Vital events

If you have been reading along, you will know the story so far about my great-grandfather McQuay:  He is Albert, or Albert William, possibly William or William Albert sometimes, but almost certainly not Harold after all.

• 1879 Mar 07 - birth - Albert Maquay
• 1901 Apr 07 - marriage - Albert William McQuay

As well as birth and marriage the other vital record is death, as in the widely used acronym BMD.  Depending on when and where the ancestor lived, there is also the possibility of looking them up in the decennial census.

• 1871 Apr 02 - census - Albert was not yet born
• 1881 Apr 03 - census - Albert was just 2 years old
• 1891 Apr 05 - census - Albert would have been 12 years old
• 1901 Mar 31 - census - one week before Albert's wedding day!

Finding Albert McQuay age 12 in 1891 was relatively straightforward and his father's name listed on the census matched the 1901 marriage certificate, Robert McQuay.  Hurrah!  However, there was an immediate red flag: Robert's wife was age 29 and son Albert was age 12, which would make her about 17 years old when Albert was born.  Furthermore, the five sons ranged in age from 3 to 18 years old and she could not have been the natural mother to the oldest, only 11 years younger than her.  A mistake in her age on the census page?

So on to the previous census, 1881.  Well, Robert McQuay, a widower, could be found with his eldest son age 8, but no son called Albert, age 2.  Instead with them was Robert's daughter age 6, his mother and brother.  So where was young Albert in 1881 and where was that daughter in 1891?  How recently was Robert widowed and were these family members living together permanently or short-term to help out at a difficult time?  Some questions could be answered, some could not.

"Ah!" I hear you say, "Search for Albert Maquay!"  Indeed, you have the answer and probably faster than I did at the time!  Albert Maquay is found in 1881 as grandson in the household of William and Elizabeth Mirrish, or does that old style handwriting read Murrish, or even Nurrish?  So, one grandmother is living together with her widowed son and no doubt looking after the two older children, aged 8 and 6, whilst the youngest child, aged 2, is being cared for by the other grandmother in her home a few miles away.

Now also in that household is an unmarried daughter with a different surname, Emily Taylor.  Although I have not mentioned it yet, on Albert's birth certificate his mother is named as Mary Maquay, formerly Taylor.  So on 1881 census night at least, Albert is with his aunt Emily, re-married grandmother and the only grandfather he ever knew, although he was not, in fact, a blood relation.  Another note to add is that the death registration for Mary Louisa Maquay, wife of Robert Maquay, records that she died on 20 Apr 1879.  Albert was six weeks old.