Genealogy Chat

Have just found a parish register transcript online for Middleton in Teesdale which is where my Mary Mason gave as her birthplace on the 1851 (back in the good old days of yesterday when we had the 1851!!). There are not a lot of Masons on there, but there is a Mally Mason baptised at the right time. Her mother seems to switch christian names from Ann to Nancy to Nanny and back again. Do you think that I can count on this Mally being my Mary? Is Mally or Molly a common variation of Mary?

I have 6 Mally's in my tree, all of whom have the variants you've listed at some point in their lives! You can have some of mine, if you like!

Thanks, Lou. I must admit that it isn't a variation I have heard before. She was certainly Mary when she married and on the census information that I have seen.

I actually had a thread about this a while ago cos I'd never heard the name Mally and someone posted a really good reply about why the variants were used. Will try and find it for you!

Thanks, that would be great. Why couldn't people just stick to one name? It would be so much simpler!!

My thread appears to have gone...lol! It was something along the lines of Mally being quite a common christian name but some vicars refused to accept it as a name as it was considered to be 'heathen' and the variants Mary and Molly were used instead on official records! So sometimes you would see Mally and sometimes Mary for the same child...it depended on the vicar!

Thanks for all your help, Lou. It looks as if I can safely assume that I have found the right one.

My Mum was christened Mary but was always called Molly. So yes definitely.

Lou - I think it was me! I have several Mallys in my tree, all from the Darwen, Lancs area. Reading a book on the history of Darwen, the Author stated that Mally, a popular name in the area, was a very common derivative of Mary, but the local Vicar, very High, refused to baptise any child with this 'Heathen' name and so they all got 'dipped' as Mary - probably the only time in their lives they were ever referred to as such. (He also refused to baptise any males as Harry - the correct name, according to him, was Henry. No Nathans either - they were strictly Jonathans, a big nuisance for me, as they all referred to themselves ever after as Nathan) Olde Crone

It was you! And the thread has gone....no idea where! And in 3 minutes so am I..........lol!