Dickson family .....

[dmd1164]

I've done a search on the Family search site and found the following are listed as children for William Dickson and Mary Renwick. Can anyone with more experience with searching census records please verify if these are all children from the one family?

1. MARY DICKSON - International Genealogical Index - British Isles
Gender: Female Birth: 05 MAY 1855 Yarrow, Selkirk, Scotland
2. CHRISTINA DICKSON - International Genealogical Index - British Isles
Gender: Female Birth: 17 MAR 1859 Kirkhope, Selkirk, Scotland
3. ROBERT RENWICK DICKSON - International Genealogical Index - British Isles
Gender: Male Birth: 03 JAN 1857 Selkirk, Selkirk, Scotland
4. HELEN DICKSON - International Genealogical Index - British Isles
Gender: Female Birth: 12 FEB 1871 Kirknewton And East Calder, Midlothian, Scotland
5. VIOLET DICKSON - International Genealogical Index - British Isles
Gender: Female Birth: 04 SEP 1864 Traquair, Peebles, Scotland
6. ELIZABETH DICKSON - International Genealogical Index - British Isles
Gender: Female Birth: 29 SEP 1866 Abercorn, West Lothian, Scotland
7. WILLIAMINA DICKSON - International Genealogical Index - British Isles
Gender: Female Birth: 21 AUG 1868 Dalmeny, West Lothian, Scotland

Many thanks
Donna

[nelmit]

I've done a search on the Family search site and found the following are listed as children for William Dickson and Mary Renwick. Can anyone with more experience with searching census records please verify if these are all children from the one family?

1. MARY DICKSON - International Genealogical Index - British Isles
Gender: Female Birth: 05 MAY 1855 Yarrow, Selkirk, Scotland
2. CHRISTINA DICKSON - International Genealogical Index - British Isles
Gender: Female Birth: 17 MAR 1859 Kirkhope, Selkirk, Scotland
3. ROBERT RENWICK DICKSON - International Genealogical Index - British Isles
Gender: Male Birth: 03 JAN 1857 Selkirk, Selkirk, Scotland
4. HELEN DICKSON - International Genealogical Index - British Isles
Gender: Female Birth: 12 FEB 1871 Kirknewton And East Calder, Midlothian, Scotland
5. VIOLET DICKSON - International Genealogical Index - British Isles
Gender: Female Birth: 04 SEP 1864 Traquair, Peebles, Scotland
6. ELIZABETH DICKSON - International Genealogical Index - British Isles
Gender: Female Birth: 29 SEP 1866 Abercorn, West Lothian, Scotland
7. WILLIAMINA DICKSON - International Genealogical Index - British Isles
Gender: Female Birth: 21 AUG 1868 Dalmeny, West Lothian, Scotland

Many thanks
Donna

Hello Donna,

In this case I think it is highly unlikely that there are two William Dickson marriages to two Mary Renwicks. Therefore yes I would say they are all the one family. Probably the 1871 on SP census would be the best to look at. Here is Mary with her younger girls in 1881.

Kirknewton & East Calder, Edinburgh, Scotland
Source: FHL Film 0224014 GRO Ref Volume 690 EnumDist 1 Page 19
Marr Age Sex Birthplace
Mary DICKSON W 46 F Yarrow, Selkirk, Scotland
Rel: Head
Occ: Byre Woman
Elizabeth DICKSON 14 F Abercorn, Linlithgow, Scotland
Rel: Dau
Occ: Genl Servt
Wilhelmina DICKSON 12 F Dalmeny, Linlithgow, Scotland
Rel: Dau
Occ: Scholar
Helen DICKSON 10 F Kirknewton, Edinburgh, Scotland
Rel: Dau
Occ: Scholar
Annette M

[dmd1164]

Hi Nelmit,

Robert is my relative - so would I be correct in assuming that Christina and Violet are his sisters?

This is getting a bit confusing?



Regards
Donna

[nelmit]

Hi Nelmit,

Robert is my relative - so would I be correct in assuming that Christina and Violet are his sisters?

This is getting a bit confusing?



Regards
Donna

Hello Donna,

Yes they are his sisters.

Regards,
Annette M

[maddymoss]

In this case I think it is highly unlikely that there are two William Dickson marriages to two Mary Renwicks. Therefore yes I would say they are all the one family

.

No doubt Nelmit is right, but a cautionary tale. I had what appeared to be a relatively simple search. My g.g.grandparents, Mary Ann Donnelly and Hugh Queen were married in 1881. Mary Ann’s parents were James Donnelly and Catherine ms Donnelly. A quick search on the LDS gave me the children of James and Catherine Donnelly. There were two Mary Anns, one born 1858, the other 1860. I assumed the first Mary Ann had died in infancy and the second Mary Ann had taken the same name. I never, for a moment, considered two separate marriages involving two men called James Donnelly and two women called Catherine Donnelly, each couple producing a daughter called Mary Ann within two years of each other and born just a couple of miles apart.. But that’s exactly what happened. Curiously, both Mary Anns died the same year.

Jim

[DavidWW]

In this case I think it is highly unlikely that there are two William Dickson marriages to two Mary Renwicks. Therefore yes I would say they are all the one family

.

No doubt Nelmit is right, but a cautionary tale. I had what appeared to be a relatively simple search. My g.g.grandparents, Mary Ann Donnelly and Hugh Queen were married in 1881. Mary Ann’s parents were James Donnelly and Catherine ms Donnelly. A quick search on the LDS gave me the children of James and Catherine Donnelly. There were two Mary Anns, one born 1858, the other 1860. I assumed the first Mary Ann had died in infancy and the second Mary Ann had taken the same name. I never, for a moment, considered two separate marriages involving two men called James Donnelly and two women called Catherine Donnelly, each couple producing a daughter called Mary Ann within two years of each other and born just a couple of miles apart.. But that’s exactly what happened. Curiously, both Mary Anns died the same year.

Jim

Hmmmm...... interesting

I've had several experiences of searching for an unusual name in the death records, including a middle name, with no hits over several decades, then two in the same year.

Most often, a link can be shown to a common ancestor back 2 or 3 generations, but I can quote a couple of examples where no link has yet been found.

Similarly in terms of marriages of like-named couples. Most often it turns out to be the same couple, but, again, I can quote instances where, even in the same area, it turns out to be the case that there were two separate couples.

In other words, most often the case that it was the same couple, but don't ignore the statistical anomaly that it wasn't.

This, in the context that there were only 8 marriages in the period 1855 to 1930 between a John SMITH and a Mary BROWN

David
since long since never surprised

[maddymoss]

Hi David,

You’re quite right about the possibility of there being only one couple named James Donnelly and Catherine Donnelly. Initially, a distant relative and I, researching the same family, thought so too, but some things didn’t gel. More research and a fair bit of money later showed there were indeed two couples named James Donnelly and Catherine Donnelly, who both had a daughter called Mary Ann Donnelly.
I have both couples fairly well documented. One family remained in the Bothwell area, the other family moved to Carluke. I have numerous BC, DC, MC, Censuses, etc., even to the extent of discovering that one Mary Ann had an illegitimate child when she was 17 before she had a very short lived marriage. The other Mary Ann became my g.g.grandmother. One Mary Ann died in Bothwellhaugh on Dec. 1899. The other died of typhoid in Dalserf Fever Hospital in Jan 1899.
The easy option, to accept the family as one, was tempting, but for me, a question mark would always be there.

Jim