RootsChat.Com

Hi Dominic,
I am getting re-motivated to find out more about my family history and will check the posts more often. In answer to your first post re Heather Robertson, yes we did meet her quite a few years ago when my father was still alive when we went to see my grandmothers grave in South Australia.
Heather has given us a lot of information on our family history. I don't know if she is still alive.
My grandfather (Alexander) was an industrial chemist with a background in what some might describe as snake oil, we have a copy of a letter written to him in 1907 requesting some of his hair restorer, wouldn't mind some of it myself!
Some records show my great-grandfather as an asbestos manufacturer but in the same letter written in 1907 the writer says he is being treated for rheumatism hopefully not with asbestos.
I will send photos of the cane chairs that we have with JR initials on them, also a copy of the letter requesting the hair restorer

Hi Rosie,
Thanks for your response(s), I am heading away from my computer for 4 days so anything that you send through I won't get to see until Wednesday.
Cheers
Brian R.

Hi Monica,
Thanks for your reply, my connection to the family is via my grandfather Alexander Robertson, we have a copy of a letter requesting some hair restorer with a rather ringing endorsement of its benefits dated 1907 when he was living in Manchester, we had no idea that Alexander was a analytical chemist, he was a fruit grower in South Australia and passed away living with our family in 1948.

Thanks for that Daisy, I appreciate it very much, at last I now can get a picture of who Maria was, she had passed away before I was born

Cheers and thanks to all again

Brian

I am getting so frustrated searching for my grandmothers records, all that I have been able to come up with so far is records from South Australia which show her marrying Alexander Robertson in Stirling on the 31st March 1917 and subsequently passing away in Adelaide on the 24th May 1930. Her Australian records show her name as only Maria Marshall.
On the marriage certificate it says she was born in Somercoates England and she was 39 years old at the time possibly making her birth around 1878, it also notes that her father was "unknown". On the death certificate it states she was 53 years old in 1930 making her birth year around 1877.
The searches that I have carried out have a Maria Marshall born in Sculcoates in 1875 and another born in West Derby (Maria Louise Marshall) in 1876, now you will have to forgive my ignorance of the geography of these areas but I haven't the faintest clue where to look now. Maybe the Aussie who wrote the certificates mistook the spelling as they could sound similar?
It wouldn't surprise me if she was not quite truthful about her age, maybe she had disowned her father as well.
Any help that you could provide would be greatly appreciated and reduce the amount of grey hairs that I have accumulated trying to find her.