Doric Roots

Sometimes with all that is going on in the world today, we forget just how lucky we are to live now.........found in Aberdeen Press and Journal 23 November 1836

"Died here, on the 12th curt, of scarlet fever, CAROLINE, aged 4 years and 7 months; and MARGARET, aged 6 months, children of Mr ETTERSHANK, who died of the same disease on the 2d curt. Of this family a disconsolate widow alone survives to lament her loss"

What a truly amazing story......

She thought she was Irish — until a DNA test opened a 100-year-old mystery How Alice Collins Plebuch’s foray into “recreational genomics” upended a family tree.

Teenames & Spelling: This example

(taken from the Statutory Marriage Register of Rathven, Banffshire in 1871) shows two interesting things;

1) The use of teenames - The fishing villages of the North East of Scotland had very few surnames within each village. A local saying of "Cod and corn dinna gaun the gither", encouraged young fishermen to marry from within their community, resulting in an extremely limited number of surnames within a particular village, for example, in Gardenstown over 54% of the marriages occur with just 4 surnames!

This obviously led to confusion, which John Duthie or James Watt were you referring to as there were quite a number of that name. To solve this, people were given a teename (or nickname), it may have been their boat's name, a hobby or something else. In this instance, you can see that James MURRAY's teename is "Smacker", whilst Alexander JAPPY's is "Tanner" and James GEDDES' is "Jockels". The teenames carried on through generations so James MURRAY "Smacker" 's son, was called "Smacker's John", and a grandson would have been "Smacker's John's James"

2) The spelling of names - The two records shown in the example are from the marriages of two sisters, one week apart. The upper part of the image shows one sisters parents as Alexander JAPPY & Ann THAIN (her own surname had also been given as JAPPY) but the lower part shows the other sisters parents as Alexander JAPPIE & Ann THAIN (& this sister had the surname of JAPPIE) - they are the SAME people but the spelling of the surname has altered in ONE week.

People wonder why spelling change - who knows? It cannot be that someone else recorded the details & altered a spelling, as it can quite clearly be seen in this example that the same person recorded these entries as the handwriting is the same.

I have come across many many instances of altered or different spellings of both christian names & surnames before but never one as bizarre as this before.

Does anybody have an explanation? Please feel free to offer any ideas or comments :)

Some families have just the most amazing stories if you dig far enough.......... This stunning lady is Nema CATTO (or Pudge CATTO as she uses as her stage name on occasion)

see below

& her family's story is both tragic, in many ways but also fascinating. Her paternal grandparents were born in Old Machar & Keithhall, Aberdeenshire respectively, and married in Belhelvie, Aberdeenshire in 1855. They had one son in St Nicholas, Aberdeen in 1856 & then appear to have emigrated to Canada, later that same year. They settled in Bothwell / Hamiliton, Ontario & had 5 more children, one being Nema's father, Walter.

What happened to the family is uncertain, but it appears that her grandfather abandoned his family & crossed the border into the US state of Washington, where he says he is a Doctor by 1879 (which given he was a labourer at the Sandilands Chemical Works, Aberdeen at the time of his marriage & as a Store Keeper in Bothwell, Ontario in 1871, seems extremely unlikely!!). He was jailed in 1879 in Washington for 18 months for "Attempting to Induce an Abortion"!

On getting out of prison, he "marries" again in1880. I have been unable to track his "first" wife after 1873, so she may have died but the second son's obituary states ".........and, although early thrown upon his own resources and compelled by circumstances to the support of his mother, brothers and sister........", it would appear that she died later than 1873 when her daughter was born. She is known to be dead by the time of her daughter's death in 1890.

Nema's father, Walter marries Helen LAUGHLIN, abt 1883 & they also crossed the border but this time to Michigan, where their first daughter, Grace Rhea (known as Rhea) CATTO is born in 1886. Between 1886 &1888 they move to Washington also. Nema is born in Tacoma, Washington in December of 1888. Her father, Walter, is working as a brakeman with the Northern Pacific Railroad. On 27th February 1892, he fell from the fast freight train enroute to Portland, Oregon and was run over - ",,,,,,The body was horribly mangled and mutilated." Rhea was 5, Nema was 3 & their mother was pregnant! Their brother, Walter was born in early April 1892. Helen must have been an extra-ordinary woman as she proceeds to run various hotels whilst bringing up her young children single-handedly. Her obituary in 1920 states ".......she was one of God's best children - quiet, unassuming, cultured, unselfish, of a happy disposition, and as good a mother as ever was born........."

Both Rhea & Nema marry young & neither appears to have been happy with their respective spouses. Rhea doesn't appear to have had children or re-married.

Nema has twins, a boy & a girl in Manhattan, NY in 1909 with her first husband, George DAVIS, an actor (he may be George DAVIS 1889 - 1965 who starred in over 288 films) but they divorce in 1912 with Nema stating "......that wine and women took her husband's salary of $60 a week and that he deserted her after failing to provide for her support...........".

Sometime in 1912 Nema has taken up with Frederick J MILES (or more commonly seen using Frederick J IRELAND as his stage name). They are doing various vaudeville dancing acts, "Frederick Ireland & his dancing Casino girls, featuring Nema Catto" all over - San Francisco, Tacoma, Seattle, Rock Island, etc between 1912 - 1914. By 1915 he has started the Emerald Motion Picture Company in Chicago, IL.

Rhea under the stage name Rhea Catto Laughlin, appears in 9 of his "Tom and Jerry....." films (for example, "Tom and Jerry in Dreamland" & "Tom and Jerry Kidnapped" to mention just two) in 1916 and "The Slacker's Heart" in 1917. Nema, meanwhile is giving birth to another daughter in 1916. In 1920, Fred directs and stars in "When The Cat's Away" along with Nema & Rhea. In 1920 the Emerald Motion Picture Company is merged with 4 other companies to form Reelcraft, with Fred as Vice President (to supervise production). Reelcraft goes bankrupt in 1922 & by 1925, Fred & Nema are back on the road with their vaudeville act touring again - Chicago, Davenport, Decatur, Lima & Sheboygan to name just a few.

Their life is sketchy at present in the 1930's but Canada does refuse entry to Fred in 1934! Frederick J MILES / IRELAND dies in 1939 in Detroit but Nema lives till she is nearly 98 & Rhea dies when she is 91. Nema's son also appears to have been theatrical, marries a dancer and they have a double act, Given that the twins are introduced as mascots to the vaudeville act of George DAVIS & Nema in August 1911, aged just 15 months old, it isn't really surprising that someone would continue the family tradition!

I often see contentious comments in the various groups & other sites I belong to about the huge number of individuals in some peoples family trees but consider the following situation that I have just recently found in my own tree......

A 2nd cousin (a few times removed) of mine had a son illegitimately in 1874, she then married & had 16 (yes, sixteen!) children between 1880 & 1899 (with no sets of twins, triplets or more involved). Already the family count has gone from 3 (her parents & just herself, without actually considering her own 7 siblings) to 21. Having only, at this moment in time, tracked only one of her sons, the count has gone up to 30 - her daughter-in-law & 8 grandchildren. Add in the further generations, the count is now 109.

That 109 individuals is NOT a complete count, just the ones I have tracked so far from ONE of her 17 children. If each of her other 16 children also have approximately 80 individuals within their branches (1280 people), the total count is now 1309 individuals from that ONE woman!!!!!
(Remember, this does not include in-law parents which are often useful to record if known, to see other possible linkages).

This shows just how easy it is to get an enormous tree without even considering step-families etc. I would love to hear your views on this kind of issue.........

In 30+ years of family research, I have found some bizarre things, but I think today's takes the top prize! Can you imagine trying to put this into an ancestor tree?
from the Pitsligo, Aberdeenshire Old Parish Register

Forbidden beasts and where to keep them By William Hepburn Late medieval towns were distinct from the countryside around them because of their special legal status and their concentration of buildings. But all Scottish medieval towns wer…

Just magnificent!

Meet my neighbour. Not exactly what I meant when I wished for a h***y beast to move in next door, but nevermind.

Please feel free to share.

DRUM ROLL please.............

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