Missing McPail family on 1851 census in Alexandria, Bonhill

[Murdina]

Like a previous enquirer I have this family on Ancestry in 1851 but not on Scotlands People, cannot find them even using Fuzzy Searching or anything else I can think of. I have contacted SP who were unhelpful. The info is as follows; Alexander Mcphail 39 born Greenock (Head) wife Christian Mcphail (Christina) aged 39 (29) children Margaret 5, Cathrina 4, John 5 months. Ancestry Source citation. Parish Bonhill; ED:5; page 30; line 15; The address Yeanbulls Land Gas Street (should be Turnbulls land I think) in Alexandria, Dunbartonshire. I would just like a copy of the original for my records. If someone can find this or be able to give me a GRO number I would be very grateful, I have been trying for some years now. thank you

[WilmaM]

Freecen has the family as:

Piece: SCT1851/493 Place: Bonhill -Dunbartonshire Enumeration District: 5
Civil Parish: Bonhill Ecclesiastical Parish, Village or Island: Bonhill
Folio: 0 Page: 30 Schedule: 120
Address: Gas Street,Alexandria Village
Surname First name(s) Rel Status Sex Age Occupation Where Born Remarks
MCPHAIL Alexander Head M M 39 Labourer (Printfield) Renfrewshire - Greenock
MCPHAIL Christina Wife M F 29 Argyllshire - Island Of Coll
MCPHAIL Margaret Dau U F 5 Dunbartonshire - Roseneath
MCPHAIL Catherine Dau U F 4 Dunbartonshire - Bonhill
MCPHAIL John Son U M 4m Dunbartonshire - Bonhill
MCKINNON Isabella Sislaw U F 22 - Unknown - - PO Birth not enum'ed
Page: 0/31 MCKINNON Hector Brolaw U M 19 Labourer (Printfield) Argyllshire - Island Of Coll

have you tried searching for the Sister or Brother inlaw?

Another route would be to use the data from Freecen and check the neighbours. The household previous to the McPhails is the Campbell family.
I searched on scotlands people for Agnes Campbell aged 13 with the second forename of Peter in Bonhill and there is a hit for that combination.
Looking at that should also give you the rest of the page.

[AndrewP]

Hi Murdina,

They are there, but badly mis-indexed. Based on Wilma's information, I searched without a surname for Christina, age 29, in Dumbartonshire. That gave 10 results, three of which were in Bonhill. Two were easily discounted as they were correctly spelled surnames unlikely to be mistaken for McPhail. The third one had the surname indexed as MCKEID. On looking at the image of the census page, knowing it should be McPhail, this is the correct one to match Wilma's list.

The image is poor. You should get back in contact with ScotlandsPeople advising them of the mis-indexing. Tell them how many credits you think you spent searching for this one that you had little hope of finding by the usual means. They should refund some credits to you. You should also tell them that the legibility of the image is poor and ask that they re-scan it and send you a copy of the re-scanned image by e-mail.

It probably won't surprise you that this family group are the only McKeids indexed in the 1851 census for Scotland.

All the best,

AndrewP

[Murdina]

I just cannot that you both enough. We have spent quite a few frustrating years on this. Knowing it was there but not able to access it. Thank you so very very much for your time and help.
regards Jean (Murdina)