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From: "Trena" <>
Subject: Re: [ABERDEEN] Naming traditions in Scotland
Date: Tue, 29 Nov 2005 15:53:51 -0500
References: <5.2.0.9.0.20051128192646.00be53c0@mail.nycap.rr.com>


----- Original Message -----
From: "Lois Yunker"
Subject: [ABERDEEN] Naming traditions in Scotland


>I have studied the traditions and find some variations. Unfortunately my
>grandparents died when I was young and like all of us I didn't ask my Dad
>many questions. However, he had always told me the names of his
>grandparents, aunts, and uncles so I had a good starting point when I
>decided to take up genealogy. [snipped]

At least your Dad told you the names. My husband, his sister and two 70+
year old cousins had no idea what their grandmother's name was. They'd only
ever called her Gran!! After about 2 hours of prodding by me, the eldest
cousin said he thought her first name might have been Fanny. Grandad they
knew, as it was the same as the eldest cousin's father's, but they hadn't
known his second name (Benjamin David). They had no idea of how many
siblings their parents had or most of their names ... even my father-in-law
didn't know that! He told me he was the youngest of 11 - born in 1906. He
wasn't - there were only 7 living children. He had a very much older
sister, born in 1882, married in 1908, who had 3 sons. We think Dad was
counting those 3 as siblings. The 94 year old brother my f/i/l thought he
had living in a Brighton Sx nursing home was in fact his half-uncle! Dad's
grandmother had been married 3 times.

Dad died in 1974, but I'd give anything to speak with him today. I know
more about his family and their ancestors than any of them collectively have
ever known. Have also recently made contact with the 2 grandaughters of
Dad's older sister, who went off to Australia in c1925 and no one had heard
from since at least 1946 ~ same year both she and her mother had died. Dad
had a post card from her in 1936 and it was via that post card we even
learned she'd been living in NSW, helping to make the contact with her
grandaughters.

So encourage your family and friends, those who are _ not _ into family
history, to at least give or write down the basic details for their
children/grandchildren. Make sure your own data is readily available to
your own and any off-spring of your siblings. I've made sure all of my
cousins (some are 2nd & 3rd ones I've always had contact with) know I have
data and they are welcome to it ~ after all, it's their family history too
and just because they aren't "into it" now, one day they or their children
might be. The majority are keen to hear this and that now, just out of
basic human (family) interest. Some have even taken to learning a bit more
.. such as my 82 year old uncle in Glasgow, who has his son-in-law tromping
through graveyards on week-ends with him, even up to the old parts of
Banffshire or spending Saturadays in Mitchell Library! Thanks to my uncle I
learned his maternal grandfather had indeed been married previously and the
wife's name. The marriage data matched up with what I had (his parents'
names, a last name for first wife who had also been married twice!), to
confirm we had the correct man/couple.

My father's side of the family my cousins could always say who their 2 x
great-grandparents were, nearly all the off-spring and some of their
children .. many grew up together or had close contact. From the time I was
able to understand, I knew one of my 6 x g-gf on my paternal side was a
Nicholas HENCKELL who had changed his name to JENKINS after arriving late
1790s in Prince Edward Island Canada, from Manhattan NY. That he'd been
born in Germany, had been a Hessian soldier in the Am Rev War, plus that his
first wife had been Elizabeth EDWARDS, whose family had come from the Isles
of Scilly. I could have told anyone all of that by the time I was 10 years
old, so it amazes me when I hear others saying they have no idea of who _
any _ of their great-grandparents are, as their parents didn't tell them. I
lay flowers on the graves of my two sets of great-grandparents and one set
of g-g-grandparents at least once a year when I go home to Nova Scotia.
Granted I didn't know all the details of g-gp+ who remained in the UK, but I
did have the basics and knew many of the towns and villages to start the
searching in.

Perhaps my parents/paternal grandparents were unusual ... but to us it was
our heritage and we loved hearing and learning about it. Just wish I'd
asked many more questions and noted all down when my grandparents were
alive!

Toni ~ Ontario

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