RootsChat.Com

Hi Andrea
I hope you received my reply to this re explaining the back ground to my research. I am sorry but I cant work out this messaging system so if we cant use emails I dont know how I can help you. I would love to be able to put you in contact with my friend whose tree it is, and I am sure she would also be thrilled to find out more about her grandmother, but it seems this system will not allow it.
I can only apologise.
Best Wishes
Jane Milne

Thank you for the many suggestions here. We are fine tuning a bit now.

 The preferred grandparents  are now Joseph Maclaran glass  maker and Christiana Pearson. We have found Maggie Cook b 1864 Durham, in North Leith Scotland in 1881 with widowed Grandma, brothers William m Catherine, and Alexander Cook, married aunt Elizabeth Tolman/ Pullman and husband Samuel Tolman/Pullman, and niece Christiana. Now trying to find her in 1871 as her brothers were with their grandparents but not Margaret.

The parents would seem to be William Cook (sail maker) b1813 Bishop Wearmouth and Margaret Maclaran b1835 Gateshead.m 1852 Sunderland  (awaiting appropriate B C  from Sunderland RO) but they never have any children with them in the censuses.

We are now  wondering, looking at the William  Swinhoe (sail maker)  / Margaret Cook marriage  1870 mentioned above, if Maggie Cook b1864 Sunderland might actually be Margaret Cooks niece not daughter, and they are actually just  caring for her. Proving Margaret Cook b1835 is William Cooks b1813 sister or at least relative,  is maybe the next challenge.

The grey matter is stretching today.

Thank you all

JaneM46

Hello
I am helping a friend looking up the Wake, Maclaran and Cook families who were all glass workers. Does -none have a Gibson Wake in their families I wonder.

Jane

Hello All

Thank you for all these suggestions. What an inspired lot you are.
 Our Margaret Cook b abt 1862 was apparently illiterate even to her death, but remained very proud of  her Scottish ancestry, and always talked of being a Maclaren, with her father William, a seaman from Leith. The name Cook was never mentioned that her grandson and family  can now recall.
 We do have the 1884 certificate marriage Feb 25th as described above. The Swinhoe /Cook 1870 marriage looks an interesting angle. I had seen the family in 1871  but overlooked the possibility of the wife (apparently previously Margaret Cook),  having a second marriage . I will try to chase that up today. Maybe if I can find her daughters  birth that will be it, but where do the  detailed Maclaren stories come from, and the children from the Gibson Wake/ Margaret Cook marriage do seem to follow the traditional "grandparent naming pattern" of Thomas and Margaret Wake and William and Elizabeth Maclaren.

Thank you all for your help
Jane

Thank you.

Please can anyone help with a friends  brick wall.
 Anecdotedly we have Gibson Wake b1857  marrying a Margaret Maclaren in Durham with 9 children, the first Margaret born  1885, the last Violet b 1905, all Sunderland. Margaret Snr was 93 when she died in 1954

The only marriage we can find is to Margaret Cook Feb 25th 1884, father William Cook bottlemaker, witnesses Thomas Carter, and Thomas Wake.
 Anecdotedly Margaret's father was a seaman from Leith. I cannot find anybody  in 1881 although I think Gibson was in the army in India. I have found a Margaret Maclaren b1862  Hartlepool area, and I think both Maclaren parents William (seaman from Leith) died at sea  1876, and Elizabeth died Stockton 1872.
Can anyone suggest any records to trace a possible earlier marriage of Margaret Maclaren to a Cook please, to explain the change of surname.? It is possible Gibson had an earlier marriage in 1876 although he first enlisted in 1877. Might  any banns available for these marriages.

We are stuck and a long way from Durham. Please can anyone help.

Best Wishes
JaneM46