Aug 22nd, 2007: A Gretna marriage

Can't even remember how or why I started this trail today, but I found Cecilia THOMSON nee SINTON in 1841 where expected, in Castleton (as Celia). This added a Jessie into the family whom I am assuming is a dtr. Ancestry transcribed her age as 32 and James as 30, but FreeCen has 12 and 10.

Spurred on by this I tried to extend the rest of the family forward to 1901, with mixed success. Son James did indeed marry Elizabeth DALGLEISH, or so his 1899 dth cert says. The informant for his dth was a (new to me) son William THOMSON of Hawick. By naming pattern, he should be the 1st son, so pre 1874. Still to find the family, or James, in 1871.

The plot thickened. Found William's dth and then his birth, but his mother on both was a Mary DALGLIESH, not Elizabeth. Sure enough, James married Mary in 1861 and I couldn't find a marriage to Elizabeth, in either the Scottish or English indices. The two groups of children do indicate two families. Can't find Elizabeth in census data prior to 1881 with any certainty, but her 1898 dth cert indicates she's Mary's sister, & of extremely variable age in assorted records. She may well be the Eliza, 2 yrs younger than Mary, living with their uncle in 1851 at Bigholms, Langholm.

I eventually succumbed to the birth cert of a son from the 2nd "marriage" (can't stand a mystery that's easily solved). John Walter's birth cert shows his parents as having married at Gretna in Feb 1870. And yes, they appear on a list of Gretna Green marriages at Achievements and certainly do NOT appear in the English marriage indices for that quarter anyway.