Help needed with great grandfather!

[emanday]

OK with grannies but, even though I'd been doing this, I still couldn't REALLY remember all of my G Grannies. Only got two right without looking

[JustJean]

I guess I was immersed in family history a lot sooner than I realized. I grew up hearing stories about family members and all those little snippets only served to make them into living people. It's certainly a gift to give any child.....the story of the people who came before them. I only had to go out and find the vital records....already knew the names.....and have many photos some of which keep me company from the wall when I'm at my computer.

Now to bring this thread drift back to Caroline!!!

I'm still looking Caroline....I've not found anything at all that would give you hope yet. I'm struck by the scenario that in 1901 your grannie was living as his servant and wee George did not carry the Ross surname. If William were his father he certainly didn't acknowledge it at the birth registration. This might mean that he truly was married to someone else at the time or it might mean that he was a reluctant father. It also made me wonder if his own beginnings might have been from similar circumstances....perhaps an illegitimate birth...perhaps being registered under McLean instead of Ross.....perhaps his own mother was a servant in a household. Ok..you can see I'm truly speculating here! I'd like nothing better than to find him on the 1871 census for you. Surely he must have been born by then...his age matches on 2 occasions and points to a birth in 1869ish. There was one William McLean registered in Argyll to a sinlgle mother Margaret McLean in Dec 1869.....she was a servant......I haven't found a death for him nor found the two of them together in 1871. Like I said.....still puzzling on this one and likely will be for some time.

Did the names of the children William and Mary Ann have together tie in with their parents names at all?

Best wishes
Jean

[Caroline]

Now to bring this thread drift back to Caroline!!!

Thanks Jean!

Like you I also thought that William was probably born illegitimate and registered under Maclean instead of Ross, but I couldn't find any evidence to back this up apart from the fact that he was commonly known as William Maclean Ross.

As for William and Mary Anns other children they were called Elizabeth, Maggie and Agnes. I assumed Elizabeth was named after Mary Anns mother (Isabella), Maggie after Williams mother and Agnes after Marys Anns step mother. All the children were registered as illegitimate under Mary Anns surname, Henderson. apart from Elizabeth who was registered as Ross with William as the father.

I've no idea where George came from as nobody in Mary Anns family has that name. I know there's the possibility that William maybe isn't Georges father, but I'd like to know more about him as he was the person my grandad referred to as his Dad.

I've no idea why Mary Ann came to Kirkcaldy though as in 1891 she was a domestic servant to the Provost of Dalbeattie and all her family(she'd 14 siblings) remained in Dalbeattie (I've traced her line back to 1773).

Thanks for trying so hard with this Jean and please feel free to ask for more info if you need it.

Caroline

[momat]

Caroline,

My thought as too the Grandchild odds was the difference in age of the first to last child to Donald & Margaret
I.E. 1841-1869 .Not unheard of I know