Hi All
I’m trying to get some information on my ggrandmother, Elizabeth Boyd Kerr – she was born in France of Scottish descent, spent most of her life in Hong Kong and is proving quite elusive. I’ve got her death certificate, but no marriage cert (no luck with SP or the Hong Kong GRO) and no birth cert (her birthday was 11 Jul 1884, but I don’t know which town in France).
I know that she visited Scotland in 1920/1 and stayed at 35 Gordon St, Paisley, and I’m hoping this was a relative. Does anyone know of a way of getting the name of the person living there at the time? Electoral rolls, census, perhaps?
I’d also like to get people’s opinions on the following: I thought the ‘Boyd Kerr’ might have come from her mother and father respectively, but as she seems to have had a French mother, this seems unlikely. I then thought that her father might have been a ‘Boyd Kerr’ himself and so I searched SP for any candidates. I found a few, but Andrew BK, son of John Kerr and Elizabeth Boyd, who gave at least two of their children the Boyd middle name, stood out. On Andrew’s birth record (b. 1846) the place of birth is given as 25 Gordon’s Lane, Paisley. Gordon’s Lane is also the address for the family in the 1841 census, but later censuses show them in Lonend, just around the corner. Gordon’s Lane doesn’t exist anymore, apparently having been replaced by Gordon St - where Elizabeth BK stayed in 1921. Is this more than a coincidence?
Thanks for any advice
Eddie