.The last trace I had of her was in the 1891 census with her husband and all six of her surviving children. In 1892 my greatgrandfather died as did the youngest child aged 4. My grandmother was 9 at the time. I could find nothing of the family in 1901. My grandmother was in service to the Marquess of Bute at the time, but I still cannot find her in that census. Eventually when all this got computerised with ScotsOrigins and Scotlandspeople, I found the oldest two children had got married. Recently I looked up the eldest sister in the 1901 census and found her with husband and family and the now youngest daughter aged 14 and her brother James aged 20 (my grandmother being in service was not down.
No sign of greatgrandmother - was she dead? but all the marriage certificates did not have "deceased" after Catherine as bride's mother, so she must be alive somewhere
.Yesterday I searched for the death of the eldest daughter (1913) no mention of "deceased". So had a look for the next daughter. Found it in 1920 with the magic word "deceased". So Catherine had died sometime between 1913 and 1920. The major clue, however was that in both of these death certificates, Catherine's maiden name was misspelt DOLLAN. I found her death entry in 1920 quite easily then, and also learned that she had remarried in 1900, so no wonder I wasn't able to find her before. My grandmother never said that she had been remarried (perhaps she didn't approve of her going to live with her new husband and leaving her 3 youngest children behind to be looked after by the oldest daughter).
So 15 years on I'm looking for my next target! Just hope it doesn't take as long as greatgrandmother!
Cheers and happy hunting to all
Annpa
