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Please can anyone help me track down my great grandmother's birth?

She was Martha Jane Davies, birth unknown. She married William Goatman Hall on 1 March 1901 in Pembrey, Carmarthenshire, aged 24. Her marriage certificate shows her father to be Thomas Llewellyn Davies/Davis (deceased), painter. After 1904 we know her history.

She died in Llanelli on 2 December 1914.

This is all we know for sure about her, and includes a 2 year discrepancy in her age, which could conceivably be anytime 1877-1880.

I have tracked down a Thomas Llewellyn Davies, born in Swansea 1853 who at 17 (1871 census) is a painter. His father and brother are also painters so I'm assuming this was his trade as opposed to someone 'jobbing'.

In 1871 Thomas LLewellyn lived in Calvert Street, Swansea, with his father Thomas, mother Jane, and siblings Jane, George and Louisa. After that he disappears - it's possible that he died (there are a number of Thomas Davies deaths between 1871 and 1881 in Swansea). If he is the right person he married Martha Jane's mother sometime between 1871 and 1881 and Martha Jane was born.

This has been bugging the family for years now, and at least two other families who are distantly related and have an interest in her.

So far the main possibility is a Martha Jane Davies born 21 Oct 1878 in Swansea workhouse -
father Thomas Davies, collier
mother Sarah Davies formerly Llewellyn.

A Martha Jane Davies was found in Robeston Wathen, Pembroke in 1881 at the age of 1 living with her grandparents. Although this possibly is her, the father's occupation is collier rather than painter. I know Thomas Llewellyn Davies could have become a collier after 1871, but it's all rather an assumption. And we still don't know what happened to her parents.

In 1891 Martha is 12 and living with grandparents again, but this time different people.

After years of research we still haven't really pinned down who Martha Jane was and for me there are just too many ifs and buts in what we have. I'm hoping that some of the super sleuths on RC can help find something a bit more definitive for me.

I hope I've given enough information and not made it too muddled. Thanks in advance to anyone who is willing to try and help out.

Thomas Hall died in Gorsley in 1895, and according to a newspaper report lived at Public Cottage, Gorsley.

Seems an odd name for a cottage, has anyone come across it before, or have any idea where it might have been please?

I can't read this death certificate cause of death - it's a one year old infant.

Typically I can read diptheria and Tubercular meningitis on the ones either side but this has me stumped.

In the nls website (link here http://maps.nls.uk/view/74400048 ) on the John Wood map for Melrose and Gattonside in 1826 I've noticed that some land just east of Gattonside House (and probably part of the Gattonside estate) is marked as 'Mr Keddie' - I'm assuming that the names are the tenants rather than owners.

Does anyone know whether it is possible to find out who the 'Mr Keddie' was? I don't know of family members being at Gattonside at that date, but from the 1850's one of our families worked on the estate for over twenty years as market gardeners. Again I assume that they rented land from the estate. Sons seem to follow fathers around the farms, so I think it's possible that the George I know about was introduced to the estate by a relative who already worked there.

The family history in the Borders in the 1820s is all a bit hazy as I've had trouble tracking them down and linking them up, so this may give me another pointer.

Thanks to anyone who is able to help

Sue