Was it Mill, Mills or Milne?

 One of my wife’s great-grandfathers was named William Milne. At least many documents show he was. But as I traced this line back, I found that the names Mill and Mills were used frequently on BMD records. That mix of surnames contributed to difficulties in finding the ancestry of this line.

William was born in Inverness, Scotland, on 21 September 1843 and baptized on 6 October 1843, as William Hugh Mills. This record, as well as the entry of his death in 1928, though, are the only documents on which his full name appears.

William’s father was also named William and he was a skinner. As the word suggests, the occupation of William Senior (as he will be referred to here) involved stripping the hide from animals to be used for tanning into leather, dealing in skins, fur and hides, or both. That job description was important in allowing me to trace the family. William Senior’s wife was Elizabeth Ross. Knowing her name also helped in demonstrating relationships as Scottish birth, marriage and death records after 1855 usually show both parents’ names.

The death record is curious as the surname of William Junior (as he will be referred to as from here on) and his parents is recorded as Mills but the informant, who was his son, is shown as Milne. His mother’s maiden name is wrong on the death record, but we may attribute that to the informant not knowing the correct information. The birth of that son was actually recorded as Fergus Mills but he later changed his name to Duncan Fergus Milne which is shown on his death record. The reason for the change is unknown but added to the complexity of surnames for this family.

William Junior could not read or write. On every document to which he applied his name, he signed with an ‘X’. That might help to explain the different surnames that were used although I have difficulty in understanding how someone recording information would not hear the difference in how he pronounced his name.

William Junior was married twice. His first was to Mary Ann Anderson, the ceremony performed in Forres, County of Elgin, on 4 September 1868. On that marriage document his name is written as Milne. The names of his parents and his father’s occupation confirm this is the person born with the name of Mills.

Mary Ann died on 19 October 1882. With young children still at home, William probably found it difficult to manage things without a partner. On 4 July 1884 he married Isabella Munro, this time in Ardclach parish, County of Nairn, the area where Isabella resided. On this record, though, his name is shown as Mill, as is that of his parents.

With Mary Ann, William Junior had five children. They were born in several different places as William moved around for work and their births were registered with a variety of names. With Isabella, two more children were born.

Children of William (Junior) Mills or Milne
Child’s Name	Birth Date	Birthplace	Year of Marriage
Mother: Mary Ann Anderson
Isabella Milne	10 November 1869	Forres, Elgin	4 September 1868
Mary Ann Milne	31 March 1872	St. Andrew, Edinburgh	4 October 1868
Elizabeth Mills	26 August 1874	Newington, Edinburgh	26 December 1872
William Mills	14 January 1877	Duffus, Elgin	26 December 1872
Thomas Robert Milne	8 July 1880	St. Nicholas, Aberdeen	26 December 1872
Mother: Isabella Munro
Margaret Ann Mill	22 August 1886	Forres, Elgin	4 July 1884
Fergus Mills	19 April 1893	Forres, Elgin	4 July 1884

The marriage date of parents is usually also recorded on birth entries in Scotland. In the case of the children of William and Mary Ann, different dates were used. The October 1868 date was the correct one. While we are confident these individuals are all from the same family, as the mother’s name does not change. The different marriage information, though, added confusion to the problem with the different surnames recorded.

The census records show the family surname as Mills in 1871 and Milne in 1881 through 1911, again inconsistent with birth, marriage and death records.

The records for William Senior were more consistent in surnames used. The surname on his birth and first marriage records were shown as Mill. His second marriage and the records of the births of his children were Mills. His death record says Milne with the informant being his brother John Milne.

It is hard to see any trend in the use of surnames. It does appear that more recent generations preferred Milne to Mill or Mills, though.

 

Reminder: new Blog post announcements will be sent to subscribers of Discover Genealogy and Mother Nature's Tests via MailChimp starting next week, June 15^th. Watch for the new format.

There'll be Some Changes Made

 

A bit like the lyrics of that old jazz standard song, written by Benton Overstreet and Billy Higgins in 1921, and first recorded by Ethel Waters (listen to her here), there’ll be some changes made to my blogs here.

That song was produced in different version over 400 times. (While you are reading this post, listen to a few interpretations on YouTube by Chet Atkins here, Matty Matlock here or Benny Goodman here). Family historians might even find some of the lyrics (reproduced below) have some application to their ancestors.

Blogsite

There will be a few adjustments to the blogsite. I thought about switching to a different format and host, but I am happy with Blogger so will be staying with it. You may see a few new links to different websites, blogs, publications, photos, etc. I will still use the site to tell stories about my family, and interesting experiences of families of others.

I don’t anticipate we’ll make that many alterations, but readers should be aware of a few.

Subscriptions

The decision to change has been prompted by a notice from Feedburner through which blog subscriptions have been managed and emails sent out: “Recently, the Feedburner team released a system update announcement, that the email subscription service will be discontinued in July 2021. After July 2021, your feed will still continue to work, but the automated emails to your subscribers will no longer be supported. If you’d like to continue sending emails, you can download your subscriber contacts.”

New Post Announcements

In a couple of weeks, I will switch over to sending email announcements through MailChimp. The email will look different, with only teasers included rather than the entire new post. You will have to click on the link to the blogsite to read entire posts. Subscribers may also click on links to change their preferences or unsubscribe (I hope you won’t do that).

Mother Nature’s Tests

One major change is that I will not be posting blogs on this separate blogsite anymore. All posts related to Mother Nature or natural phenomena will go back to being posted on Discover Genealogy. It was hard enough getting around to finding new ideas for my main blog without having a second one, too. Some of the posts published on Mother Nature’s Tests will be reprised on Discover Genealogy for those who had not seen them. The separate email lists for the two blogs will be merged and all future posts will go subscribers of both blogs.

Stay Tuned

I hope you will continue to find an interest in what you read here. For my part, I will continue to look for material that is of value to genealogists in their quest to find more about their ancestors.

There’ll Be Some Changes Made (Lyrics)

Ethel Waters & Her Jazz Masters

They say don't change the old for the new;

But I've found out that this will never do;

When you grow old, you don't last long,

You're just here, my honey, then you're gone;

I loved a man for many years gone by,

I thought his love for me would never die;

He made a change and said I would not do,

So now I'm going to make some changes, too.

 

Why, there's a change in the weather, there's a change in the sea,

So from now on there'll be a change in me,

My walk will be different, my talk, and my name,

Nothing about me's going to be the same;

I'm gonna change my long tall one for a little short 'n fat,

I'm gonna change my number that I'm living at;

Because nobody wants you when you're old and gray.

There's gonna be some changes made today,

There'll be some changes made.

 

Why, there's a change in the weather, there's a change in the sea,

So from now on there'll be a change in me,

Why, my walk will be different, and my talk, and my name,

Nothing about me gonna be the same;

I'm gonna change my way of living, and that ain't no shock,

Why, I'm thinking of changin' the way I gotta set my clock,

Because nobody wants you when you're old and gray.

There's gonna be some changes made today,

There'll be some changes made.

MyHeritage Photo Repair

 By now many of us have experimented with enhancing, colourizing and animating photos using the new techniques available on MyHeritage.

Today they offered a new process – repairing damaged photos. I tried it out on a couple of my family pics.

The one of my great-grandmother (below), taken in 1882, worked fairly well. It took out the crease through the image (left image) and, with the extreme repair repair, took out some of the water marks around her head (right image). It did not work on the blemishes on her face which must be taken out with Photoshop.

A family group photo I have, taken in 1895, was severely damaged (below - top image). The process did not do quite as well (bottom image). The rip was only partially mended around the face of the girl in the back. It did not touch the rip on her dress or alongside her arm. My grandmother is the little girl in front. It did take out the rip on her skirt but also some of the fancy stitching along the hem. I did not expect it to fix the missing parts of her face which, of course, it didn’t.

Luckily, I had obtained another copy of the family photo from a cousin which is in much better shape (below - top image). I uploaded this one for enhancing (bottom image). The result was good although there is still some problems with getting the eyes right. I will have to fix those with Photoshop.

Anyway, I am sure this will be a boon to old photo enthusiasts. I will have a look at my whole library now.

This should be fun!