Using DNA to find Scottish GR-GR-Grandfather in Renfrewshire

[anne_p]

I can see the full record on Ancestry Looby

I have looked at his marriage to Elizabeth Alexander in Glasgow in Jun 1901.
They are both on the same census at 1901 in Johnstone

The  marriage cert says he was the son of William Reid and Elizabeth McVey, both deceased

I can't see anything for this couple. No marriage or children.
Alarm bells! Did they exist?

[ladyk]

Interesting, Looby! Could be him! And I found this, based on that find:

on ancestry, British Army WWI pension records/ William Reid b. abt 1871 in Milson (mis-transcription for Neilston?), Renfrewshire/ married 22 June 1901 in Glasgow to Elizabeth Alexander/ document year 1914/ Regiment name: Princess Louise's (Argyll & Sutherland Highlanders)/ Army Reserve (special reservists) Attestation/ children: William, Kenneth, John, James & Elizabeth.

Is this the same William that says his parents were William Reid and Elizabeth McVey?

K.

[loobylooayr]

I can see the full record on Ancestry Looby

I have looked at his marriage to Elizabeth Alexander in Glasgow in Jun 1901.
They are both on the same census at 1901 in Johnstone

The  marriage cert says he was the son of William Reid and Elizabeth McVey, both deceased

I can't see anything for this couple. No marriage or children.
Alarm bells! Did they exist?

Interesting     Where would he have got Mother's name from?

Have seen many illegitimate children give a fictitious father's name or try and pass parents off as married but never seen one who invented mother's name.

Looby

[anne_p]

Looby,
My husband's  g grandmother invented a mother's name on her marriage to hide her illegitimacy.
Father's name provided equalled her grandfather's name but the mother's name was entirely made up.


Her mother was unmarried when she was born and had exactly the same name as herself!

[anne_p]

1901: at Johnstone/Elderslie   

Kennedy Leggat   27
Jessie Leggat   27
Nelly Leggat   9
Kennedy Leggat   6
Lizzie Alexander   29 b Glasgow
William Reid   29 Boarder b Neilston Occ Wood Turner's labourer

[loobylooayr]

1901: at Johnstone/Elderslie   

Kennedy Leggat   27
Jessie Leggat   27
Nelly Leggat   9
Kennedy Leggat   6
Lizzie Alexander   29 b Glasgow
William Reid   29 Boarder b Neilston Occ Wood Turner's labourer

Well that looks like the William who enlisted. Quite definite about Neilston as Place of birth. Wonder if there were 2 boys of same name born in Neilston at that period.

[anne_p]

Yes that is the same man.
I took the marriage date from his service record and obtained the cert.

 1891 there  is a possible although the POB says Johnstone.
This man was a tinsmith.

At his 1901 marriage  William Reid was a wood sawyer but, he was a furnaceman when he enlisted at 1914

Children
William 1902   Paisley
Kenneth 1904  Paisley
John b 1910  Paisley
James b 1912  Paisley
Elizabeth b 1914 Glasgow

[Ruskie]

The  marriage cert says he was the son of William Reid and Elizabeth McVey, both deceased
I can't see anything for this couple. No marriage or children.
Alarm bells! Did they exist?

I have been dipping in and out of this thread and though I don't have anything constructive to add, I just wanted to suggest something (which is likely to already have been considered) ... McVey sounds like an Irish surname so I am wondering if events may have occurred in Ireland? 

Apologies if I have missed something or gone off on the wrong tangent.

[ladyk]

Yes, Anne, it does look like it is William who was the boarder at the same house as his future wife! What is a furnace man anyway? Would that be in the iron works? So apparently William manufactured a set of parents and did marry and had children! Whilst his younger brother John emigrated to the U.S. at the age of 15. I wonder if they were able to keep in touch at all? I also wonder if there are living descendants of William in Scotland. Something that will be fun for me to research! At any rate, Caroline was in Johnstone in 1871, and that will be the census year that I use to search for a father using dna matching. By the way, Rankine street is parallel and 2 blocks away from Collier street, when Caroline was boarded in the 1861 census as mill worker. So she didn't go far, once in Johnstone. Why William was born in Neilston, I can't guess.

Also, I did get my Dad's (Reid) dna results back yesterday, and he has 109 pages of matches while mine only came back with 88 pages! A good thing, all the more matches that possibly hold the answer to the mystery man! Someone among all those dna matches MUST be from his grandfather's (John Reid's) branch! Perhaps one of them has the mystery man or his parents or siblings on their tree. That is my hope! 

K