william davidson from west calder

[shona1956]

Hi Carol,
I think we can bet that it is Shona's tree-- in which case William's parents were John and Christina Gowans. There is a marriage for such a couple in West Calder in 1885. From fiddling with the search on Scotland's People it looks like William also died in West Calder, on a date too recent to post.

Continuing to search on some of the information that Shona has provided leads me to believe that William's first marriage was around 1916-1918.
There is a marriage for a William Davidson in Bathgate, West Lothian in 1916, only a few miles from West Calder. Have you looked at that one, Shona?

Not sure where you're located, but if you have a chance to go to the Scotland's People Centre in Edinburgh, you could very quickly go through all the possibles and get the marriage as well as the births of the children.

All the best,
Sarah

Hi Carol
I live in Staffordshire but my cousin is up in scotland and she has been helping me you will see on ancestry there is the Hamilton tree that is my mums family

shona

[SarahND]

spoke to my older cousins last night who are children of the first family but they dont know the mothers name

Another way to go about this would be to find the first wife's death certificate. Did she actually die at the birth of the last child? If so, and if you can find out where the last child was born, you could search for any female Davidson death around that date and probably find her without too much trouble or expense.

Here's hoping that your cousins know where their parents were born...
Sarah

[shona1956]

Hi Carol,
I think we can bet that it is Shona's tree-- in which case William's parents were John and Christina Gowans. There is a marriage for such a couple in West Calder in 1885. From fiddling with the search on Scotland's People it looks like William also died in West Calder, on a date too recent to post.

Continuing to search on some of the information that Shona has provided leads me to believe that William's first marriage was around 1916-1918.
There is a marriage for a William Davidson in Bathgate, West Lothian in 1916, only a few miles from West Calder. Have you looked at that one, Shona?

Not sure where you're located, but if you have a chance to go to the Scotland's People Centre in Edinburgh, you could very quickly go through all the possibles and get the marriage as well as the births of the children.

All the best,
Sarah

Hi again Sarah
Have you got the spouse name for the marraige of william davidson in bathgate in 1916. I can then look it up
thanks
shona

[SarahND]

Have you got the spouse name for the marraige of william davidson in bathgate in 1916. I can then look it up

Hi Shona,
You don't need a spouse's name to look up a marriage. One name is enough (even just one surname). I got the information by playing with the search function on Scotland's People and seeing what came up.

However, that said, I did end up investing one credit to look at all of the William Davidson marriages in West Lothian from 1905 to 1925. There were only 8 and I'm not convinced by any of them. The reason I'm not convinced is that I plugged the names of the spouses into the search form for deaths between 1920-1925 and could not find any of them.

Do you have any idea when and where the first wife died? If it was in Edinburgh then there will obviously be more choices that in West Lothian, but it still should be possible, particularly if you can narrow it down by knowing the birth place and date of the last child. If any of your cousins are children of the child born at the mother's death, then perhaps they know the date and place.

Regards,
Sarah

[shona1956]

I dont know when she died my granny went to housekeep for him when ma auntie jessies was 6 weeks old, I dont know how long she was there til she married him!

she had 1 son but he disappeared years ago.janet and jock went to america and australia and they both died more than 30 years ago

my 2 cousins are the children of ma auntie annie who was the eldest of the 5. they dont know anything about ma grandads first wife

All other relatives are deceased so no one else to ask

shona

[SarahND]

Do you know what year Jessie was born? Any idea where?

Regards,
Sarah

[shona1956]

No I dont know when she died only that he married ma granny in october 1925

jessie was born in west calder and died in edinburgh in the late eighties
shona

[speleobat2]

Hi Shona,

If you search SP for Jessie Davidson, birth from 1920 to 1925, you should get three results with this one being the only one for West Calder:

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

I don't know where your cousin in Scotland is located, but maybe she could go look this one up for you? Otherwise, you might want to order it from SP. The image isn't available online because of the privacy law.

Carol

Edit by SarahND for privacy. I suggest this info go in a PM!

[SarahND]

The image isn't available online because of the privacy law.

Oops! And neither should it be on the forum, for the same reason! I have been trying to tiptoe around it without posting that information, which Shona should be able to find for herself, even just in playing with the free search.

All the best,
Sarah

[speleobat2]

Ooops! Sorry about that. I'll send her a PM.

Carol