How many children did Alexina have?

[Forfarian]

Alexina Burgess Reid was born in Huntly on 15 May 1966, parents James Reid and Margaret Burgess.

On 27 February 1894, Alexina had an illegitimate daughter, Jemima Burgess Reid, born in her parents' home in Huntly. The next definite sighting of Alexina is her marriage in Glasgow on 7 February 1898 to George Boyd, born in Dunipace in 1869. The marriage was by declaration in the presence of Alexander Reid and Sarah Wallace or Reid.

George was the widower of Margaret Smith. They were married in 1891 and had three daughters: Jessie, born 1891/3, Barbara, born 1893/4; Elizabeth, born 1895/6. Margaret Smith or Boyd died in Dunipace in 1897, aged 27.

In the 1901 census, George and Alexina are in Dunipace with his three older daughters and another daughter, Maggie, aged 2. Maggie is George and Alexina's daughter Margaret Burgess Boyd, born 1899.

In 1911 the family has grown with the addition of Robert, born 1900/1; Alexina, born 1903/4; James, born 1904/5; Jeanie, born 1907/8; George, born 1909/10. Also in the household are George's daughter Jessie, 19, now the wife of Alexander Reid and mother of yet another Alexina Reid, aged 1 month. Alexander is not in the household. Alexina is said to have been married for 20 years (not true, because George and Alexina were married in 1898), and to have had 9 children, all still living.

I can find 7 children of Alexina; the six she had had by George Boyd, plus Jemima.

However an Alexina Reid, domestic servant, gave birth to Mabel Bisset Reid at 287 Springburn Road, Glasgow, on 2 March 1896.

So the question is, has George misled the enumerator by forgetting that his first wife, mother of his first three children, is not the same as Alexina, who has had only six children to him?

Or should I be looking for two more children of Alexina, one of whom could be Mabel?

I have all the relevant census for Alexina and her children by George. She left Jemima with her parents, and Jemima eventually married George Stronach after having two children to him. I have George in all relevant censuses except 1891.

I can't find anything at all about Mabel Bisset Reid. No marriage, no death, no census.

[GR2]

As you know, the middle name of a child with illegitimate parents often points to the father. In the 1901 census, at Flemington Street, Glasgow, there is John Bisset, 40, pottery presser, his wife, Maggie, 43, and a single child, a daughter, Mabel Bisset, 5, born Glasgow. It might be worth looking at the Scotland's People index to see if a Mabel Bisset was registered. If not, it might be her.

[Forfarian]

Good find, GR2, thank you. There is no birth of a Mabel Bisset(t) in Glasgow in 1895/6 or any time near then. So this looks quite possible ....

.... John Bisset married Maggie Foster in Buckhaven in 1886. Their daughter Mabel, aged 22, married John Sheldon in Glasgow in 1918. 

So it does look as if Maggie Foster might have adopted her husband's child by Alexina Reid. However that doesn't prove that Mabel's mother is 'my' Alexina Reid.