Lesley -- You have every right to be confused. They're supposedly my family and they confuse me
OK....ELIZABETH Kelly (my Granny) married James Adams on 28 June 1901 in Hutchesontown, I have that marriage certificate. On that certificate it says her parents are John Kelly and Catherine Boyle (Oh, wait a minute! I see NOW why you're confused! *I* said I had no written proof that her mother was Catherine Boyle. Sorry, my mistake. I'd forgotten Liz's marriage license!
). Maybe Liz was so excited that she forgot her Mom's maiden name, and Mom and\or Dad weren't at the wedding, to ask them?
"Looking back at the 1881, if Ellen/Helen is of this family and she married Mr Gibbons and is in the 1901 as born Midlothian (which fits) aged 31 - where is she in 1881?"
I guess going by her age in 1901 (31) she'd have been about 11 in 1881, but as you say, she isn't shown. Maybe she was with her grandparents or elsewhere? Mary-Ellen? That's a definite possibility. I'll have to check for a birth certificate for Ellen and Mary (or Mary-Ellen) around 1870. She'd be about 22 in in the 1891 census, so she could have been a sister of Ellen's and was married herself and living with her hubby, elsewhere. Or maybe she died?
For example, in
1891 census, there's a grandaughter Helen Hamilton (age 6) shown with John and Catherine (Ellen's parents). Ellen is shown in her own house with Mr Gibbons and the rest of the brood, while her daughter (Helen Hamilton) spends some quality time with Granny Elizabeth and Granda John.
....Interesting.....
Researching Adams & Kelly 1850+, particularly in Hutchesontown/Gorbals area of Glasgow.
This seems to happen here quite often on TS - it brings a whole new angle to that well known phrase "I kent yur faither"