Trying to find Margaret Watson's first marriage.

[suzilad]

  Margaret Watson the daughter of Robert and Mary m.s. Riddle was born in Edinburgh in 1896 .

On a marriage certificate in 1941 when she married John Bishop she is Margaret Watson or Cook .

Death cert. in 1963 she is Margaret Watson  her husband John is still alive and her granddaughter E. Cherry registered her death. I have been unable to find children of this marriage

I have been unable as yet to find a marriage of Margaret and a ?? Cook or a divorce .
Hoping someone will be able to point me in right direction.

Thanks

suzilad

[Forfarian]

Hmmm.

If she was born in 1896 and married John Bishop in 1941, she would have been 44 or 45, so the probability is that E Cherry was a granddaughter of her first marriage. However I don't see a marriage of a Cherry to a Cook before 1963, so Cherry must be E's married surname.

If E is a granddaughter, she can't have been born much before 1928, so she can't have been married before 1944. There are 23 marriages of a male Cherry to a female whose given name begins with E between 1940 and 1963.

Three of those marriages were in Edinburgh, and the brides' surnames were Aitchison (1953), Jeffrey (1961) and Foster or Loynes (1962).

An Agnes Glass Cook married William Foster in Edinburgh in 1939.
A Helen Kean Smith Cook married Robert Aitchison in Glasgow in 1927, and a Mary Jack Cook married Benjamin Aitchison in Larbert in 1935.

There are 10 deaths of females surnamed Cook, mother's surname Watson, born 1915-1935, died after 1974, none of whose given names match those above.

This is the sort of thing that would be fairly straightforward in the Scotland's People Centre, but is impossible online because of the cut-off dates.

There are no marriages of a Margaret Watson to a Cook in England and Wales before 1943.

And I may have got everything completely wrong

[Josephine]

suzilad,

You mention not being able to find a divorce. On the 1941 marriage record, is Margaret's status listed as divorced (rather than spinster or widow)?

The reason I ask is to try to ascertain whether she had been married previously or if perhaps her mother had been remarried to someone named Cook, with the end result being that Margaret sometimes used her stepfather's name. I'm assuming it's the former.

I'm assuming that Margaret's 1941 marriage and 1963 death took place in Scotland. I'm also assuming that, when you say you haven't found a marriage for Margaret Watson + Mr. Cook, you mean you haven't found a marriage for them in Scotland.

Have you checked for a possible marriage in England, just in case? FreeBMD has a 1926 marriage for a Margaret E. Watson and an Alfred Cook in Yorkshire. Might that be her?

In my experience, death records in Scotland have listed all spouses, but it sounds like Margaret's death record only lists her widower, John Bishop. Is that correct?

Have you checked online newspaper archives for marriage or death notices pertaining to Margaret and Mr. Cook?

Good luck in your search!

Regards,
Josephine

[suzilad]

Thank you for your prompt reply I have been in NRH many times and always try to find this information but have never had any luck .

It doesn't state on the marriage cert .that she was a widow or formerly married to ???Cook. She did have an illegitimate child in 1916/17 and she registered the birth and the child had her surname Watson.
Thank you again

suzilad

[Josephine]

suzilad,

So, if the 1941 marriage says she was a spinster, but that she was sometimes called Cook, I would try to find out if Margaret's father had died and if her mother subsequently married someone with the surname Cook.

Have you got Margaret in the 1901 and 1911 census? I'm just wondering if she might have been raised by someone with the surname Cook (rather than officially adopted).

Regards,
Josephine

[Gadget]

, I would try to find out if Margaret's father had died and if her mother subsequently married someone with the surname Cook.

Hi
I did this a while ago and her mother's death cert  (1953) didn't show a re-marriage. Just says widow of Robert Watson, Informant was their son, Robert Watson.



Gadget

[suzilad]

Hi ,
     Her mother was alive when Margaret married she died in 1953 and the only marriage was to Robert Watson.
On the marriage cert in 1941 it just states Margaret Watson or Cook a waitress nothing regarding widow divorced or spinster
I have just looked at her birth cert. again and her full name was Margaret Wallace Robertson Watson
so that wouldn't fit in with the marriage you found in 1926 unfortunately.
She was at home with her parents on the census

Thank you

[Gadget]

On the marriage cert in 1941 it just states Margaret Watson or Cook a waitress nothing regarding widow divorced or spinster

I think you'll find that the cert says that Margaret is a Widow on the 1941 marriage.

Gadget

[Josephine]

Wow, this certainly is a tough one.

Did the child born in 1916 or 1917 ever marry? I'm wondering if s/he gave a father's name (in case it was Mr. Cook). Was a father named on his/her death record?

Regards,
Josephine