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...There are probably hundreds, if not thousands, of further "Other Church" records where the only choice is a long visit to Edinburgh to trawl through un-indexed records. Given the cost of hotels in Edinburgh these days that's totally out of the question, I haven't been able to afford those trips since I retired.
As I said originally I'm no fan of Ancestry and really don't want them to have the records (at least not solely them). What I really want is for ScotlandsPeople to actually be for Scotland's People.

There are millions of records in other archives too, the vast majority of which are not available via either Scotland's People, Ancestry, or any other commercial provider. While Ancestry might want some of these, and then get them on whatever kind of deal they make, this is a different issue which is covered in the ICO's decision.

Scotland's People is for Scotland's People, but the records are really only a tiny tiny part of what's actually out there. Not everything will ever appear online either, and not everything will ever be available via one central site. Not everything is in Edinburgh! There are records and indexes and datasets available all over the place, some for free, some you have to send away for a book, and some you have to pay to access online. There is a wider discussion to be had about paying for access to records, either in person or online, but this particular request by Ancestry was refused on a specific point regarding re-use of public sector information.

As an aside, if it's the same Sybil Spicer, she was a teacher at Middlefield School in Aberdeen during WW2. She was seriously injured in a bombing raid on 21st April 1943 while on fire watch duty, and lost a leg as a result. She had a prosthetic fitted, and returned to teaching afterwards.

Hang on - I think you'll know this already! Just looked at the profile name.

This is a frustrating one, isn't it! Her children would surely have known that she was indeed deceased by the time they were married, so the window really should only be from 1921 to 1931. It does seem strange that the informant on Charles Milne's death is his sister-in-law, especially as he died in hospital, but might explain why Jessie is given as Jessie Maitland, rather than Leith.*

*Edited to add - Jessie would have been Maitland, as her mother later married her father!

However, if something happened between 1921 and 1931, as Charles and Jessie don't seem to be living together, then it may be that the children lost touch with their mother and assumed that she had died. Widening the date range at at Scotland's People centre might be an idea, as you'll be able to view more certificates that way, including those beyond the cut off dates.

Could she have gone to prison? Newspapers might have something, it'd be worth a look if you've not done so.

What's also frustrating is that the Aberdeen city poor records for that time are very patchy, with no real records surviving. There is a list at the city archives (archives [at] aberdeencity.gov.uk) of people who were in Oldmill and in receipt of poor relief under reference C/16/3/1. They are currently closed as they're moving premises, but it's worth an email to them. There are also Woodend Hospital records held at NHS Grampian Archives (gram.archives [at] nhs.scot) - they might not give you any more information than is on Charles's death cert, but again worth an enquiry.

No problem!