Whiplash!

We all have those times when our research is progressing at a pace.  Such a pace in fact, that when something unexpected crops up and the brakes are slammed on so ferociously we are in danger of suffering whiplash!

This happened to me recently whilst researching the Donaldson family.  This is the family of Jane Isabella Pringle (nee Donaldson), the wife of George Thomson (featured in my March blog) who so tragically died while George was away at war in 1943.

Jean Isabella Pringle Donaldson with husband George Thomson and daughter Sheila.

Following her death their only surviving daughter Sheila, aged 6 years old, was removed from Edinburgh and sent to the home of her paternal grandmother at Lempitlaw, in the Scottish Borders.  Here, she was brought up by her father’s family and contact with her mother’s family was lost.   

From her mother’s death certificate (above) we learn Jane Isabella Pringle was born circa 1917 and the name of her parents were:-

Robert Donaldson (occupation Wood Machinist), and Jane Pringle.  

The marriage certificate of George and Jane (Jean) gives an addition Christian name for her mother, so we now have Jane Hope Pringle as her full maiden name, and father Robert’s occupation at the time of the marriage is “Coach Body Builder”.  The address given in both cases is 5 Upper Grove Place, Edinburgh.

Follow the maternal line back to the marriage of Jane Hope Pringle to Robert Donaldson in Bryson’s Lane Edinburgh in October 1904.  Her parents are given as David Pringle occupation “Lorryman” and Margaret Murray deceased.  Her age at marriage is 29 giving a birth year of 1875. 

In the 1911 census the family are still living in Bryson Road, now with four children and Jane’s place of birth is listed as Dalkeith.   Great now we are on a roll!

To dot the “I”s and cross the “t”s I needed a death certificate and it was the information this contained that sent the research in full reverse!

• Jane Hope Donaldson, maiden name Pringle died at No 10, Upper Grove Place, Edinburgh in 1961.
• Age at death 86 years, giving an approximate birth year of 1875.
• She is the widow of Robert Donaldson occupation “Vehicle Builder”.
• Parents ~ John Pringle, Farm worker deceased and Isabella Pringle maiden surname Hope!  What?  This was certainly not the David Pringle and Margaret Murray I was expecting!
• Informant David Donaldson – Son

Could there really be two people called Jane Hope Pringle, born in Dalkeith in 1875, that married a Robert Thomson and lived in Upper Grove Place?

Vigorous checks of alternative births & marriages in Scotland produced zero results, so research ground to an abrupt halt, being unable to verify which information set was correct. 

The clue to solving this mystery came from Sheila herself!  Although contact with mother’s family had been lost she remembers a great aunt Nelly, her grandmother’s sister  who married a Patterson and lived in Kelso.

Armed with this new information a quick search of the 1881 and 1891 census found the evidence I was searching for:- 

1881 Census Heriot, Dalkeith, Jane Hope aged 6, with amongst others sister Helen aged 4.  Parents David and Margaret Pringle

1891 Census, Dalkeith, Jane Hope aged 16 sister Nelly aged 14 parents David and Isabella Pringle

 A further search showed David Pringle’s wife Margaret Murray had died in 1882 and in 1883 he had re-married Isabella Somerville.

Further evidence of the correct parentage was found in the marriage of Helen Noble Pringle to Henry Patterson in 1904 at Heriot Manse, Dalkeith.  Her parents are given as David Pringle and Margaret Murray, and by the time of the 1911 census Nelly and her husband Henry Patterson are living in Roxburgh St, Kelso.

Although the mystery is now solved, and Margaret Murray’s date of death in 1882 goes someway to explaining the grandson’s lack of knowledge for his mother’s death certificate in 1961, it does not explain one thing:-

Where does the name Hope originate?

One for another day methinks.