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By my reckoning, searching phonetically on Henderson, and for first names starting with Els, I can't find anything that I think looks remotely likely in marriages or deaths. That's both in the OPR and SR records, and searching the whole of Scotland.


I have also started to see if I can find evidence of Elspet or Euphemia as witness in other family members weddings, but not so far. 

On 29th May 1814 Euphemia Henderson married Hugh Grieg in Pencaitland.  Her father is said to be Andrew Henderson, a shoemaker in Salton.  Euphemia and Hugh show up in all the census records, and from these you can deduce she was born circa 1789, and her death certificate says she is 83 in 1871. 


When I search for Euphemia's birth records I find Andrew Henderson a shoemaker in Salton, having children with May Torrance in the appropriate time frame, but there is no Euphemia among them.  The 1789 date is taken by Alexander, but in 1787 there is an Elspeth born. 


My question is how likely is it that Elspeth is Euphemia? The names seem to be quite separate, but how many Andrew Henderson shoemakers is a town like Salton likely to have in the 1780s?


To make things worse, Euphemia's death certificate says her father is George Henderson an agricultural laborer, but I am assuming this is just wrong, and the marriage record will be the correct one.

Thanks for this ongoing help! I am at work, so technically am not reading any of this, let alone replying, but I will be looking again tonight in 7 or 8 hours time. I love the way that so much has been filled in on son James, even down to a photo of him. Mary Middlemass I assume died in Trenton as well, but I can't find any trace of her either.  She doesn't seem to be in the same cemetery as daughter "Jeannie Melrose" (Jane Ballantyne Henderson). What a difficult family!

Maddys52 - that's a messed up census entry on ancestry!  I can't see a William Melrose in the immediate family that I can identify as another draper in Peebles. At this point I assume that if it is a Melrose in Traquair, Eddleston or Peebles, they are my family, but I can't see one that would match up with this William however.

James is the son of John who ends up in Trenton, and I think he had a few business ventures. I didn't realise he was also in Philadelphia, so that last cutting is very interesting (thanks RJ137 for finding this). It looks like James Melrose and James Fitzcharles met about 1889 or so in Philadelphia - wonder if they knew each other in Scotland originally.  James Melrose married Gertrude Sittner in 1898, which must be about the time the Jameses started their own company. I see James Melrose is buried with members of the Sittner family.

I see no sign that John Melrose is floating around in this American picture. I have searched newspapers.com for any Johns from Peebles, but nothing shows up so far. Another son John Middlemass Melrose went to South Africa circa 1890 (I assume this is where sister Jane met her future husband) - but searching the South African card catalog for any John who isn't the son, also shows up nothing.