GEORGE, Margaret (DNA Linked) ^{1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16}

   Cause of her death was general debility.

   Other names for Margaret were GEORGE, Magt.,^{8 18} GEORGE, Margret,¹⁹ GEORGE, Margt,^{8 20} QUEGLEY, Margaret,²¹ QUIDLEY, Margaret,²² QUIGLEY, Margaret,^{2 4 5 12 14 15 21 23} TEEDLY, Margaret,²⁴ TWEEDLEY, Margaret,^{3 7 9 25} TWEEDLEY, Margt ²⁰ and TWEEDLY, Margaret.¹³

  General Notes:

Old Parish Register
Newton On Ayr Parish Ayrshire
Baptisms

"1826 Baptisms
23d Octr
George
Samuel George Labourer and Rebecca Reid his wife both of the Church had a Daughter baptized. Born the 16th day of the same month and named Margaret."

Margaret was recorded in the 1841 census living with her parents and some of her brothers and sisters in Crooked Holm near Kilmarnock, Ayrshire. She was aged 14 years. Her parents were born in Ireland, but she and her brothers and sisters were born in Scotland.

When her son, Peter, was born, his birth certificate recorded that Margaret and her husband were married in Kilmarnock in 1850.

Margaret Quigley or Quegley was also recorded in the 1851 census. By that time her mother had died and Margaret herself was married with a son, John, aged 4 months. She, her husband Peter, and her son John, were living with her father in Mill Street, Crooked Holm. Peter was a coal miner. Peter's niece, Catherine McKillop, was also staying there, according to the census entry, but another 1851 census entry includes her also at her grandmother's nearby, in Hurlford, on a visit with her mother, Isabella M'cKillop. Margaret was recorded as aged 24 years and born in Ayr. Her father, Samuel, was recorded as "Head" of the household, and she was inaccurately described as his 'wife'.

Margaret was recorded by the 1861 census living with her husband and five children in Old Rome, a hamlet of Dundonald parish, Ayrshire. Her age was noted as 33 years and her birthplace as Ayr.

The 1871 census recorded Margaret George under her naiden surname. She was aged 44 years and recorded as born in Ayr, Ayrshire. Four sons and two daughters lived with Margaret and her husband at Knowehead Rows, Galston, one having died, and two having left, presumably for work. Margaret would bear one other child after Duncan. Their house had only one room that was windowed.

In 1881 Margaret Quigley was living in 22 Dalziel Street, Motherwell, Lanarkshire, with her husband, two sons and one daughter. She was recorded as having been born in Kilmarnock parish, Ayrshire. Two others were recorded in the household: 'Margt', aged 6 years and born in New Cumnock Ayrshire, was listed as 'daughter'. She was in fact Patrick and Margaret Quigley's granddaughter, the daughter of their son, John, and his wife Margaret Stevenson, who had recently died. The other child was William Allan, recorded as aged 10 months and born in London, listed as a 'nephew' but in fact the son of Mary, the couple's daughter. Margaret George's own age was recorded as 55 years and her birthplace as Kilmarnock, Ayrshire.

In 1889 Margaret's daughter, Margaret, the twin, was married. She married according to Church of Scotland rites.

For the first time, in her daughter's 1889 marriage lines, Margaret George's name was recorded not only as either Margaret George, Margaret Quigley or Margaret Tweedley, but also as Margaret Gifford.

Although searches have been made, no evidence has been found in the 1891 census for Margaret under any of the names noted above for her.

The 1901 census for Hamilton, Lanarkshire, recorded Margaret Tweedley, a widow, living in the household of her son in law, James Gebbie, her daughter, Margaret's husband, at 17 Moore Street. Margaret was recorded as being 73 years of age, and her birthplace as Kilmarnock, Ayrshire.

The death certificate for Margaret Tweedley, widow, aged 78 years (she would probably have been 81 years of age), daughter of Samuel George and Rebecca Reid (both deceased) and widow of Peter Tweedley, coal miner (also deceased), living at 17 Moore Street Hamilton, offers very convincing evidence that Margaret Tweedley and the one known as Margaret Quigley were one and the same person. It suggests, therefore, taken along with other evidence available, that the surname 'Tweedley', and its variants, was an alternative to 'Quigley' and its variants. Some census records indicated that both names were in use interchangeably at this stage, and this may reflect the family's pronunciation of 'Quigley'. Margaret's son John, the informant at the time of Margaret's death, signed his own surname as Tweedley on her death notice. ^{11 19 21 23 25 26 27 28}

  Research Notes:

HAMILTON

Moore Street is probably the modern Muir Street in Hamilton.


SURNAME VARIANTS: WHY SO MANY?

Modern expectations and modern practice in matters of literacy differ a great deal from those of even a hundred and fifty years ago. The cultural changes brought about by the Industrial Revolution were far reaching. Not least was the move from an oral based culture to that of the written word. Moreover, education became available only slowly and was far from universal even in the middle of the nineteenth century. Many people did not learn to read and write, or if they did, many did so still rather inexpertly.

Similarly, attitudes to surnames a hundred and fifty to two hundred years ago were different from ours. Today we expect 'correct' spelling and 'correct' pronunciation of our names. In the past there was greater fluidity and greater flexibility in such matters. The surname itself grew in importance when people moved out of a merely local environment and when bureaucratic methods were increasingly employed. Yet frequently individuals could not check what had been written down in reference to them, and if they could, they may not have had a norm to check it against. If, for example, you answered to the name Hugh Docherty, but couldn't read or write, how could you know if any particular written version of your name was right or wrong?

Ther was yet one more complication to the picture. In the past, the spoken word, the sound of language spoken, was infinitely more important than any written form. Yet speech too came in many different forms:accents, regional pronunciations, the speaker's own local patterns of speech, and even bilingualism -for example in Gaelic (Scots or Irish) and English - all of these produced a great many variations within the same language spoken. The written variations of a surname, its spellings, and the different forms of the name, reflected this myriad of spoken possibilities. In no time at all Hugh, mentioned above, might have become:

Hugh Dougherty Hugh Dochart Hugh Docker Hugh Doherty Hugh O'Docherty

and 'Docherty' was one of the easier names! ^{29 30}

  Medical Notes:

The cause of Margaret's death was certified by John Stewart M.B.Ch.B.

The date of notification was 2 January 1907 at Hamilton, and the notice was signed before the registrar, Gavin Frame, by John Tweedley, Margaret's son, who resided at 7 Beckford Street, Hamilton.

Margaret married Patrick QUIGLY (DNA Linked), son of John QUIGLY (DNA Linked) and Catharine LYNAS (DNA Linked), on 31 October 1850 in St Joseph's RC Chapel, Kilmarnock, Ayrshire, Scotland. (Patrick QUIGLY (DNA Linked) was born on 17 March 1824 in Paisley, Renfrewshire, Scotland ²³, baptised on 18 March 1824 in St Mirin's RC Chapel, Paisley, Renfrewshire, Scotland and died 28 May 1881 at 4.00 am in 10 Dalziel Street, Motherwell, Lanarkshire, Scotland.). The cause of his death was pneumonia lasting 7 days.

  Marriage Notes:

Roman Catholic Records
St Joseph's Parish Kilmarnock
Marriages

"1850
Patrick Quigly Paisley and Margaret George Ayr were married by me in presence of James Quigly and Elizabeth McConvil on the 31st October 1850
(signed) Thos. Wallace"