This is a Message Board Post that is gatewayed to this mailing list. Classification: Query Message Board URL: http://boards.ancestry.com/mbexec/msg/rw/EgC.2ACE/10131 Message Board Post: When James Henderson he marries in 1872 he gives his father as David Henderson, Barber, deceased and his mother as Mary Ann Henderson, MS Ward. I was pointed towards 2 births in Edinburgh in the early 1860s where the parents had the same names - one child was called Walter Scott, a name James gave his own son and their marriage was given as Jan 1849, Dumfries, which would fit with James's age. These 2 things made me think this couple are a very strong possibility for James's parents. On the birth certificates I have David Henderson's occupation is given as a police constableso I was asuuming that maybe he worked as a barber in later life, however this David Henderson died in Nov 1863, just 4 months after the birth of his youngest child - his occupation is still a police constable. Either I'm barking up the wrong tree (forgive the pun!) or the information given on James's marriage certificate regarding his father is wrong - how likely is this? Would there be a reason he didn't want it known his father was a police constable? Does anyone have easy access to the 1861 Edinburgh census who could look up this family for me please? In July 1860 their address is given as Potter Row (no 3?) and in 1863 they're living at 80 Canongate (on the birth cert it looks like Reids Close, 80 Canongate) The second question I have is that I think the child born in 1860, Walter Scott Henderson, turns up on the England 1881 census in North Yorkshire, he's living with his widowed mother, Mary Miller. There's a marriage for Mary Henderson and James Miller in Newcastle in 1869. When James married in 1872 would it have been usual to put his mother's name as it would have been when he was born, ie, Mary Ann Henderson? Thanks - Shelagh