Alexander Wilson, Shoemaker and Elizabeth Dockar were married 20th June 1840 before witness, William Dockar and Alexander Innes.

Source - ScotslandPeople – 20/06/1840 WILSON, ALEXANDER (O.P.R. Marriages 155/00 0030 0728 Gamrie and MacDuff)

This couple were my great, great grandparents on my father’s maternal side.

Dit names arose out of the French word “to say” or “dire”.  From Kimberly:

Found primarily in France, New France (French-Canada, Louisiana, etc.), and Scotland, dit names are essentially an alias tacked on to a family name or surname. Dit in French is a form of the word dire, which means “to say,” and in the case of dit names is translated loosely as “that is to say,” or “called.” Therefore, the first name is the family’s original surname, passed down to them by an ancestor, while the “dit” name is the name the person/family is actually called or known as. Dit names are used by families, not specific individuals, and are usually passed down to future generations, either in place of the orginal surname, or in addition to it.

One of the comments on the post come from Dave Pierce who explains the term “Dit” in a military context:

Dit naming was also used to identify cadres of soldiers. Most often they referred to the
surname of the (military)formation as a hailing recognition factor. In the confusion
of battle, it was always necessary to be ableto direct the formation to a particular action
for succesful maneuvering. As the dit naming would recognize “Andre Jaret Dit Beauregard” it further identified Andre Jaret as a soldier of the unit that was directed by the “Beauregard” commander or possibly by the captain whose surname was BEAUREGARD . These were some of the basic tenets of battlefield tactics that were among the first rules that an officer had to learn.

An article on Dit names by Patrick on a Quebec Research roots web had this statement:

Dit names, therefore, have varied origins: army companies (Verchères,
Sorel, etc.); place of origin (Breton, Langlois, Langevin, Montpelier, etc.);
landscape (Beauregard, Beaulieu, etc.); the ancestor's full name (Gaston
Guay to Gastonguay or Castonguay); ancestor's given name (Richard, Vincent,
Robert, etc.); and no doubt for various other reasons, including vainglory
or vanity.

What I find equally fascinating is that dit names can be found in Scotland.  Our Scottish ancestors used names such as Robertson – the son of Robert.  Other examples – Robert Bruce who became the King of Scotland.

Another twist on names has been shown in areas where many people had the same name.  An academic paper by Nancy Dorian in 1969 entitled A Substitute Name System in the Scottish Highlands uses the term “by-names” to describe a naming system found in Gaelic speakers in the East Sutherland region of Scotland.

The by-names in use in East Sutherland fall into several distinct groups: (1) basic
genealogical; (2) descriptive; (3) derisive; (4) nonsense; and (5) secondary genealogical
patterns built on the second, third, and fourth groups.

Dit names and by-names can complicate your research but by understanding how and why they are used will greatly help you find that missing ancestor.

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Related:

Names and Nicknames: Naming Practices in Early Modern Ireland

Names and Naming Patterns in England 1538 -1700

]]> http://www.luxegen.ca/genealogy/understanding-dit-names-and-by-names/feed/ 0 http://www.luxegen.ca/genealogy/family-history/surname-saturday-wilson-scotland-to-canada/ http://www.luxegen.ca/genealogy/family-history/surname-saturday-wilson-scotland-to-canada/#comments Sat, 22 May 2010 15:23:33 +0000 © Joan Miller - Luxegen Genealogy. http://www.luxegen.ca/?p=3910 It has been a good week for connections regarding my grandmother Elizabeth (Lizzie) WILSON married to Homer KERR.  She was born 02 November 1884 near Peterhead, Aberdeenshire, Scotland.

Lizzie’s parents were Martin Watson Wilson (1857 – 1942) and Margaret Metcalf Robertson (1854 -1936)

Siblings were Alexander, Mary and Martin.  All of the children immigrated to Saskatchewan Canada.  Other names married into this family are Freethy, West, Whyte.

I heard from a descendant of Lizzie’s brother’s (Martin) family this week.  Like me, she grew up in Saskatchewan and now lives in Montana.  We share great grandparents.

I’m looking forward to comparing our research!

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Related posts:

My Grandmother was a Blue Tooner!

Those of us researching in England, Wales or Scotland will be interested in the recent release of the 1939 National Identity Card Database.

The 1939 National Identity Card Survey was undertaken at the outbreak of the Second World War and took place on National Registration Day Friday September 29th, 1939.  The details collected for each person included:

• sex
• date of birth
• marital status
• occupation
• whether member of armed forces or reserves

The 1939 Identity Card database formed the basis of the NHS Central Register when the NHS was set up in 1948.  The data remained secret until challenges to the Freedom of Information Act at the end of 2009 and early into 2010.  It has now been announced the release of data for individuals who have died and are recorded as deceased.

Where to find it

The records can be accessed at the following links:

• For England and Wales – National Health Service information centre – download a form to request information for a fee
• For Scotland – administered by General Register Office for Scotland – fee based
• For more information about the 1939 National Identity Card Database

The 1939 National Identity Card database can complement genealogy research using the 1911 Census, most of which will be released up to and including 2012.  The 1921 Census is due to be released 2022.  The 1931 Census was lost in a fire in 1942.  There were no census in 1941 due to the second world war.

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Related:

Early British Census – 1086 to 1841

Examples of Listings in the British Isles

Scotlands People can be accessed here.

I received the following notice in the September 2009 issue of Scotland’s People Newsletter about an update to their marriage database records.

“Indexes (NOT IMAGES) to modern marriage records from 1934-2006 have now been added to the site. This now gives the range of statutory records as Indexes of Scottish births and deaths (1855-2006) marriages (1855-2006) and images of births(1855-1908), marriages (1855-1933) and deaths (1855-1958). “

Search the Modern Marriage Records by clicking HERE

Peterhead, Aberdeenshire is the birthplace of my paternal Grandmother Elizabeth WILSON (b. 1884 ), the daughter of Martin Watson WILSON and Margaret Metcalf ROBERTSON.  If you have connections please send a note on the contact form.

Here are some roots resources in Scotland:

GENUKI Scotland

Scotland’s People – the official government genealogy site for births, marriages/banns and deaths of the Old Parish Records (OPRs) of Scotland.

Aberdeen and North East Scotland Family History Society

Scotland Mailing Lists

Scotland BDM Exchange

I have explored a lot of different avenues on our elusive search to find the Irish origin of our KERR ancestors.  It also means I’m on lots of Irish mailing lists.  I just heard of this update with regards to County Donegal.

New records added to Irish Genealogical Online Record Search System
The Irish Family History Foundation is pleased to announce the availability of the records of Donegal Ancestry covering the parishes and districts of County Donegal on its Online Research Service (ORS). This adds another 2/3 million more baptismal, birth, death, marriage, census and gravestone records to our online database. The total number of records now searchable online is 15.6 million.

Login using your existing IFHF login details. http://donegal.brsgenealogy.com

Remember that you can purchase and spend your credit at any of the IFHF online centres.

Please check out their interactive map to see which county genealogy centres have data available online; further counties will be adding their data in the coming months.

The challenge this week:

1. Pick a place that you have ancestry, but don’t know much about.

I picked Peterhead, Aberdeenshire, Scotland, birthplace of my paternal grandmother, Elizabeth WILSON (b. 1884 Peterhead), daughter of Martin Watson WILSON and Margaret Metcalf ROBERTSON.

2. Go to Google (or your favorite search engine) and put in the place name, the state name, and the words “genealogy” and “society.” For example my search string is going to be [mccook nebraska genealogy society]. Don’t use mine – use your own!

I did this but the searches all led to very general listings and I wasn’t learning anything specifically about our WILSONs in Peterhead….thus I dropped the “genealogy society” part from the search and instead put in “cemeteries”. 

3. Go to the web site that looks the most interesting or promising, and search for data about your ancestor(s) that lived there.

That produced quite a few hits including google maps and tourist pages of Peterhead, the Wikipedia info….and a link to the Scotland BDM Exchange. 

From Wikipedia I learned that:

Peterhead is a town in Aberdeenshire, Scotland. It is Aberdeenshire’s largest settlement, having a population of 19,000 at the 2001 Census. Peterhead sits at the easternmost point in mainland Scotland. Peterhead is often referred to as ‘The Blue Toon’ and people who were born there as Blue Tooners. More correctly they are called Bloomogganners, supposedly from the blue worsted stockings that the fishermen originally wore.

Blue Tooners!  My Grandmother was a Blue Tooner! 

And a “Bloomogganner!” (what a great word!) I wonder if my ancestors wore blue worsted stockings?  Were they fisherman? 

4. Did you find anything new or interesting? If so – those are your genealogy Easter Eggs! Enjoy them – browse some more! If not, try again with another place name.

On the Scotland BDM Exchange I scored a match to several WILSONS and other related surnames; not specifically ours but with Peterhead’s  population of only 19,000 and a street named “WILSON Street”, I bet there is a connection!  I emailed the contact on the other WILSONs.  Perhaps I will hear soon if there is a connection we can pursue further.

AND….I’ll definitely have to find out more about Blue Tooners! 

Thanks Randy for your Saturday night fun!

The Salem witch trials were a series of hearings and trials to prosecute people accused of witchcraft in Essex, Suffolk, and Middlesex counties of colonial Massachusetts, between February 1692 and May 1693. Over 150 people were arrested and imprisoned, with even more accused but not formally pursued by the authorities. The two courts convicted twenty-nine people of the capital felony of witchcraft. Nineteen of the accused, fourteen women and five men, were hanged.*

One of those women, Mary EASTEY was my husband’s 7th Great Grandmother.

Mary Towne Eastey (also spelled Esty, Easty, Estey, or Estye) (August 24, 1634—September 22, 1692) was a victim of the Salem witch trials of 1692. Mary’s sisters, Rebecca Nurse and Sarah Cloyce, were also accused of witchcraft; Rebecca was executed, but Sarah was not.**

Mary gave an impassioned appeal to the judge that brought tears to the eyes of the spectators but to no avail.  She was tried and condemned to death on September 9, 1642.  She was hanged, along with 7 others on September 22, 1642.  To read more check out the references at the end of this post.

Our connection, partially shown on the left, leads to New Brunswick  to our Ira MILLER who married Salome Estey HARTLEY.

Are you related to any of the Salem witches?  Are you related to our Salem Witch Mary Eastey?

Comments are welcomed.

References: 

*http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Salem_witch_trials

**http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mary_Eastey