help required!" Are you Gran's brothers"?

[J.J.]

You needn't worry, it is a common subject thread...It actually had been transcibed that he was married, in case somebody saw that, but on the image it was crossed out quite heavily. Being that he was first on the list and head of household, I guess the enumerator may have jumped to conclusions. The transcriber was confused for some reason and the children are listed as belonging to Alice J. ( Jessie) Keddie in the transcription

[suek2075]

Thanks JJ - I'll try to get a copy of that from the site. I've now checked out brother Thomas and have no idea what happened to him. He was born in St Boswells in 1875, by 1881 the family were in Minto but no Thomas with them. At the same time I can't find a death cert on SP for Thomas between 1875-1881, or an 1881 census entry for a Thomas Keddie (or variations) of 5-7 years old anywhere else. I thought he might be with another part of the family but doesn't appear to be. Bit stumped now.

[Priscilla]

Wonder if this is 'your' Thomas Keddie ...

http://www.findagrave.com/cgi-bin/fg.cgi?page=gsr&GSfn=thomas&GSmn=&GSln=keddie&GSbyrel=all&GSby=&GSdyrel=all&GSdy=&GScntry=10&GSst=0&GSgrid=&df=all&GSob=n

[J.J.]

I had spotted that one, and he even came here around the same time as the other lads but 1921 has him as born 1866, the 1906 & 1911 has birth as 1864


um...wait a minute...Just realize sue posted that he isn't on the 1881 census...so he may have died as a lad

[suek2075]

Thank you both for your help - the trouble is I can find John and James in Scotland in 1881, 1891 and 1901, but there is no record of Thomas after his birth certificate in 1875. In 1881 he would only have been 6, so I would expect him to be at home with his parents. I had another look on SP last night but still haven't found a death certificate between 1875 and 1881 for a 5-6 year old boy. It's difficult to believe that a boys death wouldn't have been recorded around that time, they weren't exactly living in the wilds. The certificate may be misnamed, and I just haven't found it. The other thing that occurred to me was that he may have been living with another family member, possibly with his mother's family, but he should still have showed up on the census somewhere. Unless he's recorded with a nickname, not Thomas - I've tried Tom, Thom and Thos, and T*, not sure what else to try. The funny thing is there are no other Thomases in the family - the naming follows the Scottish convention and every family has almost the same names, in different orders. If I didn't have his birth certificate with his parents names and marriage date/place I would think he wasn't part of the family.

[*Sandra*]

" If I didn't have his birth certificate with his parents names and marriage date/place I would think he wasn't part of the family"


You have a record of the marriage of Thomas    Or is that the parents marriage you are referring to  Did Thomas have any middle names ?

Sandra

[suek2075]

Hi Sandra - I have Thomas' birth certificate with his parents names and marriage details, so I know he is their son.

Since I posted that I have remembered that I THINK a Thomas Keddie was a witness at one of the family weddings, but after all this time I can't remember whose, so I'm working my way through all the marriage certificates looking for it. He's the only Thomas I can find in the immediate family so it must have been him. I think    If I can find it I will know what year it was and where it was. Will post back.

[*Sandra*]

Thanks that might be helpful.  Checked out a guy in Massachusetts but he turns out to have a middle name Brodie and the birth year 1873 

Sandra

[suek2075]

Maybe that was a bit of wishful thinking on my part - it turns out that it was Thomas' father's wedding certificate that there was a Thomas as witness - so it couldn't have been Thomas Keddie the son. I thought it was Thomas Keddie, but looking at it now it might not be - but it may explain why this particular family had a Thomas, when none of the others did. So after a few hours of scouring wedding certificates I'm back to where I was - no census, no death certificate. I am going to look for Elspcams tree on ancestry and see if she found anything for Thomas - she didn't seem to be looking for him so she may already have found him. On the other hand if he died young she may not even have known about him. But it may show me where to look.