Gaps in Scottish names

[Jeremy Wilkes]

I am new to Scottish research, and am gradually learning. The L.D.S. transcription of the 1881 census includes gaps between "Mc" and the rest of the surname, an irritating feature that I usually forget until I get a "nil" search result from Scotlands People. On the other hand, when I click to check my entry against the Find My Past transcription, there is no gap. Should I type "Mc Neil" or "McNeil" and does it make a difference to matching?

 

[Bob Spiers]

Differing systems requiring different search approaches but you could try a wild card *(asterisk) I suppose - as in Mc*Neil or perhaps better M*Neil.

 

[peter]

I am new to Scottish research, and am gradually learning. The L.D.S. transcription of the 1881 census includes gaps between "Mc" and the rest of the surname, an irritating feature that I usually forget until I get a "nil" search result from Scotlands People. On the other hand, when I click to check my entry against the Find My Past transcription, there is no gap. Should I type "Mc Neil" or "McNeil" and does it make a difference to matching?

Always use the LDS transcription, which is only found at ScotlandsPeople (or on the CD ROM set - if you can still get it to work).

 

[Puddles]

The surname of my relatives was recorded as the person recording the information either heard it or thought it should be recorded. Even in the 1980s my children's mother's maiden name is Mc on the certificate I was given and Mac on the copy sent to the Registrar General and appears as Mac on the index. Obviously I was unaware of this until well after the event.

I'll now go back and look at my Mac / Mc and even Mack anestors and see if I need to put in spaces as per the LDS transcription.