Thanks Forfarian, I was confused before!
The first Elisabeth you mention, I believe is the correct one but yes, it's weird that there is more than one. Although, (not that odd) this family not only name their children after the previous generation but almost every sibling does the same list of names.
I have Elisabeth (various spellings) Steel and James Ralston marriage 22 Dec 1811 from cert.
He was deceased by 30 Dec 1864 (son Williams marriage) but was present from my records in the 1861 census as a tailor and living in Old Town, Kilsyth.
The next page has son William R 26, Robert 24, Walter 21 and four grandchildren James, Elizabeth, Robert and Mary. (Possibly children of Son Alexander who died at age 27).The 'parents' are listed as Head and wife aged 75 and 68 (I did wonder if they could be grandparents but then the son would be listed as grandson I guess).
The children's ages are fairly consistent with the '41, '51 and '61 Census'.
In 1851 parents are 58 and 53 respectively, James is a tailor, four sons are weavers.
In 1841 parents are 40 and 40 respectively, James is a tailor and children include daughters, Jean 15, Elisabeth 14, Alex 12, Daniel 9, William 7, Robert 4 & Walter 7mths.
I have James Ralstons death cert. married to Elisabeth Steel and parents William R (cotton weaver) and Janet Young. He died in June 1864 aged 76. I can presume (with some degree of error) that he was born in 1788.
When you look at the ages listed in the census, they were married in 1811 and didn't appear to have children for the first 15 years of their marriage. then had seven children.
I can only assume that their ages on census were a) pure stubbornness in not providing accurate info (haha), b) they really didn't keep track of their own ages, or c) they may have had work or social reasons for providing odd ages...
re; James birth in 1788, I have located a few options around that time but haven't found one with parents William and Janet or variants yet.
Cheers for now, JT