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Who knows Jenny Duncan?

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#1
I'm Björn Roslund, living i Helsingborg Sweden, looking for any background information about Jenny Duncan, born May 27 1801, dead July 4 1886.
She came to Helsingborg, Sweden (year unknown) and became a famous business women here.
Where she was born, family conditions ... I have no idea.
I would be very grateful for any information, since I'm planing a biografy about Jenny.
Thanks a lot!
 

p.risboy

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#2
Welcome Bjorn, to Family History forums UK.

Jenny Duncan sounds like a Scottish name. If so, the problem you have is the christian of Jenny, as there are several variations of it. e.g. Jean, Jane, Janet, Joan, etc.
A cursory look on Ancestry, also has a few born in the UK, but most of them are of Scottish origins. Not sure if your searches will bare fruit, but there are those who might know more if they have family links to your Jenny Duncan.

There maybe Newspaper reports regarding Jenny in Sweden, have you checked any of those. If she was famous there should be some sort of a biography for her.

Good luck with your research.(y)

Steve.:)
 
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#3
Thank you very much, Steve. I will try some more name variations. Yes, Jenny was Scottish, and there is some biography on her from when she arrived Sweden. But the missing pieces in the puzzle are from her time in Scotland, her childhood, parents, place of birth etc.
Thanks again.
Björn :)
 

gibbo

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#6
Last edited:
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#7
Thank you for your contributions. Jenny's headstone is located on Helsingborgs Old Cemitary, about 100 meters from my home.
Jenny should have arrived in Sweden about 1825. However, what I'm looking for is some method to find out where she was born, and who her family were.
We know her birth date, May 27. But how to find her birth place??
 

p.risboy

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#8
It maybe be a long and drawn out process. As the headstone gives Scotland as her place of birth, you would literally have to track down all the Jenny Duncan's,(and name variants), one by one and eliminate each one, by death or marriage. You may be lucky with her date of birth, but baptisms around that time rarely give date of birth. This will be more than likely be quite expensive, and very time consuming.

Use this website, to get you started........ https://www.scotlandspeople.gov.uk/

Steve.:)
 
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#12
Wow, thank you, solidrock! Apart from the headstone I have no other source yet. May 27 might be the date of baptism. Perhaps the birth date shouldn't be taken too seriously.
Do you mean her name appears some other date in 1801?
 
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#13
Thanks Julie. Somewhere, probably in Scotland, there should be living descendants to Jenny Duncans siblings. How great it would be if someone knows someone who knows someone ... :)
 

solidrock2

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#14
Wow, thank you, solidrock! Apart from the headstone I have no other source yet. May 27 might be the date of baptism. Perhaps the birth date shouldn't be taken too seriously.
Do you mean her name appears some other date in 1801?
Have'nt looked at other years but in 1801 there are a few possibilities for a May birth.
DUNCAN
JANET
JAMES DUNCAN/ANNE ROSS FR130 (FR130)
F
01/05/1801
338/
10 159
Cargill.

DUNCAN
JANET
DAVID DUNCAN/ELISABETH FERNIE
F
21/05/1801
438/
20 57
Kilrenny.

DUNCAN
JANET
WILLIAM DUNCAN/FRANCES LOCKHART FR265 (FR265)
F
17/05/1801
629/
10 264
Carluke.

DUNCAN
JEAN
JOHN DUNCAN/ANN STRACHEN
F
17/05/1801
387/
130 164
Perth
 
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#15
Thank you solidrock! Interesting. Janet in Kilrenny seems by intuition the most interesting one.

I just found that she came to Sweden when she was 19, in 1920. Would it be possible to search for emmigrant information in Scottish registers?
Any hint for me to go further?
 
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#18
I haven't got her death certificate. Not yet.
I'm just in the beginning of my research, appreciating every little hint about Jenny's first 19 years in Scottland.
 

p.risboy

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#19
In post #6 from Gibbo, in one of the articles that Gibbo provided, there was suggestion that her parents were deceased, or something akin to that. Not sure, but it suggested a traumatic childhood, I think. As I cannot read the article, I cannot be certain.

Arriving in Sweden before any credible census return will limit your research for a place of birth in Scotland.

But kirk sessions, other church courts, are available in ScotlandsPeople web site.

Steve.:)
 
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#20
Dear p.risboy,
I have looked for the suggested information in post #6 from Gibbo. But unfortunately I see no important information.
Thank you anyway.
 
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