Hello friends - My great-grandfather, John Reid, was born in Abbey poorhouse in Neilston, Renfrewshire in 1872. I'm embarking on a mission to find out who his father was! I'm going to use dna analysis and corresponding family trees to narrow the search down to the right time and place and age group, etc. I have some hope, because of the very good 1871 census that was done in Scotland, the year prior to John Reid's birth. My first problem is that I do not have a census report for John's mother, Caroline Reid, for 1871. I would like to have this to be sure that she was in the area where I think she was in the year prior to the birth of her son. I do have her in the 1861 census as boarding in Collier Street, Johnstone, Renfrewshire at age 13, presumably working in the mills. The next record I have for her is the birth of a first child, William, (at least I'm pretty sure it was her) in Neilston in 1870, then the birth of John in 1872 at the poorhouse. She died in 1881 at another boarding house in Neilston (which is about 3 miles down the road from her 1861 home in Johnstone). I'm wondering if perhaps she journeyed to visit her father during 1871, as he was dying at that time. If so, she may have been at Armadale, West Lothian at the time of the census. Unfortunately I don't know in which month her father passed away, only that it was 1871. Is there anyone out there who has the ability to search the 1871 census more in depth than I can on ancestry? Caroline Reid was born in 1848 in Dalmellington, Ayrshire. Her parents were John Reid and Caroline Matilda Fergusson. However, her mother died either at or shortly after Caroline's birth, and her father remarried to a woman named Hannah Geddes. They had several more children together. If anyone can find a census report or any other documentation of Caroline's whereabouts around 1871, you'll win the genealogist sleuth of the year award! Not to mention my eternal gratitude.
Thank-you in advance.
ladyk
