Any ideas on this name please?

[LindsaySiam]

Hi Malmo, not sure that I am with you?  How do you mean Ann changed her mind?

I am reading the line as Ann Hood ditto (ditto for Stirling) but I see how the line through it - enumerator's presumably - makes it look a bit like Reed. Yes, she was the mother of the girls shown and 2 others plus a son, all following the SNP exactly, Oliver really is a cuckoo 

Linda, good thought, checked their 1855 mc but no ... I am beginning to think that he was boarding as Gadget suggested, certainly from what Gadget and John found, he is not the son of James Stirling and Ann Hood.

regards,

Lindsay

[TikTokToo]

Greetings everyone - once more into the breech as they say.
I have not paid to look at any of this but there is an interesting pair of deaths on SP for 1866 in Glasgow City - Archibald McTaggart and Elizabeth ALSTON. Are they the deceased parents of Oliver.?
The plot thickens.

John

OOOPS - You can ignore this - Archie is 5 years and Eliz is 0 years.

[Malmo]

Hello Lindsay
The point I was making was that from my own limited knowledge it was not the convention for maiden names to be shown on census returns. Perhaps they did things differently in Glasgow but there has to be a reason for writing down a different name and then crossing it out.
Could it be the case that Ann gave her name as Hood or Reed instinctively and then had it altered to give the impression of a settled relationship with James Stirling.
You say that Ann is the mother of all the children. In this case, are you sure that James Stirling is the natural father of all or any of them
I might be reading too much into this but it may be that the reason you can’t find archive material for Oliver is because he may have been born and lived as a McTaggart rather than Stirling.
It’s just a thought
M

[Gadget]

Malmo

I thought we had established, with a fair level confidence, that Oliver's parents were Archibald McTaggart and Elizabeth, maiden surname, Aiton.

I think that the 'son' in the relationship column was most likely in error. In my experience, at that time (and even now in some parts), it was usual or a legitimately married woman to be referred to by her maiden name. It was most likely a slip of the tongue.

I presume that a marriage/birth records can be found for the children.

Linsay - Do you have a place of birth in the last column that could support the various theories?

Gadget

[Gadget]

Found them in 1861:

GROS Ref - Vol 644-7 ED 3-7 Page 11

26 Maitland St, Milton, Barony

Archibald McTaggart, hd, mar, 28, tailor, b. Ayrshire, Ayr
Elizabeth, wife, mar, 25, b. Kilmarnock
Christina, d, 3, b. Kilmarnock

Gadget

[LindsaySiam]

James was born 1830 in Killearn and Ann, 1829 in Edinburgh and these are the birthplaces shown on the 1871 census for them also.  I know they were married 12th Jan 1855 in Glasgow.

Ann died at 185, Calendonia Road, Glasgow, in 1891, her dc confirms that she was Ann married to James Stirling, daughter of Andrew Hood and MaryMcGregor.

They had 5 children that I know of

Mary McGregor Stirling, born 1856, Glasgow (named for Ann's mother)
Robert Stirling born 1857, Killearn
Elizabeth Moir Stirling, born 1859, Strathblane (named for James's mother)
Ann Hood Stirling, born 1861, Row (named for Ann herself)
Janet Stirling, born 1864, Row

Of the children, only Elizabeth and Janet are shown on the 1871 census living with James and Ann, both Scholars and their  birthplaces are correct also. Oliver doesn't have any occupation but at 6 he was presumably old enough to be a Scholar also?

I couldn't find Archibald or Elizabeth in the 1881, I don't have the 1861 for James but seems certain from the births of Ann and Janet above that they were living in Row (Dunbartonshire) at this time and as Gadget found Oliver's parents were in Milton (Glasgow).

I did find Archibald in 1841 living at Newton On Ayr with parents and family and this looks like it could be the marriage of Archibald and Elizabeth - Archibald McTaggart and Elizabeth Eaton, 9th Jun 1854, Kilmarnock - IGI extract but no sign on SP (or IGI) of the birth of Christina in c. 1858 in Kilmarnock.

[LindsaySiam]

Just found Elizabeth's dc - she died 29th August 1869 in Kilmarnock, of cancer, I think. Wife of Archibald McTaggart, tailor, daughter of ? (possibly Oliver?) Eaton and Mary Cuthbertson. Her father's occupation seems to have been Bird Preserver, how strange!

Sadly, little Janet Stirling, aged 7 on the 1871 census died in 1871 of measles and convulsions.

Still can't find Archibald in 1881 ... nor Christina

[CarolBurns]

Definitely looks like Oliver to me

Carol

[Gadget]

Did you check for a death for Christina?
Archibald might have re-married and new wife didn't want to look after Oliver.
Another thought - could they have emigrated? It seems strange that Archibald and Oliver can't be found after 1881.

Gadget