 as far as remember) if you are not close to Edinburgh. You need to lose yourself in the area they lived in, which were the villages & towns, what farms were there, know who else was living in the area, what the occupations were etc and get a feel for what is likely or typical so that you are familiar with the area and people. Check out old maps of the area at www.old-maps.co.uk
and buy a comtemporary OS map to check place names and their position relative to each other.

Although it is a lot later (1790s) a read of the Statistical Account for the Parish should help with "getting a feel" for the area.
http://edina.ac.uk/statacc/
You can browse the pages as a non-subscriber. (I'm able to log-in but I can't see any difference to what you see as a non-subscriber!)

You could also try a search on SP or the IGI for a marriage for the father around about the correct time and take a note of any you find - something may just tie-in later! Check any marriages you find in the OPR film for any other clues about the father - place of residence, occupation etc. if given - very much depends on the OPR. This might tie in with info given for a birth later on if you're lucky.

And even after all this effort you may be none the wiser as to the mother of your person, but you'll know a great deal more about where your ancestors lived and the times they lived in!

Best wishes
Lesley

rdem · Post by **rdem** » Sat Mar 11, 2006 7:42 pm

One other tip is to find the marriage of the father. If you can find all the children on the IGI or elsewhere for a father. Sometime around the time of the oldest child you may find the marriage or the banns. I can be tricky if the father's name is George smith and there are three George Smiths in the parish.