George Nisbet alias Osman Ali father from Scotland- help with finding birth in 1836 Rouens

Question

George Nisbet was claimed born in 1836 in Rouen France, of a Glasgow father who in 1848 emigrated to Egypt, where he died. His widow married a Turk named Osman, who adopted her son and made him heir to his slave business. George Nisbet took the name of Osman Ali, and after being educated at the military academy, where he was intimate friend of the late Arabi Pasha, became a slave trader

see also https://www.wikitree.com/photo/pdf/Nisbet-798

Answer 1

Hello, I consulted the decennial tables 1833-1842 of Rouen https://www.archivesdepartementales76.net/ark:/50278/137a8d20d7a65cebab4ec8819b846886/dao/0/1/idsearch:RECH_59e0605713e1afdb88ca10ed15b6bf60?id=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.archivesdepartementales76.net%2Fark%3A%2F50278%2F137a8d20d7a65cebab4ec8819b846886%2Fcanvas%2F0%2F471  and I did not find any NISBET Georges there. In https://fr.wikipedia.org/wiki/Osman_Digma, there is a doubt about his place of birth.

Cordially.

Bonjour, J'ai consulté les tables décennales 1833-1842 de Rouet et je n'y ai pas trouvé de NISBET Georges. Dans https://fr.wikipedia.org/wiki/Osman_Digma , il y a un doute sur son lieu de naissance.

Cordialement. 

Answer 2

Bonjour,

J'ai consulté les tables décennales 1833-1842 de Rouen :

https://www.archivesdepartementales76.net/ark:/50278/137a8d20d7a65cebab4ec8819b846886/dao/0/1/idsearch:RECH_59e0605713e1afdb88ca10ed15b6bf60?id=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.archivesdepartementales76.net%2Fark%3A%2F50278%2F137a8d20d7a65cebab4ec8819b846886%2Fcanvas%2F0%2F471    

et il n'y a pas de Nisbet George.

Cordialement

Comments

Thanks for looking

Answer 3

After some research, my impression is that the Scottish and French origins of Osman Ali (Osman Digma) are entirely made up, including the name George Nisbet. It looks like what is now called "fake news". The earliest occurrence of this story I could find is an article that appeared almost simultaneously in several French newpapers in December 1888, for instance in Le Figaro (19 Dec 1888, p. 5, bottom of 3rd and top of 4th column). The article starts with "German newspapers give an extremely romantic biography of this African." I could not find any German article on him of that time (but I may not have looked at the right place).

The German version of his Wikipedia article used to contain the sentence "He was often mistaken for a Frenchman named George Nisbet from Rouen", but it has now been removed. Only the French version still contains an allusion to Rouen, but states that "his birthplace is unknown". Neither is sourced.

Comments

Interesting story I just added my research pdf to his profile from some years back with clippings I found, As it is over a period of over 10 years I would not expect it to be fake news. But how much is correct i hard to say---Would be great to find out more (a source)  to see what is correct

https://www.wikitree.com/photo/pdf/Nisbet-798