Thomson; Edinb/Middlothian;

[janeygee]

This is a real 'headbanger' I have been looking for these people for
a long time and I wonder if I may have found them on 'Ancestry'
but it does not give a lot of background,,,,

1901 Census Edinb/Midd;Dist.St George.Civil/Par.St Michael;address
175 Gorgie Rd, Leith/N.Leith;

"John Thomson";32yrs
"Mary m/s ?? ; 26yrs
" Elizabeth B.P.Thomson;daughter, 1yr

This may be my 'rellie' 'John Kirkwood Thomson' (b) Barony/Glas;1872
(mar) "Mary' m/s 'Blair-Hume' (b) 1874 Leith/Midd; they married in Tradeston
Glas. 7Sept/1893 and I have lost them since,,,

I did find also on 1901 Census/Angus; address;11 West Port,Arbroath
Angus; "Betsy Littlejohn" / Shopkeeper;
Visitor; Mrs Mary Thomson, 27yrs;(b) 1874 Edinb/Midd,,,
I wonder if this is my 'Mary' visiting her cousin 'Betsy',,???????

Any help gratefully appreciated as always,,,,

Kind regards;
Janey;

[Mary Young]

This may be my 'rellie' 'John Kirkwood Thomson' (b) Barony/Glas;1872
(mar) "Mary' m/s 'Blair-Hume' (b) 1874 Leith/Midd; they married in Tradeston Glas. 7Sept/1893 and I have lost them since.

1901 Census Edinb/Midd;Dist.St George.Civil/Par.St Michael;address
175 Gorgie Rd, Leith/N.Leith;

John Thomson";32yrs
Mary m/s ?? ; 26yrs
Elizabeth B.P.Thomson;daughter, 1yr

I would not expect to see a married woman's maiden name in a census. She is enumerated simply as "Mary Thomson, wife"

With more detail, the entry reads
John Thomson head, grocer's assistant 32 born Wishaw, Lanark
Mary Thomson 26 born Edinburgh
Elizabeth B P Thomson daughter 1yr born Edinburgh

This looks very good, for two reasons
(1) John Thomson was born in Wishaw - not a thousand miles from Glasgow Barony!
(2) The daughter, Elizabeth, could have been given her mother's maiden surnames as middle names, i.e. Blair-Hume, wrongly transcribed "B.P."

If the above is the correct family, perhaps you can disregard the lady in Arbroath - although it's not unknown for people to be enumerated in two places <smile>

[Hugh Thompson]

Hi Janey and Mary,I'm just replying to this thread to keep a link with it, as your names and places are very similar to my Thomson family, although my lot left Scotland 1854-5, I have come across John Kirkwood Thomson before so I'll see if I can find the reference to him again.
Hugh.

[janeygee]

HI Mary:

Nice to hear from you again,, my relative "John Kirkwood Thomson"
should be known as the 'Elusive-Pimpernel' I was bragging a while
ago that my 'brickwalls were all tumbled down',,should not have
jumped the gun,,eh,?? I have run into a 'doozie' with this guy,,!!!!

You would think with the "Kirkwood" he would be easy to find,,it was
his 'granmother's name, but he must not be using it at all. The entry
I found in 'Edinb' was 'pure-gold' as wife Mary was born in "Leith" and
the other entry of Mrs Mary Thomson visiting Betsy gave me hope as
Mary's 'granmother "Betsy Dorward" was born in 'Forfar' and a lot of her
family were in the 'Montrose-Angus' area,,,,,,

I found '3' John K.Thomson's in the WW 1 medal index cards but no details
on birth or NOK,,'Ancestry' does not give a lot of details,,,,

I would appreciate it "Mary" if you could possibly check out the entry of
"Mrs Mary Thomson' visitor to 'Betsy Littlejohn',,????? maybe it will give us
a clue.

I have a 'contact'in Glas/Scot who provides "Certs" at a cost of '5pounds'
each so I have decided to ask him for 'birth/marriage' certs for 'John K.Thom'
You say Mary that 'Wishaw' is near 'Bridgeton',,??? I have an address of
'29 Marquis St,Bridgeton' where the family lived when 'John K.'s' mother
died 8 Jan/1874. his father re-married 15July.1875 and lived in 'Camlachie'

I'm going to leave this with you Mary and appreciate very much your help
ideas,clues,etc, thank you,,,

Kind regards;
Janey;

[janeygee]

Hi Janey and Mary,I'm just replying to this thread to keep a link with it, as your names and places are very similar to my Thomson family, although my lot left Scotland 1854-5, I have come across John Kirkwood Thomson before so I'll see if I can find the reference to him again.
Hugh.

HI there Hugh;

Nice of you to note my 'post' and to know you have 'seen' the 'Kirkwood'
name somewhere,, I will await your reply with hopes we may have a clue,,??

Have to tell ya my "Thomson" name is known here as 'the Dry-One',,,'NO ***'
usually gets us a laugh even if it is a most common name,, it's my Mother's
m/s and '3' out of us '6' kids have it as a 'middle',,,,

Hope you stayed safe from the 'fire's down under, I have friends in 'Moe,Vic'
& Nowra I got regular reports & pictures, must have been terrible,,,!!!
and here we are in 'Canada' up to our 'neck' in snow & freezing temps'

Appreciate any help Hugh, thank you.

Kind regards;
Janey;

[Mary Young]

Hi Janey
I am rather perplexed, you say you are ordering certificates for John Kirkwood Thomson's birth and marriage. Don't you have his birth certificate already? You have quoted his year of birth (1872) and apparently you know his parents' names - at any rate, you already have his mother's death and father's re-marriage.

And I assumed you already have the marriage certificate of John K. Thomson to Mary Blair Hume because you quoted the exact date.

To verify the John and Mrs Mary Thomson living in Gorgie Road, Edinburgh in 1901, you need the birth certificate of their child, Elizabeth B.P. (or possibly B.H.) Thomson, who was 1 year old at the 1901 census. The certificate will show her parents' name and the date and place of their marriage, which hopefully will agree with what you already know.

If there is no trace in Scotland after 1893 (or possibly 1901) of John Kirkwood Thomson and his wife, Mary Blair Hume, after their marriage in 1893, it's possible they emigrated.

I'm afraid I can't help further with the "Mrs Mary Thomson" visiting Betsy Littlejohn in Arbroath. Betsy's age is not shown, and there is no relationship between those two ladies, apart from both being shopkeepers. So there's no way to identify this Mary Thomson among the dozens of same name and age.

Alas medal cards are of little use in tracking people down! Kf you already know an ancestor's service numbers, the medal card can fill out the picture of their life.

[janeygee]

HI Mary;

Thank you for your reply and suggestions to my query about my "Thomson"
relative,, first I should clear up my own info on this side of my family;

My late Mother(a Thomson) was a gold-mine of the family history and had
"certs,pictures,family-bible-notebook", going all the way back to "1700's" on
my "Father's' family also. A lot of the in-between stuff was missing, but she
knew who married who and where they had lived in '20's & 30's and who had
emmigrated,as a child I was fascinated by it all and so on a trip in 1985 we
went to 'Reg/House/Edinb' and spent a thrilling day looking up the 'ancestors'
in 'giant-books',,, I have been accumulating 'data' ever since. I have "Two"
Aunts my Father's sisters , "102yrs & 90yrs" still living in Glas/Scot and a bunch of cousins,with only one interested in the family-history,he is '84'yrs
a 'Thomson' however as a young man he joined 'R/Navy' and did not retire
till 1960's, his "Father" was the younger brother of 'John Kirkwood Thomson'.
he was totally unaware of him until I found him on '1881' census,Anderston/
Glas. my cousin knew 'his' father lived there as a boy,but other than his own
siblings he had no knowledge of the "Thomson-History' ,,,,

I got a terrific bunch of my info from 'Scot/People' and other 'genealogy/sites'
where people offered look-ups so a lot of my later 'data' is written-files from
these sources,, 'Scot/People' no longer accepts 'Amex-Cr/Card' and it's my
'Only' one so I am reduced to 'my contact' for certs,hence my decision to
order the certs for "John & Mary" more to confirm the 'info' I have on them,
I will also take your advice Mary and get the 'birth/cert' for the 'child/Elizab'

I have already exhausted the search for "John & Mary' having emmigrated
as I have 'data' on a bunch of 'aunt,uncle,cousins' who went to USA,but I
could find no trace of them. I found the latest on them on 'Ancestry' but I have not been impressed with their 'site' and have not renewed my 'sub'
I have put my name/query on lots of 'free-sites' which are great for 'hits'
Take this "B-G-Forum" I would say is 'The-Tops' for the best, friendliest,
moderators anywhere, nothing is too much for them and for me they have gone above & beyond the call of duty,,!!!!!!!

So Mary to keep this from being 'Too" longwinded, I thank you very much for looking at "Mrs Mary Thomson/Betsy Littlejohn" census entry which did not yeild much, I will try the "LDS/Search-IGI" for 'Betsy' their records in USA
are far superior to any here in Canada,,,,,

As for the info I found on the 'Medal/Index/Cards' I tried the numbers on the
cards but they were regiment/numbers,,, I will try 'Nat/Archives' again,,,

Thank you again Mary for all your help and ideas,,I do appreciate them,

Kind regards;
Janey;

[Mary Young]

Dear Janey
Thanks for expanding the information on your family. I just have a couple of comments:

As for the info I found on the 'Medal/Index/Cards' I tried the numbers on the
cards but they were regiment/numbers,,, I will try 'Nat/Archives' again,,,

You found three medal cards for men named John K. Thomson. None of those cards carries any useful information. If one of them is your man, he's most likely in the Royal Scots Fusiliers, Scottish Rifles. He had two numbers, probably because he joined up before 1916, when the system was reorganised.
You can see the two numbers on my Dad's medal card, showing he was discharged under the 2nd number. Luckily the card was properly filled in, so I learned his "Theatre of War first Served In" and "Date of entry therein" https://cmy.iay.org.uk/jacklewis/medalcard.htm

I will try the "LDS/Search-IGI" for Betsy Littlejohn

Sorry to put a damper on this ... but you don't know
(1) her age in 1901. (age is blank in A******y transcript)
(2) her maiden name (A******y index doesn't show whether she was single, married or widowed).

Do let us know whether the child's birth shows her parents as "your" John K. Thomson and his wife Mary Blair Hume.

[janeygee]

Thanks a bunch Mary,,, will keep in touch and let you know
as I am determined to find "John K.Thomson" and what
happened to him,,, also for my '84'yr old cousin,he is not
getting any younger,,,,

Enjoyed reading about "Jack Lewis" wonderful stuff,,!!!!

Kind regards;
Janey;

[janeygee]

HI Mary;Hugh: and all 'helpers';

Just to let you know I finally found my 'elusive John Kirkwood Thomson'
just by a mere fluke I was browsing ' 1901 Census ' Angus' for a name
and on finding the entry saw a "Mrs Mary Thomson" visitor, on tracing
this one turned out to be the 'Widow' of 'John K.Thomson',,,

I had some help finding a 'death' cert for 'John K.T.' in Rutherglen/Glas,
I knew my 'John' had relatives in this area so the death/cert was my
"John",,,,, his mother-in-law had listed him just as 'John Thomson' and
he died from 'Enteric-Fever' of one month duration,, Dec/1893,,, they
were married just '3'mths,,,,,Mary remarried again in 1903 to a man from
"Arbroath " and settled in 'Maryhill/Glas' beside family,,,,

Thank you to all,, very much appreciate your efforts,,,,

Kind regards;

Janey;