RootsChat.Com

I am perplexed as to fate of one of my family John Melrose. He was born in Manor, Peeblesshire, Scotland in 1827, son of James Melrose and Jane Ballantyne.  In 1852 he married Mary Middlemass, and you can see him in the 1861 Scottish census, described as a linen draper master, with children Agnes (7), James (5) and John (3). Later that year he had another daughter Jane Ballantyne Melrose.  That however is the last record I can find of him.

However Mary Middlemass is easy to track. In 1871 she is living on a farm with her grandparents, along with all 4 children. In 1881 she is living with her mother and daughter Jane in Peebles, where she is described as married, and living on private means. In 1891, she is living just with daughter Jane in Peebles, where again she is described as married and living on private means. In 1901 however, she is by herself in Peebles, and described as widowed and living on private means.

Next she moves to New Jersey, where she lives with her son James. You can see her in the 1910 federal census, living in Trenton Ward 13, Mercer, New Jersey, described as widowed. Also there are city directory entries around that time, where she is described as the widow of John Melrose. I have not found her death entry however.

Another small piece of evidence that John was alive at least in 1877, is that his daughter Agnes died in childbirth that year.  John is not described as deceased on Agnes's death record.

At the same time I have found an entry in the 1870 federal census for John Melrose a tailor from Scotland, living in New York Ward 09 District 14.  It is a curious entry, because living with him are an inferred set of children and an apprentice, but if you look at the children, none of them seem to be anything to do with his Scottish family, being born in New York. However if you look at how they are entered, the children also plausibly lack a family name - every other entry on the page has a line for the family name, and these have none. My research skills so far are not up to finding the origin of this "family", or the fate of any of them.  I am suspecting that the children are not Melroses, and somewhere there might be an 1860 census with them. I have not found any of them in subsequent records.

What do people make of this? Have I located my John, but if so what happens to him? Who are the people he is with?  I am hoping someone more skilled than me might point me in the right direction.

A simple question, as I have come across it twice recently - I find a baptism entry, neatly laid out with parents names and location, but the child's name and gender are missing.  Is this simply a case of the child having died, before being baptized? Or the clergyman forgot to fill it in?


An example is the attached picture for Unnamed Campbell, baptized(?) on 25 July 1746 in Watten, parents William Campbell and Christian Budge (OPR births 042/10/163 Watten).  Family trees keep claiming that there is a Janet Campbell born to these parents, but I can see no evidence of this, unless this unnamed child is her.

I am at a loss now on how to proceed to locate the maiden name of Winifred Humphrey Smith. I can clearly find her on the 1939 Register - she is with her husband Richard Humphrey Smith at 77 Carr Lane, Chorley, Lancashire.  She gives her birth date as 9 January 1910.  Annotated in green is the later name of Aspinall with a date of 1968, which I assume is her later married name. 

Richard died in 1957 at the same address, and is seemingly buried in North Berwick, Scotland (although this may just be a family memorial).  I think I have Winifred Smith marrying Edward Archer Aspinall in 1967 in Bolton, Lancashire, which would fit in with the green annotation of 1968 on the register.  I can then find a Winifred Aspinall dying in 2007, with a birth date given of 9 January 1911. Edward Aspinall had died in 1976, but at that stage her son Peter Humphrey Smith should have been alive (he died in 2012), but unluckily I can find no probate record, that might have linked this Winifred Aspinall with him. 

Other family trees have the Winifred Smith that married Edward Aspinall as living from 6 April 1915 to 1998, but I think they are all copying off each other, and from a Winifred Aspinall who also died in Bolton, but in 1998 - they have just jumped to the conclusion that this Winifred Aspinall is the right one. I might be wrong however!

I can find no marriage records that would fit a Richard Smith marrying a Winifred in the proper time frame.  I know they are married before 1934 (they are living together in Doncaster, Yorkshire according to the Electoral Register), and because of her age I assume after about 1928.  The only record that checks out is a Richard H Smith marring a Winfred Jones in Oswestry, Shropshire, but this is not them. 

Finally my question - what is Winifred's maiden name?  Where else might I go to research this?

My ancestors are William Thornhill and Elizabeth Browning, who married in West Malling on 11 August 1755. In the marriage record it says that Elizabeth is a widow.  At this time is it usual for a person to be remarried with their married name or maiden name? In short who is Elizabeth likely to be originally, and who was she married to before?

Trees on ancestry are all giving what is probably wrong, that Elizabeth was born in 1737 in Stourmouth, daughter of Thomas Browning and Jane May, but I am thinking this is unlikely for an 18 year old to already be a widow, but possible I suppose.