help again!! john davidson

[shona1956]

cant find him after 1891 census. he was married to christina in 1885 in west calder
in 1901 census she is head of the house

have found a death in1900 for a john davidson but its not him

on my grandads first marraige certificate he is down as deceased in 1918

on 1891 census it says he was born in ireland so dont know when they went to west calder or if he left christina and went somewhere else

his father was william davidson who was a farmer and mother agnes davidson m.s. I think it says Cumin on the certificate

any pointers would be good

Shona

[LesleyB]

Hi Shona

How old would Christina be? (you should be able to work it out from the age given at marriage or from the 1901)
There is a Christina Davidson aged 37 in West Calder in 1901. There is a John on the same page who would seem to be aged 12.... This can be found by playing around with the search on Scotland People. I don't know if it is your one as I do not have the credits to check.

Scrub the above - just noticed it is 1891 you can't find...sorry.

OK - lets try again ....there is a Christina in West Calder in 1891 aged 27. There is a John on the same page. He is aged 2. But there are two John Davdsons who are on a page where there is also a Christina... the other John is aged 26 - so could this be your couple, with a son John?? Don't know enough about the family to be able to tell, but do the ages fit with what you know already?

on 1891 census it says he was born in ireland so dont know when they went to west calder or if he left christina and went somewhere else

Bit confused by the above - so you have seen him in 1891? And they are already in West Calder??

in 1901 census she is head of the house

And listed as a widow? OR not?

Best wishes
Lesley

[nelmit]

As you will know from ancestry Christina is the head of the household in 1901 - no husband John with her. You are going to have to look at the original at SP to see her marital status to know whether John was alive or not by 1901.

Regards,
Annette

[LesleyB]

Thanks Annette - think I should have stuck to cooking the dinner...brain clearly not in the right gear at all.....

[shona1956]

The John is christinas husband I have their marraige lines

they are my grandads parents

He is listed in 1891 as head of the house and christina is head of the house in 1901 so I just wondered where he had gone or if he had died

found my grandads first marraige on line yesterday and he is deceased on that

shona

[SarahND]

Hi Shona,
What Annette means is that if you are looking at the 1901 census on Ancestry.com, the marital status is not transcribed, so you can't tell if someone is married or widowed. However, on the original census page, this information should be found. If you download the original 1901 census from Scotland's People you should be able to see if Christina is marked as married or widowed at that stage. John may have been elsewhere working on census night.

Of course, if he just left her, she might call herself a widow even if he wasn't dead-- I have certainly seen examples of this

Also, if he did die, he could have died in an accident elsewhere, not necessarily in West Calder. In all of Scotland there are 9 John Davidson deaths between 1891 and 1901 with a birthdate of 1865 +/- 3 years. Since the youngest child in 1901 is 6, then the most likely deaths would be those from 1894-1901, which narrows it down to 7 possibles. None are in West Lothian, but two are in Midlothian. Since we know from your other post that John's son William was found in both West Calder and Edinburgh, perhaps the family had connections in both places.

All the best,
Sarah

[carlineric]

Following on from Sarah's comment look for in particular any deaths in Edinburgh as he may died in hospital there as the main hospital for the area was the Royal Infirmary.

Eric

[shona1956]

johns son william was only in edinburgh to get married

looked yesterday there are no deaths in the royal infirmary for a john davidson

in 1900 there is a john davidson died aged 35 in edinburgh but its not him either

will keep digging as am not giving up as i want to find his dad and mum av got their names so a can find out if john had any brothers or sisters

shona

[emanday]

Hi Shona,

Just a suggestion, but you might try using wildcards in your search...

Enter Davi*son instead of Davidson. This will cover Davison, Davieson, etc which allows for the possibility of mispelling or mistranscription.

[shona1956]

hiya

i will do that

thanks
shona