Scotlandspeople searches advice

[Bernadette]

Can anyone offer advice please?
I'm trying to fit together family details of my late father, Bernard Devine, bon 1910 in Glasgow.
I've been on scotlandspeope site again this week and spent quite a bit of time (and money!!) looking at the 1911 census. This helped me discover another sibling I didn't know about (that took it to 8 children born to James and Jane). However, on one of my marriage certificates in the 1930s I have a Jospeh Devine as a witness. I didn't know if he was a brother or another relative to Bernard, and Joseph doesn't appear on the 1911 census. I search for births just after census date and found Joseph Lynden Devine born in 1912. There was no image, and I didn't want to spend more money sending for the birth certificate on the off chance it being a relative - but - I searched for marriages (oh my poor bank account!!) found a James Lynden Devine married Anne Murray in 1934, viewed the entry and it fits! He is a brother to Bernard. So my question now is - is there any way to search scotlasndspeople for children born to Joseph and Anne? I did a general search and found 3 possibilities (I in 1939 and 2 in 1942) but without the images to view I don't know if they are 'mine'. Can anyone offer advice please for searching? Many thanks. Regards, Bernadette

[Hibee]

Hi Bernadette

You could try the death certificates. There are two listed, for example, for Anne Devine/other surname Murray.

Might be witnessed by one of her children.

Hibee

[JustJean]

Hi Bernadette

Unfortunately there is no easy method for obtaining a list of births to a couple in the time frame you are seeking. We all know that the OPR records on SP permit searching by parent names and of course we are all familiar with the "parent search" in the IGI records that will also neatly sift out any birth records for a certain couple. Census Records can then take over and offer snapshots of the family in 10 year intervals. OPR records end in 1855 and for the most part the IGI records(or at least the ones obtained from extracts) end in 1875. The 1911 Census is great but doesn't stretch quite far enough!

Here are a few suggestions that can narrow the field in the modern records or at least help you approach the results in a different manner.

Before searching for births and randomly ordering certs always check for the death of the mother. This is very easy to accomplish on SP when you know the maiden name. This permits you to know for certain that she survived to bear children....or if she did not then you can start searching for another marriage of the husband.

In your case it appears she survived to the age of 52 (taken from DC index) so there may well have been children. Instead of trying to track down the individual births yourself an excellent approach at this point is to obtain the information contained on the DC to see who the informant was. Sometimes it is the surviving spouse but oftentimes it will be an adult child or even a son or daughter in law. This bit can catapult you forward so that you might seek contact with a living relative and thus obtain info on the family from that source.

A final method is to search instead for the deaths of children to that couple. Since you are armed with the mother's maiden name and the birth surname and a general time frame the births would have occurred in it is often possible to pinpoint individuals in this manner. And if found then again obtaining a copy of the DC could provide you with confirmation of the parentage and further information on marriage or informant details.

Remember too that it's often less expensive to use the services of a record agent (or call in a favor!) to obtain a transcript of information from a modern record as opposed to purchasing the extract.

Hope this is of some assistance!

Best wishes
Jean

[Montrose Budie]

......snipped......... but - I searched for marriages (oh my poor bank account!!) found a James Lynden Devine married Anne Murray in 1934, viewed the entry and it fits! He is a brother to Bernard. So my question now is - is there any way to search scotlasndspeople for children born to Joseph and Anne?

Do you mean James and Anne ?

I did a general search and found 3 possibilities (I in 1939 and 2 in 1942) but without the images to view I don't know if they are 'mine'. Can anyone offer advice please for searching? Many thanks. Regards, Bernadette

Yes, there is a way, but only so far in Edinburgh, or elsewhere in Scotland connected into GROS in Edinburgh.

From 1929 onwards, the birth indexes show the maiden surname of the mother. You need to contact someone who visits GROS or similar. As yet such a cross-check search facility is not available on ScotlandsPeople online.

mb

[Bernadette]

Thanks all for your helpful advice - got a bit excited when I was doing the post and didn't realsie I'd said James Devine married Anne when it should have read Joseph Lyden Devine married Anne!

I'll keep trying then - I've been looking for Devine family details for 31 years now - someday I'll get there.

thanks again for the advice, Best wishes, Bernadette