Jane Ann Thomson born 1879 Longside

[dowdstree]

Hi Izzy were there any family on either side who may have taken Helen in after her mother died? Poor wee soul was only 4 when she lost her mother. It did happen as did informal adoption by other people.
Perhaps her father felt he could not cope with the 2 boys and a wee lassie and wanted to give her the best life possible. It may be that her surname could then have been changed as it seems very strange that no trace of her can be found.

Have you traced the oldest daughter Isabella yet?

Dorrie

[flst]

dowdstree, I think I've found Isabella's death. I searched for a death of a Thomson & also Skelton death. On both instances this was the only one that came up. Isabella's death was registered in 1958, aged 57, in the parish of Bonhill and Renton. I didn't know where this was but I think it's in Dunbartonshire.
flst

[dowdstree]

That is a great find flst and you are correct with the area. Wonder who registered her death?

Not very far from Glasgow so looks like Isabella stayed in the area after her mum's death.

We will need to wait until Izzy comes back online to see what she thinks.

Dorrie

[Forfarian]

Stracathro, Angus

Bear in mind that there was a huge hospital at Stracathro with a lot of geriatric and long-term care wards, and that people were sent there from all over Angus and Kincardineshire.

[izzycurran]

Hi fist & Dorrie, That looks really promising fist. I will get the certificate, fingers crossed it’s her,
I have the certificates for Isabella Birnie Thompson (they spelt Thomson wrong on the cert.) She married John Bell Hendry in 1920 in Old Kilpatrick in Dunbartonshire (that looks promising with fists find) She was 19 at the time so it looks like she gave Helen a home. Isabella died in 1958 still in Old Kilpatrick Dunbartonshire.
I will post what i find tomorrow. Many thanks once again. Izzy

[flst]

Still awaiting your reply Izzy!
flst

[MrsGnomus]

I found this thread by chance when I was looking online for information on Burnhaven.

Izzy already knows this information as we have been in contact for the last couple of months. I don’t know if the people who were originally posting on this thread are interested but between us we have solved the mystery of what happened to Helen.

After Helen’s mother and younger sister died her father returned temporarily to Burnhaven and she was then placed in the Children’s Home in Aberlour along with her brother Joseph. This information only became available after the 1921 Census was published. It was supposed to be a temporary placement until her father got himself a job and a new home. WW1 and his death in service then intervened.

Izzy and I both independently contacted the Aberlour Children’s Charity for information about her. In my case I was still trying to establish exactly what had happened to her mother as I had also come up with the conundrum of whether the Jane Skelton who died in Glasgow was her mother. When I contacted them in June this year they very quickly came back to me to say that another family member had been looking for the same information and we were put in touch with each other and provided with copies of the records that they had.

Since then between the two of us we have filled in a few more gaps in the family tree. The admission and discharge records from Aberlour also made it clear that the Jane Skelton/Thomson who died in Plantation was Izzy’s grandmother and that the Joseph Skelton who died in WW1 was her grandfather.

Essentially after leaving the Children’s Home Helen eventually ended up in Aberdeen where she married my husband’s maternal grandfather. I don’t know why she lost contact with her siblings.

On the Scotland’s People website her surname was misspelled as Shelton when her marriage record was computerised. Additionally although the correct name was given for her father the first name of her mother wasn’t correctly recorded. That meant that although Izzy had found the marriage in question she didn’t know for sure that it was the right Helen. As I was effectively approaching the puzzle from the opposite direction I knew that the marriage record was definitely for my husband’s grandparents but I did spend a bit of time looking for the birth records of a Helen Shelton with the wrong mother! My father in law helped out when he told me that she was always referred to as Helen Skelton which put me back on the right track.

Helen had four children, two boys and two girls. One of the boys died in infancy but the others all survived until adulthood. My husband is the eldest child of Helen’s second daughter.

[flst]

MrsGnomus, welcome to rootschat and thank you so much for updating us! We are always curious to find out what happened in these cases.
Kind regards,
flst