The mysterious Archibald Scott

[Forfarian]

Archibald Scott, son of Alexander Scott and Margaret Aitkenhead, was born on 29 May 1855 at Murrayhill, East Kilbride.

I have all the census records for this family, and most of the information I need about his parents and siblings and their descendants.

Archibald, however, is a mystery. He is with his parents and siblings in the 1861 census, but I have failed to find him in any later census or in the death index at SP online or in the SP centre.

He registered the death of his brother John in 1898, giving his address as 8 Merkland Road, Partick.

Other than that, nothing.

He isn't the one in Bothwell in 1881 with wife Janet and children Janet and James - that's his first cousin, son of James Scott and Isabella Baird and married in 1878 to Janet Stewart - and still in Bellshill/Bothwell in 1891, 1901 and 1911.

He isn't the one who emigrated to the USA in 1905 and settled in Hudson County, New Jersey - that's the son of John Scott and Margaret Jenkins, born in Edinburgh, married to Agnes McLean and with four of a family.

Any ideas? What have I not thought of?

Anne

[Rosinish]

Could he have been working over the border?

Annie

[Forfarian]

He could have been, but if so he managed to evade being recorded in the census there either.

He isn't the one in Willesden in 1901. That is Archibald Edward Scott, son of Edward Scott and Jane Taylor, born in Greenock in 1855.

Nor is he the clerk in Shropshire, who is with his parents there in 1871 and with his wife in 1881, 1891 and 1901. That one's parents were Peter Scott and Isabella White.

He could be the 16-year-old in Cumbria in 1871, but if so, where did he go after that?

[Rosinish]

Have you checked the Valuation Rolls for the address he gave on his brother's death?

May give a clue?

Annie

[Forfarian]

Have you checked the Valuation Rolls for the address he gave on his brother's death?
May give a clue?

Yes, and he's not listed at that address in 1898 or 1905.

[Rosinish]

No clue as to whether they were relations?

Also, not for the 1st time, I have come across ages which were wrong on the index!

Annie

[Forfarian]

No clue as to whether they were relations?

Whom do you mean?

[MonicaL]

Hi both. Forfarian, apart from the 1905 Archibald you mention, there are numerous other shipping manifest entries before this date that could be him.

I think he certainly was in the US in 1917 when he applied for a passport. I also think he played around with his personal data, showing himself as born on the 29 May 1855 in East Saginaw, Michigan (for a moment I thought it was East Kilbribe mistrancribed!). Father showing as Alexander. His passport application shows a lot of movement around in terms of residency and reference to time in Glasgow.

Monica

[MonicaL]

There is a last reference to residency in Panama by the Archibald Scott applying for the passport in 1917. I think this is potentially his wife in 1930 https://familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:XCVY-YYT

Monica