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I have an ancestor, Martha Fitzgerald, who married Hans Schmidt (born about 1891) in South Shields in February 1915. He volunteered for the army in 1915 and gave his nationality as British and his occupation as electrical engineer. He gives his address as Reyrolles. On the enlistment form it says he served in the Penang volunteers.

On the pensions sheet it says he has an alias Urick Humphrey Baker.

I can understand the alias but I cannot find anything out about any of  family at all after this. They had 2 daughters, Ada who was born and died in 1915 and a Dulcie, born in 1918.

Many thanks in advance for any ideas.

Parakeet

Hi Espoir

So sorry for not reading  your message properly. Haven't done enough research on the older Foster Cant. My relative is the son's wife Jane Black , who died early.

But I can't resist a puzzle so I'll have a look!

Parakeet

As far as I know there is only one Isabella Cant. She is the daughter of Foster Cant and his wife (née Black), who died in 1879.  Foster and Jane had another daughter, Jane born in 1877 but died in 1883.

Foster married again in 1883 - Elizabeth Snowdon Campbell and they had a daughter in 1884, also called Jane. He was never married to anybody called Jane.

 But it is possible that there is another Isabella born around that time - could have been one of his brothers' children. I don't know anything about this but I know that Foster had an older sister called Isabella.

Parakeet

Hello Sherry

Thank you so much for your message. I especially liked the fact that you have the teapot! I was really pleased to hear that Gideon and Marion still had the energy to go to America in their sixties!

I don't know how much - beyond the baptism - you have discovered. I am fairly sure of some things, some of which are on my old computer - I will have to fire this up and see what else I can find.

Anyway. I was always intrigued by Gideon - even his name, which is quite unusual. I discovered that his mother, Isabella Wood had a brother called Gideon Wood, so he was probably called after him. Not found anything useful about him as yet.

When I found Gideon in Argyll in the 1861 census I was surprised. He was born in Roxburghshire on the Border between Scotland and Northumberland.( which is where my Hoods come from and mainly stayed) A very long way from Argyll. In 1851 he was still in Roxburghshire and a shepherd.I have no proof of this but someone told me that it might be that Gideon had to go to Argyll because the Laird/Landowner  he worked for might have had land all over Scotland and the employees had to go wherever he wanted.

Gideon, as far as I know, had 3 children: George, Margaret and Thomas. Thank you for the information about Margaret. I couldn't find anything else about her after 1841. I know quite a bit about George and Thomas.

Let me know if you already know all of this.  I can go on for hours!

Parakeet