Lately I’ve been reconstructing Fleming trees in the South Lanarkshire area of Scotland. I love documenting all the connections and comparing my efforts to online trees and then working through our differences.
But today solving a puzzle, I discovered that transcriptions of the 1861 Scottish census at FindMyPast and Ancestry CAN BE VERY DIFFERENT and not just with their interpretation of location names.
- In the 1861 census entry at for Andrew Fleming at Ancestry:
Avondale Registration District and Avondale Civil Parish:
Lambs Land, Back Road, Strathaven, Lanarkshire, Scotland
At home on census night were
Andrew Fleming / Head / Mar / 42 / Cotton Weaver / bn Lanarkshire, Strathaven
Jane Fleming / Wife / Mar / 34 / / bn Lanarkshire, Strathaven
Of course I could have gone straight to the census image at ScotlandsPeolple but at this stage, although I was also looking for two of older children, this entry seemed complete.
- The FindMyPast transcription of the same census entry included the ‘missing’ children:
Lambs Land, Back Road, Strathaven, Lanarkshire, Scotlant
Andrew Fleming / Head / Mar / 42 / cotton weaver / Lanarkshire, Strathaven
Jane Wiseman or Fleming / Wife / Mar / 34 / / Lanarkshire, Strathaven
Robert Fleming / Son / 12 / / Lanarkshire, Strathaven
Isabella Graham / Step daur / 9 / Scholar / Lanarkshire, Glasgow
Now I understand why there’s no birth record for Isabella ‘Fleming’. The parents, Andrew Fleming and Jean Wiseman didn’t marry until 1857 and even though Robert married and died as Andrew’s son, could he really be a Graham too?