Sad story of Margaret Craig

[sweet1]

I have a Margaret Craig born c1843 in Paisley (possibly to Matthew Craig and Helen Campbell) whose occupation was a shirt fringer and married a James Brown in Glasgow in 1862. They had 3 children, Catherine 1865, Matthew 1868 and James 1869 however she is not present at the family home in any of the census returns and her son Matthew appears to have been born in Millholme Asylum in Musselburgh. Her husband reared the family with the help of his parents in High Street, Glasgow. I cant find any trace of Margaret or any death cert but she is listed as deceased in 1886 on her daughters marriage cert. Can anyone shed any light? Why would she be in Millholme Asylum when the family were living in Glasgow?

[Millmoor]

Hi

Have just done a general search on Scotlands People for Margaret Brown with Craig in the other surname box for the years 1869- 1871. It came up with one hit in Mussleburgh which here is put in the county of Midlothian. Could that be her?

William

[Millmoor]

Should have said that I was looking at the deaths.

William

[sweet1]

Hi William, thanks for your reply. Have just looked at that death entry and sadly its not her. Think I'd previously ignored it as the ages didn't match, but I guess mistakes can be made!

[RJ_Paton]

I have a Margaret Craig born c1843 in Paisley (possibly to Matthew Craig and Helen Campbell) whose occupation was a shirt fringer and married a James Brown in Glasgow in 1862. They had 3 children, Catherine 1865, Matthew 1868 and James 1869 however she is not present at the family home in any of the census returns and her son Matthew appears to have been born in Millholme Asylum in Musselburgh.

Q1 Where is the family home ?
Q2 Where was third child James born ?
Q3 Mathew "appears" to have been born in Millholme .... have you confirmed this ?

Her husband reared the family with the help of his parents in High Street, Glasgow. I cant find any trace of Margaret or any death cert but she is listed as deceased in 1886 on her daughters marriage cert. Can anyone shed any light? Why would she be in Millholme Asylum when the family were living in Glasgow?

Have you checked with Lothian Health Service Archives re her entry to Millholme
http://www.lhsa.lib.ed.ac.uk/family/patient.html

Checking Millholme on Google shows that it took both private patients and others referred by courts etc from a wide range of areas from the Borders to Edinburgh and Fife  This may explain her presence there if the family were resident in Glasgow (the different Parishes were pretty strict in recovering costs if they had to provide Poor Relief assistance to anyone not from their parish or who had not qualified for residency status)

[loobylooayr]

Hi,
Just a suggestion - maybe you've already considered it but could it be that Margaret was still alive in 1886, even though she's recorded as deceased on her daughter's marriage certificate? Because someone said she was dead doesn't mean she was.
People had different attitudes to mental health back then and it could be that the family wrote Margaret off as dead rather than explain the truth to others if she was in an Asylum for mental health reasons. Sad unfortunately, but it did happen.
Looby