Margaret Sneddon 1881

[Milliepede]

This could be significant if the same family in 1881.

John Sneddon 48
Janet 47
Peter 14
Jessie 7

Jessie is daughter so I wonder if Anne has a point and she should be 16 in 1891 instead of 6.
Then she would be a legitimate daughter of John & Janet not Margaret's child 

[redquirrel]

Thank you all for your comments. I'll try and explain what i've found so far, though it is a bit confusing. Just to clarify, Maggie Sneddon is her maiden name- she later married Philip McKail.

According to 1881 census
Margaret (Maggie) Sneddon is 16, and an in-pt at Royal Infirmary, Edinburgh.
Her parents John and Janet 48yrs and 47 yrs are in the Haggs , living with their children Peter, John and Jessie (7yrs).

According to 1891 census
John and Janet are 57yrs
Maggie is 26yrs
Peter 24yrs
Jessie 6yrs.

I now have a 1891 census for Jessie Sneddon (Barony, Blythswood Glasgow) aged 17, and reported as a domestic servant to Physician Samuel Moore. So to me this is the Jessie who's 7 in 1881, and is Maggie's sister. I am surmising that 6 yr old Jessie in 1891 is not likely to be John and Janet's daughter, as they have a living daughter with the same name. So that leads me to think young Jessie is an illegitimate child of Maggie (or Peter?) and being brought up as John and Janet's child.

I can't find a birth cert for either Jessie. However i do have the family bible which records a birth for Janet SneddEn in 1873. I'm wondering if Janet was known as Jessie.

[Milliepede]

Thanks for clarifying there are 2 Jessies!  If you're sure the servant you found is the one who was 7 and her sister than we still have the other Jessie to be accounted for.

Names do seem to be interchangeable so I would check for Jessie/Janet/Jane etc plus the different spellings of Sneddon(en) to make sure there isn't a birth record for her.

Were there any other older siblings who could have been her mother? 

[redquirrel]

Hi, i'm sorry for the confusion- i'm finding things out as i go along if you know what i mean! Maggie did have older brothers and sisters, but they were all married, so i would have thought a child would be living with them. I have checked a 1901 census i had for John and Janet Sneddon. By this time John has died, and Janet is 67. Looking at it now, very interestingly 2 grandchildren are living with her; Mary McKail (16) and Janet Sneddon (16). If Jessie/Janet are interchangeable then this must be young Jessie, and that would mean she was an illegitimate child of one of Janet's children. I wish i has the child's birth cert to be sure.
And i'm no nearer finding out why Maggie was in hospital in Edinburgh.

[redquirrel]

Very excited to have just found the birth cert of Janet Taylor Sneddon born 1884, the illegitimate daughter of Maggie Sneddon!!
Thanks for your advice and interest. It spurred me on.

[Milliepede]

Oh hurray well done

So there we go one question leads to the answer to another and Taylor as a middle name just might be a clue as to the father 

[redquirrel]

Maggie might not have been giving too much away, as Taylor is her mother's maiden name. But having an illegitimate child might explain why she married a man a fair bit older than her, and who had quite a few children of his own from his first marriage.I know there was a fair bit of illegitimacy going on, but there was still a lot of social stigma about it.

[apanderson]

Well done in finding wee Jessie!!

It's always the same - getting the answer to one question leads to a million other questions!

Anne 

[JMStrachan]

Just to add - Janet/Jessie were the same name in Scotland so it's very common to find someone baptised Janet but called Jessie in the census.

There was less stigma attached to illegitimacy back in 1881 than you might think, and it was very common. The stigma we think was attached to illegitimacy in the past seems to have been a very 20th century phenomena, and was much more accepted on the 19th century. But yes, women with an illegitimate child made good candidates for marriage to a widower with children!