RootsChat.Com

Attached is marriage cert of elizabeth thompson and thomas goodgame.

No attempt is made to suggest Neil Thomson is not her father. Her mother is named as Mary McWater, which is one of the variations I noted for McQuilter when researching Scottish records.

I havent yet found a reason to think that Neil Thomson and Mary McQuilter are not Elizabeths parents.

Note also that her birthdate is the only one on ScotlandsPeople with a birth date of Elizabeth's birth, illegitimate, and in Houston where the marriage cert says she is from.

It seems many researchers came to this conclusion. Perhaps some had family knowledge. I have seen no clear evidence attributable to Neil Thomson. The fact that he arrived by ship in NZ and was with Elizabeth could have many reasons.

However, there is no reason to believe that Neil Thomsons wife Sarah Hemphill would lie. She stated in court in 1890 that he had fathered a child by another woman in Scotland and that she helped bring that child up in Scotland and New Zealand. Also in court in 1890 she stated under oath that Thomson had fathered his own daughters child (Elizabeth Thomson had a child when around 14-15 years old). This was just before Thomson went back to Scotland where he died a few months later.

There are many researchers closer in terms of family ties then myself, it would be interesting to find out if anyone has definitive evidence. I have tried to contact a number of researchers but have no success contacting them and many last had Rootsweb or other activity a long time ago. Many of these researchers have published work stating he is Elizabeths father.

So there is evidence pointing to him as father. I see the Sarah Hemphill statements as fairly compelling evidence. There is a Scottish site that searches for fathers of illegitimate children. They correctly identified the father one of Mary McQuilters other children Martha, but then that father is easily found in newspaper articles of the time where Mary names him. its possible the same exists for Thomson, but I haven't found it. I'm going to get that site to do some searches shoon.