Please help decipher this given name

[SarahND]

Ah, of course, she didn't want to make it easy on her descendants and die in Scotland! I have also done my share of paging through Québec registers on Ancestry in search of people who didn't make it to the index, with mixed results. It looks as though her parents could have been mentioned at that time... at least they often are. The problem is finding her. Are there also civil registers you can search in Montreal as well as the religious ones on Ancestry?

If you have a good idea of where she was living, perhaps searching the Lovell's directories would help you narrow down her year of death.
http://bibnum2.bnquebec.ca/bna/lovell/index.html

All the best,
Sarah

[PuzzledOne]

Ah, of course, she didn't want to make it easy on her descendants and die in Scotland! I have also done my share of paging through Québec registers on Ancestry in search of people who didn't make it to the index, with mixed results. It looks as though her parents could have been mentioned at that time... at least they often are. The problem is finding her. Are there also civil registers you can search in Montreal as well as the religious ones on Ancestry?

If you have a good idea of where she was living, perhaps searching the Lovell's directories would help you narrow down her year of death.
http://bibnum2.bnquebec.ca/bna/lovell/index.html

All the best,
Sarah

Sarah,

Your question sent me to go back and read the website which I had found the most helpful in the way it explained registrations of vital records in Quebec http://simmons.b2b2c.ca/attach1.htm
The author of that website, Marlene Simmons is a local resident nearby.

After reading it over again, I think I'll take the 1 1/2 hour drive to the National Library in Montreal, just in case! The reason I didn't do that yet is that from the time they arrived in the Montreal area, all the family's vital records were registered in the protestant church, so I thought their mother's death would have been recorded in one of the church or parish registers somewhere in the Montreal or surrounding area.

Unfortunately, when she immigrated, Margaret Dunn Smith lived with her son and then with her married daughter and family so she is not listed in the Montreal Lovell's directory... I had tried that... but it was a good idea!

She hasn't been easy to track down and certainly didn't make it easy for a beginner... but I don't give up easily and I hope to eventually succeed.

Again, thanks for your help,
Suzanne

[SarahND]

Hello Suzanne,
I've just spent a happy hour looking over Marlene Simmons' website Thanks for the link! She has done a brilliant job of explaining the kinds of records available and what they may contain- fascinating info.

I looks like you might find Margaret's death at the National Library as long as she didn't die in 1925 as one of her granddaughters suggested. Let's hope she was wrong and that it was 1926 or later!

All the best,
Sarah

[Montrose Budie]

Meant to explain that the GROS (i.e. ScotlandsPeople) sub-contractor indexed the 1861 name as plain 'J'

mb

Hi,
Thank you for that explanation but maybe I didn't explain very clearly. What I meant by that question was how can you see it was indexed as plain "J"? I found the 1861 census image on SP by searching for William Dunn. I was then able to see what Ancestry indexed as "Jaomcy". When I couldn't figure out the given name myself, I was curious to see how SP or GROS had indexed it (as opposed to Ancestry). The only way I could think of doing that was to try various possible combinations using ***. I didn't search just "J", thinking there would be too many results, therefore I didn't find how SP had indexed the name. Would there have been an easy way to find out how the sub-contractor indexed the name as plain "J"?
There is so much to learn but I'll get better eventually... I hope!
Suzanne

Hi Suzanne

Simple, but only when you know how !

Search for a DUNN but no given name, female, 6 years old, limiting the search to Glasgow City and you'll see a match where the image is marked as paid for, and with the reference number matching the record that you have already found.

BTW I've emailed General Register Office Scotland in Edinburgh to see what they say !

mb

[PuzzledOne]

Hello Suzanne,
I've just spent a happy hour looking over Marlene Simmons' website Thanks for the link! She has done a brilliant job of explaining the kinds of records available and what they may contain- fascinating info.

I looks like you might find Margaret's death at the National Library as long as she didn't die in 1925 as one of her granddaughters suggested. Let's hope she was wrong and that it was 1926 or later!

All the best,
Sarah

Thank you Sarah,
Suzanne