My McKenzie Mystery

JustJean · Post by **JustJean** » Thu Sep 08, 2005 2:55 am

Hi everyone....I just want to say thanks for all your interest and good suggestions. I honestly think that this one will go down in my history as a genuine mystery......but it's not for lack of trying! Actually Karen's suggestion that perhpas McKenzie was a step father to Jane is intriguing. I've not been able to locate her on the 1851 census and am crossing my fingers she was in Scotland by then. It's possible she was in Ireland though. When the 1851 census comes rolling off the presses from SP you can be sure where I'll be parked

The only father that is named for Jane is on her marriage in 1856 and that is John Niblock. When she died in 1913 her daughter Jane (my grgrandmother) only knew the surname Niblock but no first name. All of the girls marriage certs from Boston and subsequent death certs flipflop back and forth between saying their mother's maiden name was Niblock or it was Allison. I've often wondered if perhaps her real mother was never married to her father. It would explain an obvious lack of siblings very nicely. So carry on everyone.....back to work

Best wishes to all
Jean

jemhay · Post by **jemhay** » Mon Aug 28, 2006 10:07 pm

Oh my goodness!

I'm a newbie here, and having great fun doing my family tree!

Reading this scares me to death - I am a Mackenzie and already having trouble finding my ancestors! They came to England, and I can't even pin them down there yet - let alone on the Scottish side of the border! To top that, I have two of the most common names to start with - Kenneth and Colin

Any pointers from any of the seasoned researchers here would be very very welcome!

LesleyB · Post by **LesleyB** » Mon Aug 28, 2006 11:24 pm

Hi Jemhay
....and a warm welcome to Talking Scot

Don't let Jean's conundrum scare you!

We quite enjoy a good knotty problem round here, really. If you can give us some names and dates as pointers and let us know which bits you are having problems with, we'll all pitch in and try to help point you in the right direction.

Best wishes
Lesley

jemhay · Post by **jemhay** » Mon Aug 28, 2006 11:39 pm

Hi LesleyB,

What a lovely warm wlecome - thank you!

I have just started new thread with all the detail I can muster, though most of it is south of the border at the moment!

Looking forward to spending more time here, seems like a great place!

Russell · Post by **Russell** » Mon Aug 28, 2006 11:54 pm

Hi Jemhay

You say you are a Mackenzie! Don't expect all your BDM and census entries to spell it that way. There was no 'correct 'way to spell a name in past years. That is a recent convention to make sure you could be tracked down to pay your taxes/rent/rates.
Some of the variations on Mackenzie are:
MacKenzie
McKenzie
Mac Kenzie
Mc Kenzie
I have even seen MackEnzie in Canadian & American documents.
Obviously your variaion could be
Mckenzie
Further back it may be
McKinzie
MacKinzie
Mac Kinzie
and again with the 'K' in lowercase.
I have found it with 's' instead of 'z'

Many search engines allow you to use wildcards in a search.
Scotlandspeople offers '?' as a substitute for one letter in a word. The '*' symbol is most useful as it can stand for one or more letters or be ignored if there is no letter there.
Learn how to use them before you start serious research or it will cost you an arm and a leg to find only a few certificates. (Your bank manager will love you though

)
I have no experience of searching English sites so don't know if some of this will apply.
My McKenzies were Lewis and North Uist and I eventually brought in a professional service to hunt them down.
Good luck and don't be scared to ask. As Lesley says 'we enjoy a good knotty problem' We have solved some of the naughty ones too

Russell

trishtrash · Post by **trishtrash** » Tue Aug 29, 2006 8:33 am

I'm searching McKenzies too and have done pretty well with som e help from this site. I've only lost one so far but now need to start tracking back. Wish me luck!!