Month: March 2008

In my searching, I stumbled across a Walter Baskval born about 1806 in Ireland. He turned up in the 1841 Scotland census, living in Lanarkshire. He was a private in the 17th Lancers. There was a Lucinda Baskval born about 1806 listed in the same census, as well as three children with the last name of Baskoal: James, John, and William. All born in Ireland.

I don’t know that this is at all helpful in any concrete way. I have no proof that these two names are variants of Basquill (though how could they not be?), nor can I connect the names and dates to any Basquills I know about. It’s conceivable that this Walter–and that’s not a very common name in Ireland at this point in time–is Walter’s grandfather. If so, he’d be my, let’s see, great-great-great-great grandfather. He could also be my Walter’s uncle. Or he could be no relation at all, though I find that unlikely.

The real question, though, is where the heck did this variant of the name come from? I wish there were a scan of the census page available, because I’d like to see the actual handwriting. Sometimes, weird variants are due to bad transcription. Other times, they might be due to the enumerator not having a good ear. This is especially problematic if the enumeratee is illiterate or not fluent in the enumerator’s language, which is a distinct possibility in this case. Walter could well have been unable to read or write, or he may not have been very fluent in English, if Gaelic was his first language.

As for the different spelling between the parents and the children, I wonder if they were enumerated separately? The kids were pretty young (1, 4, and 5 years old), so they were certainly unable to read and write. They also may have been in the care of a neighbor or someone who didn’t know how the name was spelled. Without seeing the actual census form, it’s impossible to guess.

I also found a Peter Basguill born 1801 in County Mayo, Ireland. Peter was in the 1851 Scotland census. He was a grocer in Fort-William, Inverness. Possibly a brother of this older Walter? Possibly the father of Michael? Or, even, the grandfather of Michael? As far as I can tell, this is the only instance of this variant of the name showing up in the UK census records.

And just for fun, I tried Google. I got no hits for Baskval and Baskoal and only three for Basguill. Two were for a Martin Basguill who is buried in Pennsylvania, and the third was for a patent application.

While searching through passenger manifests, I came across a few that puzzled me. They were for women who had been detained, and in the detained column, there were notations stating “to husband” or “to father.” What were the women detained for, and what did the “to X” notation mean? I asked Teh Google, and Teh Google directed me to the Manifest Markings website.

What a wonderful resource! In the section on alien detentions, it explains that unattended women entering the US had to have someone who would take responsibility for them. It could be a cousin, a father, a husband, or one of the various immigrant aid societies. Sometimes, the woman was released directly into that person’s custody, but other times, a telegram would be sent to the custodian, a reply received, and the woman would be released to go meet him. Customs officials just needed to know that there was someone who would take responsibility for the woman.

An annotation of “to Tel” or “to Tel $” meant that the passenger was detained because they arrived in the US without a ticket through to their final destination. The notation meant that a friend or family member had been sent a telegram requesting money, and the passenger would be detained until funds arrived. I haven’t any idea what happened if there was no one to send funds, or if the funds weren’t available. Did the passenger just get set loose at the port of entry? Or were they sent back home? Or was the shipping company held financially responsible?