Thank you Forfarian, Annmck and Waughboy,
I've realised I've been remiss in not being specific about my George Wilson. George was the elder brother of my gr.gr grandmother Margaret Wilson, b c.1825 in Stonehouse in Lanarkshire. Their parents were Robert Wilson, b c 1896 and Janet Millar, b c. 1801.
Her elder brothers were George, b c. 1821 and Robert b c. 1824, and there were 3 younger sisters, Janet, Isabella and Jane.
By the mid-1840s the family had moved to Aidrie, I'm sure it was so that the men could seek work down the pits, and Margaret married my gr.gr.grandfather there in 1846. She was widowed within a few years, and when the younger of her 2 sons died in 1857 it was her brother George who registered the death for her. Both her son and her husband, and several others in the family, were bured in Wellwynd Churchyard in Aidrie, and are very likely to be amongst the pauper's graves moved within the last couple of years to Monkland to make way for a bigger car park for Aidrie Library (ironically perhaps because so many people want to research their family history?)
For a long time I wanted to find out more about George, and could find nothing - too many George Wilsons, nothing to identify which was which; just as Ann says 'too many George Wilsons in the mix'. Quite recently an old letter from a much loved and missed Great Aunt has turned up in old family papers, mentioning a cousin of hers, and giving the cousin's name in full. Tracing that cousin meant that I finally tracked down George - because it turned out that the mysterious cousin was his daughter.
I've now established that 'my' George married Mary or Maryann Leitch in 1853 in Aidrie, and like the rest of the family they were unlucky enough to lose children in Aidrie in the following years, but those burials seem to have been in Chapel Street rather than Wellwynd. By the 1861 census George and Maryann had moved back to Stonehouse with their surviving children. By 1881 they had moved to Midlothian, where George was still a miner at the age of 61.
So I finally established that he was not transported, or in the forces, but as so often it was one line in a very old letter that gave me the clue. Without that, I'd still be searching.
Thank you all for your postings, and good luck to you Ann with your own search. I hope by giving more details of 'my' George should his records turn up in anyone else's search you can now discount him.
