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« on: Sunday 13 December 15 23:00 GMT (UK) »
I find my family history to be utterly absorbing and can spend hours and hours researching & reading. I have recently submitted my DNA to Ancestry.com and am hoping that will help me find even more relations & maybe fill in a few of the more stubborn gaps. I love the stories about the people. Like my Townsend Thomson. I think she must have opened quite a few eyes & I would love to have met her. Back in the mid 1800's it was definitely frowned upon to have an illegitimate child, never mind 3! From what I have found on the census's and death certificates and so on, each of her 3 children had a different father. She never married and worked as a dressmaker in Leslie for most of her life. Her eldest child was fathered by Thomas Shoolbred - this is specified on the birth certificate. But her second child (my great grandmother, Isabella Miller Thomson) had no father specified on the birth certificate...but she was given the second name of Miller, so I assume that her father was a Mr Miller. One Isabella's death certificate in South Africa it is stated that her parents were James Miller & Euphemia Townsend - but this was a blatant lie. Makes me think Isabella was ashamed that she was illegitimate. I don't have a photo of her unfortunately. Thanks for getting back to me on all of this. I am going to be in England & Scotland in Sept & Oct 2016 to do some family tree research and am hoping to uncover some more information then.
Cheers,
Nicky
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