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| Wilhelmina Inkster Bruce/Campbell |
That being said, when it comes to how to spell Grandma Ella’s great grandmother's name, it’s something that keeps me up at night. After all, her name will be inscribed on her daughter’s granite memorial, Ursilla Katherine Bruce Beattie.(1) I want to get it right!
On 10 March 1835, a daughter was born out of wedlock to William Inkster and Margaret Graham. (Read more about her life here and here.) According to what Grandma Ella was taught, she was called “WILL-yum-INE-A,” but how might that have been spelled?
In researching this and trying to come to a conclusion on which spelling to adopt as “official,” here’s an overview of records I've found - parish, statutory, and family records - with different spellings of her name throughout her life:(2)
- Parish birth record for Williamina Inkster, 13 March 1835
- Census entry for Williamina Inkster, 1841, when she was still in her father William's household
- Bruce family register that mentions marriage of Robert and Wilhelmina, 1 May 1855
- Statutory birth register for Robert and Wilhilmina's son Robert, 6 July 1857
- Statutory birth register for Robert and Wilhilmina's daughter Ursilla, 20 Feb 1862
- Census entry for Wilhilmina, 1861
- Statutory marriage register for Wilhelmina and 2nd husband, Duncan Campbell, 24 Feb 1870
- Statutory birth register for Alexander Campbell, son of Wilhelmina from her 2nd husband, 25 Nov 1870
- Statutory death register for Wilhelmina, 28 Dec 1896
- A note from Gma Ella sent to me in 2014 that says she has always gone by the spelling Williamina
- A handwritten family group sheet from Grandma Ella’s mother, Ursilla Katherine Bruce Beattie Findlay (“Grandma Kate”) with the spelling as Wilhelmina. This is Grandma Kate’s grandmother whose name spelling we’re debating. Although Wilhelmina passed away before Grandma Kate was born, she was the closest person to her that we knew.
Now it’s true that perhaps even if her name was spelled as Wilhilmina or Wilhelmina, that it could have still been pronounced as “WILL-yum-INE-A.” Sometimes names are not necessarily pronounced phonetically, so we can’t always make an assumption about a name’s pronunciation from 180+ years ago.
And it’s true that sometimes in this bygone era, a person was not literate, so a registrar would make his best guess when recording that person’s name on an official document. And thus it’s hard to confirm one “official” spelling.
We could debate that her name should be spelled as Williamina, as it appears that that’s how her father had intended it. Or we could debate that it should be Wilhelmina, as many of the official records later in her life were spelled that way - perhaps that was the spelling that she adopted and used (assuming she was literate, or literate enough to spell her name later in her life).
Ultimately, we recognize that there is probably no “right” way to spell her name considering this time in history. And anyone versed in family history will know that spelling variations are common so when researching ancestors it’s a best practice to search on the spelling variations also.
But I still wish there were one, definitive, right way. ;)
……….
Sources and Notes:- More on finding the unmarked grave of Wilhelmina’s daughter, Ursilla Katherine Bruce Beattie, here (https://greatflyingscots.blogspot.com/2017/05/john-mcdonald-and-ursilla-katherine.html).
- Most of these documents I found on ScotlandsPeople (https://scotlandspeople.gov.uk), though the Bruce family register is a copy that Grandma Ella shared with me - I’m not sure where the original is or who shared the copy with her. I’m in the process of posting documents to FamilySearch (https://www.familysearch.org/), but if you’d like a copy of them in the meantime, send me an email and I can share them with you directly.
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| Wilhelmina Inkster Bruce/Campbell is Ella's great grandmother. |
