Thomson Family - Torphichen .....

Rockford · Post by **Rockford** » Wed Jan 10, 2007 9:46 pm

Jean - I've posted here rather than hijacking the Market Research topic any further!

I think that this could be the family - I came across them a while ago, but to be honest I'd forgotten about it. I had just spend a fortune trying to track a John Smith through Census records and had spent all my pocket money for that week(!), so I put the Thomsons to one side, as I was truly scunnered. I'm planning to do more digging in the next few weeks and I'll post any results...

Thanks again,

Brian

Post by **Jean Jeanie** » Wed Jan 10, 2007 10:33 pm

Hi to anyone reading the above post.

Good idea of Brian's to separate this from the Market Research topic.

These are the details I gave to Brian on the other thread:-

Hi Brian

This may be the family in 1851:-

1851

Address:Village
Parish: Torphichen
Book: 2, Sch 10

John Thomson, age 34, head, married, Born Polmont Stirling, coal miner
Helen Thomson, age 40, wife, married, Born St Ninians Stirling
Colin Thomson, age 10, son, Born Polmont Stirling, Scholar
Alexander Thomson, age 8, son, Born Torphichen West Lothian, Scholar
Janet Thomson, age 7, daughter, Born Linlithgow West Lothian, Scholar
Ann Thomson, age 5, daughter, Born Torphichen West Lothian
John Thomson, age 3, son, Born Torphichen West Lothian
James Thomson, age 1, so, Born Torphichen West Lothian

I had a quick look on Scotlandspeople and 2 John Thomsons died in Torphichen between 1855 and 1917 and 1 Helen Thomson died there between the same dates. Putting in the name of McPhail, produced no hits, which is unfortunate. However, informants didn't always know maiden names!!!

Good luck with your searches.

Best wishes
Jean

Post by **Jean Jeanie** » Thu Jan 11, 2007 12:23 am

Hi Brian

Further to the above, I had a play around on SP for the 3 deaths.

One John Thomson was 10 years old and died in 1898
The other John Thomson died in 1862.....age unrecorded
The only Helen Thomson was 10 years old and died in 1870(hence no maiden name!!)

Perhaps you will have to widen your search, rather than restricting it to Torphichen. What a pity. Not easy with a name like Thomson

Good luck
Jean

Rockford · Post by **Rockford** » Thu Jan 11, 2007 1:08 am

IT'S THEM

!!!

My curiousity piqued, I've just spend half an hour on SP searching for all John Thomsons born around 1810 +/- 5 years, who died between 1855 and the marriage of his son in 1873, by which time JT senior had died.

No. 1 on the list of 65 results was the only West Lothian one and........

John Thomson born in Shielhill, Polmont, died at Birnielaw, nr Bathgate on 14/04/1855. His wife is recorded as Helen McFELL [deceased]. He is recorded as being 48yrs, so there's been a guesstimate made somewhere, either on the DC or the Census in 1851.

The death was recorded in the Parish of Bathgate by his son, Colin Thomson who, if the Census is correct, must have been around 14.

There are a lot of children listed and I can't make all of them out, so once I've read how to do it I'm going to try and post in the gallery for some help in deciphering.

Thanks again to Jean for the prompting..

Away to bed happy now $\:D/$

Brian

PS Just found John Thomson m'd Helen FELL in Polmont on 13/11/1830. This could be them, too!![/b]

DavidWW · Post by **DavidWW** » Thu Jan 11, 2007 10:01 am

Brian

=D> You're a quick learner.

Excellent examples of what can be found, and how spelling variations should always be taken into account when the desired records aren't turning up. Nope, - it wasn't

!

A neat wee example, BTW of how a "Mac" surname can introduce complications.

Sometimes the person with the name dropped the "Mac", for a wide variety of reasons.

Or sometimes the Scottish manner of writing such a surname confuses indexers unfamiliar with the situation.

By that I mean that "McHOUGHMAGANDY" was often written so that it appeared to be "Mc HOUGHMAGANDY" [space between "c" and "H" deliberate], and thereby indexed as plain "HOUGHMAGANDY". LDS indexing rules, for example, are that entries must be transcribed exactly as they appear, so that "Mc HOUGHMAGANDY" would be indexed as "HOUGHMAGANDY".

Thinks, I've never investigated the situation previously, but I'd assume that there would be a similar situation with Irish members of the clan, i.e. "O ' HOUGHMAGANDY" ..........

Just in case anyone is wondering, there is indeed a Clan Mc HOUGHMAGANDY association, but you might recognise the name of one of the founders, - a mate and I announced this new clan society on soc.gen.britain many years ago, obviously as a joke, but were quite taken aback by the numbers interested in membership ........

David

Post by **Jean Jeanie** » Thu Jan 11, 2007 5:02 pm

Hello Brian

Fantastic news

Persistance pays off with a little help from [talkingscot]

You said you didn't know where he came from so I am assuming you don't have him in the 1881 census, so here he is:-

Dwelling: East Whitburn
Census Place: Whitburn, Linlithgow, Scotland
Source: FHL Film 0203709 GRO Ref Volume 673-1 EnumDist 3 Page 5
Marr Age Sex Birthplace
John THOMSON M 34 M Torphichen, Linlithgow, Scotland
Rel: Head
Occ: Gen Lab
Mary THOMSON M 27 F Whitburn, Linlithgow, Scotland
Rel: Wife
John THOMSON 7 M Livingston, Linlithgow, Scotland
Rel: Son
Occ: Scholar
Alexander THOMSON 6 M Whitburn, Linlithgow, Scotland
Rel: Son
Occ: Scholar
Collin THOMSON 4 M Whitburn, Linlithgow, Scotland
Rel: Son
Margaret THOMSON 10 m F Whitburn, Linlithgow, Scotland
Rel: Dau

Best wishes
Jean

Post by **marilyn morning** » Thu Jan 11, 2007 5:20 pm

Hi Brian

Here's some instructions to upload to the gallery.

http://talkingscot.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=6496

Regards
Marilyn

Rockford · Post by **Rockford** » Sat Jan 13, 2007 8:53 pm

I've just uploaded John THOMSON's death certificate to the Gallery. I can make out most of the information, apart from the names of the children and his mother's maiden name - so I'd appreciate anyone's help.

http://talkingscot.com/gallery/displayi ... p?pos=-997

So far I've got:
Agnes, Elizabeth, Helen, Agnes?, Colin, Alexr? Janet, Ann, John and Ian?

I think his mother's maiden name is Fairley, although it's indexed as Foster on SP.

Thanks again,

Brian

Gallery URL added - AndrewP

Post by **AndrewP** » Sat Jan 13, 2007 11:14 pm

Hi Brian,

You have your work cut out deciphering some of these. I would recommend that you go back to the ScotlandsPeople website and complete a contact form telling them that you have downloaded this certificate, but it is difficult to read. Normally, they will send you out a photocopy from the original register book which should be a lot clearer than the online image.

Child #10 is less likely to be Ian, as that is a variation of the Gaelic form of John. It is probably Jas (James) - see the 1851 census entry above given by Jean Jeanie.

My best guesses are:

1 Agnes Thomson D
2 Elizh. Thomson 21
3 Helen Thomson 20
4 Agnes Thomson 18
5 Colin Thomson 15
6 Alexr. Thomson 13
7 Janet Thomson 11
8 Anne Thomson 9
9 John Thomson 8
10 Jas. Thomson 6

I think #1 Agnes may have D for deceased in place of an age.

All the best,

AndrewP

pinkshoes · Post by **pinkshoes** » Sat Jan 13, 2007 11:23 pm

Hi all - child no 10 wouldn't be Jas (James) ?? Just another idea. As Andrew says though, a photocopy of the page would sort out any potential mistakes - an 1855 cert is too precious for it to be illegible

Good luck.

Best wishes
Pinkshoes

TalkingScot.com

Thomson Family - Torphichen .....

Thomson Family - Torphichen .....

IT'S THEM!!!!

Deciphering Children's Names..