Scotland's People, Gardening and Children in Need

This morning my daughter paid back another installment of the money I lent her for the deposit on her University accommodation the year before last.  I had been waiting for this cash with bated breath as without any income of my own (since my Employment Support Allowance was stopped in April) I can't just buy credits for Family History sites whenever I want them. 

(Incidently I'm typing this whilst watching Children in Need, so I apologise for any mistakes and possible stilted grammar. And aren't One Direction young?  Very young!  and Terry Wogan getting rather old.  Though on Pointless earlier they did say that Children in Need has been going since 1980.  Good grief, I was only 19 when it started! )

You may have seen that last week I was researching the Whealleans family.  My great, great, great aunt Amelia Mordey Hutton (b. 1842) married Thomas Davidson Whealleans
(which I think is a really great name for researching) and in the first census after their marriage, 1871, they are living at Otterburn Hall in Northumberland.  Their two sons are both born at Otterburn, Edward in 1871 named after Thomas's father and Thomas Frederick in 1874 named after Thomas himself and Amelia's father (so she maybe she had forgiven him for running away when she was a child?). 

On Thursday I discovered that someone who was descended from Thomas and Amelia Whelleans had put their family tree online on Ancestry.  I hadn't filled in many of the blanks in my tree at this point - one of the sons appears to vanish and the other has moved to the Lake District by 1911.

(Dr Who minisode - hmm, that was interesting, maybe, and has the actress who plays Madame Vastra changed?)

The online tree showed that a daughter of one of Thomas and Amelia's sons had married a William Dixon in 1927.  In fact the person who posted this tree only had Thomas and Amelia's younger son listed, oddly the one I couldn't find earlier.  The problem with the Whealleans name is that it is often transcribed incorrectly, without the h, so that's Wealleans, sometimes with one or more of the e's missing, for example Weallans and even with completely the wrong vowels, that would be Whillians.  Honestly, as found on Family Search.

(John Craven just turned up on Children in Need - he read out a letter from me on the Multicoloured Swop Shop when I was 17, he was less grey then!)

On Ancestry online trees you can look at the person's family tree diagramatically, so I had a scan.  I was pleasantly surprised to see that William Dixon's mother was a Bormond.

A section of the Dixon Family Tree from Ancestry.co.uk

I don't think I've told you this yet, but one of the very uncommon family names in my tree is Bormond, all the Bormonds in Great Britain appear to descend from a family in Alnwick, Northumberland in the 18th century and there aren't that many of them.  So seeing this name on someone's family tree is very exciting.  And to see it on a tree that is already related to me via another line is very intriguing. 

(Short pause - Russell Grant and Ann Widdecombe dancing ...)

This means that William Dixon and Mary Whealleans were already related before they got married!  Yaaayy!  With the help of the diagram tools in Family Historian (my family tree programme) I soon worked out the relationship.  William Dixon's great grandmother's sister was the mother of the wife of Amelia Mordey Hutton's brother.  I really don't expect you to get that in one, but there's a helpful diagram coming up in a minute ...

(Dr Who Christmas special trailer - oooohhh!)

Bear (ha, Pudsey Bear!) with me - note that William Dixon's great grandmother (Agnes Bormond) is the sister of Mary Wheallean's grandmother (Amelia Mordey Hutton)'s brother (William Satchell Hutton)'s wife (Ann Bormond Smith)'s mother (Jane Bormond)

So, having worked that out - which makes me happy even if you are confused - we move on ...

The owner of the Dixon tree had noted that the children of Thomas Frederick Whealleans and Esther Common were born in Scotland but he/she did not know where the couple married.  I nipped along to the Scotland's People site and searched the Statutory Marriages for the name Whealleans.  I got two hits.  Now to view the hits you need to use credits and I just happened to have three credits left from a foray onto Scotland's People with a friend in August (whilst at the Great British Beer Festival, but that's not relevant). 

Scotland's People marriagesearch results

(Girl's Aloud - looking like very decorative stewards in orange frocks - the song's a bit shouty though.  Have you noticed how the Strictly Come Dancing competitors seem to be turning up in Children in Need?  The chap from Westlife was in Greggs making cupcakes earlier.)

As you can see from the image above it costs 5 credits to view a marriage certificate.  This is much cheaper than buying a paper copy of an English or Welsh certificate.  30 credits cost £7 so 5 credits is about £1.17 and  the certificate is available instantly whereas an English/Welsh certificate costs £9.25 and you have to wait for it to come in the post. 

(They've made £10 million already!)

The only problem was that I had no money last week.  I was waiting for my daughter to pay me and she was waiting for her Uni bursary to turn up.  Eventually today it came - hooray!  I logged on and using the saved searches in my account was able to download the marriage certificate for Thomas Frederick Whealleans and Esther. 

(Alan Sugar in East Enders ... I haven't seen East Enders in years, but I still seem to know who everyone is!)

1900 marriage certificate for Thomas Whealleans and Esther Common from Scotland's People

Scottish certificates contain more information than English/Welsh ones too!  Instead of just the father's name you get the mother and her maiden name.  As you can see here this confirms that Thomas F Whealleans' mum was indeed Amelia Mordey Hutton, my great,  great, great aunt.  I also downloaded the 1901 census for the couple, showing that they were living at Tarras Lodge, deep in the hills of Dumfrieshire.

I fed this information into my tree, just in time as the OH came home early and wanted to know what to do with his unexpected day off.  Here's the finished section of my tree.  The little yellow tags show that I've found the person in the various census returns. 


My OH had been sent home from work as they were unable to find him light duties as recommended by the firm's occupational health doctor.  We ended up doing some gardening, with the OH doing a lot of the things that the doctor said he could do but his boss was reluctant to let him ...

(Chris Moyles and Morecambe and Wise! I agree with Tess - surreal!)

We emptied the compost bin, the OH reinforced the raised bed, we moved pots, planted daffodil bulbs, the OH dug holes in our concrete front garden and we planted lavender.  His firm may not have found anything for him to do this afternoon, but I made up his hours.

(Lisa Riley from Strictly up the BT tower with some children, what next?)

I think that's it for tonight - back to Children in Need!