1841 Census .....

[Linda]

Can anyone do a 1841 census check for me please.

While researching my family, I have come across a family with two sons of the same names. One of them born 1827 and one born 1834. This is rather strange. Maybe the first one died and they named another child after him.

The family consist of William Small and his wife Mary Robertson married 19/7/1824.

Their army of children children were:-

Janet dob 30/4/1825
William (No. 1) dob 25/2/1827
Alexander Morison dob 30/11/1828
Elizabeth Ramsay dob 14/7/1832
William (no. 2) dob 19/5/1834
Helen Thomson dob 15/8/1836
Thomas dob 3/4/1839
Ann Jack dob 16/6/1841
Andrew dob 18/10/1856
Mary Gordon dob 9/4/1859
Alice Small dob 30/8/1862

Phew!! poor woman.

I'm sorry I don't have an address but they were all from Dundee.

Any help would be appreciated

Linda

[AndrewP]

Hi Linda,

There were at least two marriages of a William Small to a Mary Robertson in Dundee within the timespan you are looking at. (My feeling is there could be a third such couple).

From the online IGI:
WILLIAM SMALL - MARY ROBERTSON - Marriage: 19 JUL 1824 Dundee, Angus, Scotland
WILLIAM SMALL - MARY ROBERTSON - Marriage: 20 JUN 1838 Dundee, Angus, Scotland
My feeling is that there may be another such couple may have married in the 1850s. Have a look on www.scotlandspeople.gov.uk at the birth certificate of the 1862 child and check the mariage details given (marriage details were not always given in 1856 - 1860).

As for the rest of them, you are right - you need to see the census reports to be sure of which children are whose.

I think your assumption of William (no.1) being deceased by May 1834 will be correct, then his name was re-used.

All the best,

Andrew Paterson

[Malcolm]

In my limited experience with these matters you cannot assume that a duplicate name infers an early death of the first child of the same name.
One of the Morris families of Fife had sixteen children. There were so many in fact that they ran out of names and went back to the top of the list. Agnes was named twice and both girls were alive and well in one of the census returns.
I know what you're thinking, there's always one.

Malcolm Morris

[DavidWW]

In my limited experience with these matters you cannot assume that a duplicate name infers an early death of the first child of the same name.
One of the Morris families of Fife had sixteen children. There were so many in fact that they ran out of names and went back to the top of the list. Agnes was named twice and both girls were alive and well in one of the census returns.
I know what you're thinking, there's always one.

Malcolm Morris

Malcolm

Good point.

It's not unusual to find instances where the naming pattern was strictly adhered to, and if both grandparents had the same name, then you can get two kids of the same name. Less usual but not unknown, where the father or mother had the same name as similarly named grandparents, then there could be three kids with the same name.

How was that handled in daily life? Easy, for example Alexander, Sandy, and Alec, to name but one such set of equivalents

Davie

[HeatherH]

I have a family with 2 Margaret Walkers.One is my Great gran the other her sister.It was fun finding which was which as both signed documents Margaret and parents listed them on census as Margaret.It's great the difference a middle initial can make.
HK