Hi Monica,
I think somewhere in here we have a mistake. You didn't tell me where you obtained the information to the marriage of Charlotte E. S. K. Scott and Robert W. Smith, so I can't yet check it, but I'm sure it's correct. What I'm not sure about, is the date of marriage in 1914. Charlotte was born in 1878 and at the time of her marriage, would have been 36 years of age. This is rather old, even now, to start having children, but she went on to have two daughters. As stated, I met "Betty" Smith and Nora Meadows in Johannesburg, South Africa, in 1968 and both were around 65 years of age. Not old and demented, but certainly not 53 years or younger, which they should have been, given that they were born later than 1915. But they were certainly the daughters of Charlotte, as proved by the telegram to my parents received in 1944 at my birth (Auntie Lottie with Betty and Nora, 54, Belmont Street, Glasgow).
In addition, while talking to them, they recounted that their grandfather's sister - (Mary Scott King, born 1855), had married "a man" (presumably Alexander C. King, born 1867) who was 10 years younger than she. And he never even found out! (I suppose this says something for knitting your own nightdresses from scratchy woolly Cambusnethan sheep!) In any case, they were definitely Charlotte's daughters and I would suppose that both were in their late 60s at the time . Is it possible therefore that the marriage took place in New York in 1904 and not in 1914?
According to the information I've collected, John Scott married Elizabeth Snell King, (b. 1852 in Dalziel) on 22.06.1875 and who died 16.05.1918 in Skelmorlie, Ayrshire, buried Kirkintilloch, East Dunbartonshire. As you've already suggested, she died before John Scott (d. 1932 in Glasgow at the house of his son-in-law Robert W. Smith). However, the obituary you sent me from the newspaper, states that he was "late of Rathmore, Lenzie" which is only five minutes from Kirkintilloch. Your other remark, on the death of Elizabeth King Scott at the age of 91, agrees with being the sister of my grandmother Mary and of Charlotte, who was born in 1883 and in 1944 was also living with the others in Glasgow.
As regards the obituary of John Scott in the Whishaw Press, I shall have to see if I can access this on My Heritage or Find My Past. But I've read the same text elsewhere, I think military, and there was no further information of any value. However the search functions of My Heriatge are absolutely catastrophic. Some months ago I put in a search for the obituary of a relative in the local newspaper "Sydney Morning Herald" in Sydney, Australia on September 9th 1950, publication date. I had already found it on an Australian newspaper website. My Heritage came up with 628,510 results, over 100,000 from no layter than 1922 in the USA and a further 40,000 in Pennsylvania, USA. I would then have had to gone through the remaining over almost 300,000 possibilities in Australian newspapers. Just makes me sick having to pay for something which doesn't work even when the information is there.
So now we are all up to date again - thanks for all the trouble you're going to!
Lionel
