Thank you, all, for the replies.
Ruby, I have sent you a pm; the pictures might prove informative about the military during the 1870s. I’ve applied for his records from the National Archives, Liverpool Annie.
Ken, the BMD certificates of the Thompson line I am following is not the one in the 1881 census of Francis Thompson born in Fazeley, Staffordshire. The certificates I have state that my Francis Thompson/Thomson, unless he was very “economical with the truth,” was born in Scotland to parents called Joseph Thomson and Agnes Neilson. (I have to admit that I have not yet been able to trace them.) In his second marriage in 1876, Francis give his father’s name as Joseph whose occupation was ‘weaver’. Yet, on his 1869/1870 marriage certificate, this ‘weaver’ was a ‘deceased labourer’.
Francis went from being a private in the army in 1870 to a potter living in Stoke on Trent in 1871. (RG10; Piece: 2869; Folio: 16; Page: 26; GSU roll: 83638*) The first wife, Catherine, died in 1874 and Francis remarried in 1876, this time to Ester Bates. The 1881 census has Est(h)er Thompson (nee Bates) in her sister’s household (Annie Smith, RG11; Piece: 2719; Folio: 83; Page: 11; GSU roll: 1341652* ) but Francis is nowhere to be found. (That is, I have not been able to find him.) On his death certificate (potter’s asthma), 26 March 1882, the person present at his death and reporting the event was the next door neighbour…not the wife! Est(h)er remarried within four months of Francis’s death so I assume they were estranged. There were no children from the union with Catherine or Esther as far as I know. But, Est(h)er did have a child out of wedlock one year prior to her marriage to Francis Thompson. The child never bore the THOMPSON name but she did name him Thomas. (Suspicious?)
I know very little about this gentleman. I am attempting to build a picture by following the trail backwards to find out where Francis and his regiment might have been before he turns up in Dundee.
*I hope this is the correct method to refer/quote a census roll.
regards
moli