Index query

[billymac]

Hello all --- I have a question if I may. Looking at Scotlands People I have been searching for a birth. It is for a John Wyllie, born, I am sure 1877 to Robert Wyllie and Janet Main (spinster) of Kirmarnock, Ayrshire who married in 1875. Census results show he was born there. But I can get no birth result (nor death result) when including the mother's maiden name or variations of it. I can understand the privacy concerns surrounding later births but why would the mother's maiden name not be included in the index for this time period. Surely the informant (normally a close relative) would be aware of the mothers maiden name.

[AndrewP]

Hi Billy,

On looking for Wy*lie in 1876 to 1878 in Kilmarnock, you get four results.

Surname . .. Forename . . . Mother's Maiden Name . . . Gender . . Year . . Ref . . . . . . . . RD Name
WYLLIE . . . JOHN . . . . . . . BOYD . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .. M . . . 1877 . . . 597 / 77 . . . . Kilmarnock (Ayr)
WYLLIE . . . JOHN . . . . . . . LOPER . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . M . . . 1877 . . . 597 / 294 . . . Kilmarnock (Ayr)
WYLLIE . . . JOHN COOK . . . (none indexed). . . . . . . . .. M . . . 1877 . . . 597 / 918 . . . Kilmarnock (Ayr)
WYLLIE . . . JOHN . . . . . . . WILKINSON . . . . . . . . . . . . M . . . 1878 . . . 597 / 127 . . . Kilmarnock (Ayr)

My first choice would be the one with no mother's maiden surname indexed. Normally no mother's maiden surname indexed means that it was not known, or it has not been put in the ScotlandsPeople index (yet).

All the best,

AndrewP

[billymac]

Many thanks for your reply Andrew. You are indeed correct with the "no mothers name" index. Following the family back from the 1930s I had earlier obtained the marriage record of John Wyllie (son of Robert Wyllie and Janet Main) to Agnes Erskine in 1901. A few hours ago I was at the local library and chanced a look on the library edition of Ancestry.com. Fortunately, there was an image there of John Wyllie's WW1 attestation papers which not only mentions both his (correct) wife and dependent children but also gives his full name as "John Cook Wyllie". Both birth and death registrations now successfully located. Thanks for pointing me in the right direction.