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All the information from those who have replied is most helpful. I have a gut feeling that Thomas, James’ eldest child, may have been the person who  identified the body. Of course, I have no way of proving this conclusively. I have been trying to find out more about his backstory ever since I discovered that he committed suicide at the age of thirty in 1909. At the time he was a barman by trade.

Regards

Doddie

I am, by process of elimination, attempting an educated guess at which family member identified a dead body after a railway accident near Polmont in 1895. Was there any official protocols laid down for this in Scotland? I have a case I am looking at of a man who while drunk decided to walk home along a railway track. He was consequently run over by a train. It states in a newspaper report that the badly mutilated body was, "....removed to the Falkirk Police Mortuary. Last night it  was identified by  a relative....". I realise that it may not necessarily have been his wife or children, but if it was, were there any rules about who was allowed to do this? I do think that the prospect of seeing the terrible state of her husband's body would have been too much for his wife. They had five children - three daughters and two sons. The oldest child was Thomas who was aged sixteen at the time. The other children were, Mary (fifteen), Elizabeth (eight), Margaret (six) and John (four). It does seem that Thomas may have been tasked with the dreadful task of identifying his father's body. I do know that Thomas does seem to have had a very unsettled and troubled adulthood. Maybe this related to what he had to do as a teenager. I am aware of the fact that this is all basically conjecture and that I may receive some very short responses like, "Anybody could", but I thought I would put my query out there anyway.

Regards

Doddie

Hi, I am after some advice. I am very used to using old Post Office Directories for research, and very helpful they are. Recently I have been trying to find out which district covers the village of Avonbridge. I googled this and I came across some information indicating that directories for the Stirling area would cover Avonbridge, but I couldn't find anything in them. With Avonbridge being only 6.4 miles from Falkirk and 3.8 miles from the larger village of Slamannan, I presumed myself that Avonbridge would be covered by Stirling. Maybe it is Falkirk Post Office Directories that I should be looking at. All advice greatly appreciated.

Regards

Doddie

Hi Alan, can I just clarify. You don’t think I have marked the correct pub, which is quite possible. However, you also say that it is the only that is consistent with being John Wilson’s one. As my girlfriend’s g. grandfather worked in a pub in Avonbridge owned by John Wilson, wouldn’t that mean it would have been the one marked in blue?

Regards

Doddie

Hi Alan here is the pub photo I previously mentioned.

Regards

Doddie