@lindastowemiller thank you for your reply . You’ve raised several valid points and maybe I should have included some in my original post.

For the duplicate there is one which I will eventually merge and I've already messaged a Canadian FS user about this. I've found that despite names recorded in the birth register subsequent official documents change the spelling - that said the various census, marriage and death registers when viewed all point to the same person (parent names and their marriage date, date of births, etc). In memories for the mother and one of the children I've done a listing of the various changes in spellings - the names changes are recorded as name variantes.

I don't have access to Ancestry as they always want to charge a fee and I'm not convinced that they can provide more than FS and other sources (eg newspaper archives). Diligent search is though required.

I have a copy of her headstone but that in itself for me is not proof - I've yet to find her obituary. I know certain documents have already been uploaded by another FS user but I always prefer seeing the actual document itself. Photos of the census I gleaned from FS, but the obituary is with Ancestry and so I need a subscription to view the document.

Like you I'm also dong research further back in time and for this the Scotlands People has been a treasure trove of information. Fee paying, but the cost is very reasonable. It's when the lines immigrate to the States or Canada that resources become difficult to find. But one needs to plug away.

Without a subscription I cannot contact users of Ancestry - it may come a point in time where I bite the bullet and pay a limited duration and do a crash search on all the various persons.

Thanks again for your reply.

Regards