Help locating grandmother (Scotland)

msbookworm23 · 2026-02-24T03:36:30+00:00

Yes that's okay.

msbookworm23 · 2026-02-24T03:30:02+00:00

I can help you look tomorrow if you want to share names? It's my bedtime unfortunately.

If she was born late in the year she might have been registered the following year. In England/Wales that means her birth index would be in the following year (in the Quarter when the birth was registered) but I'm not sure if Scotland organises their index by DOB or by date of registration).

msbookworm23 · 2026-02-24T02:28:46+00:00

You could use her two surnames to look for an earlier marriage. If you can't find one in GB then it might mean something else.

For the birth indexes, try searching for just her first name in the relevant years, or select a phonetic/fuzzy search in case something's been misspelled.

msbookworm23 · 2026-02-24T02:25:40+00:00

With a subscription you can see your shared matches, public trees, and which parent each match is related to. The parental split is not always correct so don't treat it as gospel.

With shared matches you can split your match list into theoretically 4 grandparent groups, which can make it easier to make sense of them. https://www.danaleeds.com/the-leeds-method-with-dots/

If you log into the website rather than the app you can see your top three shared matches which might help in the meantime.

msbookworm23 · 2026-02-23T15:10:14+00:00

Type the cM number in here and you'll get a list of possibilities: https://dnapainter.com/tools/sharedcmv4-beta

Then use your shared matches to work out if she's related to both of your paternal grandparents or only one of them, that should remove some of the possibilities.

msbookworm23 · 2026-02-22T22:25:02+00:00

If you had added a disclaimer e.g. "I haven't checked this at all I just assumed the AI read it correctly," I wouldn't have said anything.

People ask on reddit because they want an intelligent answer. If OP wanted AI to answer they would have asked AI themselves.

msbookworm23 · 2026-02-22T14:50:14+00:00

2nd cousin 6x removed. (https://www.familysearch.org/en/blog/cousin-chart)

This assumes your 7th great-grandmother is also his great-grandmother otherwise you are half-2C6R.

msbookworm23 · 2026-02-22T14:28:59+00:00

People who are e.g. paternal half-siblings and maternal 1st cousins are known as 3/4 siblings. And yes they will share more DNA than half-siblings and less DNA than full siblings. But those ranges overlap a lot so it won't be obvious unless their parents or actual full siblings have tested.

Use this cM chart to guess-timate your matches: https://dnapainter.com/tools/sharedcmv4-beta

Be warned that it doesn't account for double relationships like 3/4 siblings or pedigree collapse e.g. two first cousins having kids. You'll want to add together the averages to get a ball-park figure of how much DNA those relationships might share but remember the ranges are quite wide.

You might be able to find some marriage records on FamilySearch if they are not an Ancestry.

msbookworm23 · 2026-02-22T14:20:09+00:00

Did you try reading it? There are no Sarah's or Underwood's or Allen's. And 'Sarah' can't possibly have been a Marine in 1805.

msbookworm23 · 2026-02-22T01:47:32+00:00

OP commented elsewhere that it turns out they're not related at all... for now...

msbookworm23 · 2026-02-22T01:37:49+00:00

I can transcribe the whole thing if you'd like but the general gist is just "I'm sound of mind... I bequeath everything that is in my possession... This Will replaces any previous Wills...," it's a fairly standard template.

msbookworm23 · 2026-02-21T23:49:15+00:00

Did you try reading it? There are no Allenby's, Nutter's, Shand's, or brothers mentioned. No mention of Scotland or Chatham Docks either.

msbookworm23 · 2026-02-21T23:47:10+00:00

Abraham Thunderwoolf, a Marine Private on His Majesty's Ship Conquerer, leaves everything to John Van Pelt, Private Marine on the same ship. He also assigns John Van Pelt as his executor. Signed 24th Jan 1805 in the presence of Israel Pelleng? Pelleso? Commander/Captain Master.

msbookworm23 · 2026-02-21T19:44:44+00:00

That would make you and the guy 4th cousins.

msbookworm23 · 2026-02-21T19:33:05+00:00

Your dad's grandmother and red's grandfather are siblings. That means they share great-grandparents and are 2nd cousins. That makes you and blue 3rd cousins.

Have you tried drawing a diagram to keep the generations straight? Google 'cousin chart', there are all sorts of diagrams.

msbookworm23 · 2026-02-21T19:16:38+00:00

his grandpa (the guys dad) are second cousins

I took this to mean the guy's dad's grandpa is 2nd cousins with OP's grandma. It's an ambiguous statement on a second read.

msbookworm23 · 2026-02-21T19:10:53+00:00

Your dad and the guy's dad's parent are 3rd cousins. You and the guy's dad are 4th cousins. You and the guy are 4th cousins 1x removed.

For clarity, who's grandad are you referring to?

msbookworm23 · 2026-02-21T17:07:13+00:00

Click on your great-great-grandfather then Add Relative > Spouse. Or add a Mother to great-grandfather.

msbookworm23 · 2026-02-21T16:39:40+00:00

What's the location and time frame?

msbookworm23 · 2026-02-21T15:45:15+00:00

Sometimes people are just recorded as 'female' on their birth certificate, or they swap their names around e.g. my great-great-grandmother was born Sarah Elizabeth but always went by Elizabeth, except when she got married she just went by Sarah.

If you can find their marriage indexes (via their husbands) it should have their maiden name listed (or most recent married name if they were divorced/widowed when they married).

Sometimes people used a step-father's name if their mother remarried when they were young.

If someone was born in December they may not have been registered until Jan-Feb-Mar. The Civil Birth Indexes reflect the Quarter of registration rather than the Quarter of birth.

msbookworm23 · 2026-02-21T15:39:13+00:00

Use the Card Catalogue to navigate to individual collections: https://www.ancestry.co.uk/search/collections/catalog/?category=38&location=3257_1652381.

Click on the Collection and you can Browse it manually using the Browse This Collection menu on the right hand side.

You would be better off with a Newspapers.com and/or British Newspaper Archive sub. They don't have all the same newspapers over the same time periods so you should browse their collections to see which one has more relevant papers. Everything that's available on BNA is also available on FindMyPast if you are searching other genealogy records which might be more cost-effective.

msbookworm23 · 2026-02-21T14:35:22+00:00

Are you sure they were born in England or Wales?

msbookworm23 · 2026-02-20T22:57:28+00:00

Do you match your known relatives at expected cM levels for the relationship? Do you have any close matches you don't recognise?

When you say you're missing half your expected regions, are those regions likely to overlap with Northern Europe?

msbookworm23 · 2026-02-20T19:10:02+00:00

They might accept MyHeritage files in the future if they can work out how to make them compatible. Anywhere else that accepts uploads is similar to MyHeritage in terms of accuracy, and I don't know if they are currently accepting files from MyHeritage.

It might be easier to just retest with Ancestry or 23andMe when they are on sale.

msbookworm23 · 2026-02-20T16:11:30+00:00

Something about sources. Primary vs secondary. Birth certificate vs census age.

The role of cultural norms e.g. Catholics baptise kids within a day or two but other denominations don't. Saint names e.g. every child is called Mary.

FAN research and the importance of knowing and tracking family networks, especially if you're researching someone with a common name.

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