When I started working on the family tree I very quickly progressed on all branches apart from Margaret Hunter’s family. I was completely stumped.

Margaret was the mother of Nancy Eleanor Mitchell and Nancy’s birth certificate gave me her maiden name of Hunter. I found Margaret’s marriage to Isaac Haig Mitchell on 29 Oct 1899 and the marriage certificate stated that her age was 33 and that her father was called John Hunter, a deceased hosiery worker.

I easily found Isaac and Margaret on the 1901 and 1911 census. In 1901 Margaret is listed as age 34, born in Scotland and on the 1911 census she is described as age 44, born in Hawick and living in Sutton, Surrey. (I haven’t yet managed to find them on the 1921 census.)

I then started a search for a Margaret Hunter born about 1866/67 in Hawick the daughter of John Hunter a hosiery worker. There weren’t any candidates so I expanded the search to the whole of Roxburgh and, as Margaret Hunter is a fairly common name, I found lots. I found a few with father’s called John but none of them was a hosiery worker or similar and whilst people did change their occupations I thought it unlikely that a man would, in middle age, change from mining or agriculture to become a hosiery worker.

I decided to search in the 1871 census for a 4/5 year old Margaret Hunter in Hawick and then the whole of Roxburgh and again had no real luck. I then searched the 1881 census (the Mormon Church has transcribed this whole census and it is easy and free to search) for the whole of the UK and found a Margaret Hunter born in 1865 in Scotland with a father called John Hunter who was a weaver now living in Cumberland. After months of searching I thought I had at last found ‘our’ Margaret. At age 16 this Margaret had an illegitimate child who was raised by his grandparents. Her father John Hunter was a blind weaver born in Scotland but as there are thousands of John Hunters born in Scotland I thought I couldn’t go any further and I left the story there and moved onto another branch of the tree.

Months later I returned to this branch of the tree and decided to look for John Hunter’s death certificate. He was recorded as deceased on Margaret’s marriage certificate so his death must have occurred sometime after the 1881 census and before October 1899. I eventually found his death on 10th Feb 1887 in Carlisle. He was 68, a woolen weaver and his daughter Margaret registered the death. The only problem was she was called Margaret Martin now. It was fairly easy to find her marriage and then to find her on the 1901 census with Mr Martin so she couldn’t possibly be ‘our’ Margaret.

I started again from a slightly different angle. I had found a record for a burial of a Margaret Mitchell in Banstead Surrey on 15 Nov 1921. Margaret was recorded as being 53 years old giving an approximate date of birth as 1868. I had assumed this was ‘our’ Margaret as there was only one death of a Margaret Mitchell in this area. I decided to obtain the death certificate just to confirm the information. When the certificate arrived many weeks later it stated that she was the wife of George Mitchell a ‘carman’ so she wasn’t ‘our’ Margaret. 

I spent several days searching for her death. Her death wasn’t registered near her residence in Surrey so I had no idea where to look. Eventually I found her death registered in Lambeth/Brixton on 5 Aug 1922 where she is recorded as being age 55 giving an approximate date of birth as 1867. (She died of stomach cancer and pneumonia.)

I now searched in Scotland for every Margaret Hunter born between 1864-1870, there are lots! I then checked the census and married up every one of them with a family. Some had fathers called John Hunter. I was able to eliminate any John who was still alive after 1899. I was able to eliminate any Margaret who was still a spinster after 1899. I was able to eliminate any Margaret who married someone other than Issac Haig Mitchell and was still married in 1901. I then eliminated any John Hunter who’s occupation didn’t fit with the description ‘hosiery worker’, so all the miners, heavy labourers, farmers etc. Slowly but surely I whittled the list down and still could not find ‘our’ Margaret.

I then took a different approach. I decided to look for all John Hunters in Hawick who were working in any capacity in the wool/cloth industry. Hawick and the surrounding towns in Roxburgh  are famous for their wool industries so there were quite a few candidates but one stood out.

1871 census for 50 Loan Street, Hawick. John Hunter age 40, wool frame work knitter but the only problem was he was unmarried. He did however have a daughter called Margaret Hunter. Unfortunately she was aged 11 and therefore born 1860 which is several years before ‘our’ Margaret was supposedly born.

I searched for a birth of Margaret Hunter in 1859/60/61 in Hawick. Again without success.

I then concentrated on John Hunter and slowly but surely worked out the story.

In 1851 John Hunter was recorded on the Hawick census as age 19, a woollen frame work knitter and living as a lodger with the Thomson family. His place of birth is listed as Langholm Dumfries.

I found him again in 1861 lodging with Margaret Graham and her mother Margaret Notman at Myreslaw Green in Hawick. He was age 27, a power stocking frame tender, unmarried. 

Margaret Graham is listed as a married seamstress. The following children are also listed at the same property: Elizabeth Graham age 12, Joan Graham age 9, John Hunter age 6, William Hunter age 3 and Margaret Hunter age 1, all born in Hawick. The relationships are listed against the head of the house Margaret Notman so it’s not always clear if they are actually related to the lodger John Hunter.

By 1871 John Hunter was listed as the head of the household and the children were listed as his sons and daughters. Margaret Graham is listed as his married housekeeper and there were two more children: Isabella age 7 and Mary age 2. Unfortunately his surname was transcribed as Hanler and hers as Crahan which made the search a little more tricky!

It appears as though John Hunter was co-habiting with Margaret Graham. I decided to search for a birth for a Margaret Graham born 1859/60/61 in Hawick, without success. I then tried using the surname Notman and hit the jackpot!

Margaret Notman (or Graham) 27 Mar 1860 in Hawick. Margaret is listed as illegitimate but there is a note “Margaret Notman wife of George Graham who the informant declares she has not seen for 9 years”. So having been abandoned by her husband George Graham (a mason’s journeyman) in 1851 she went back to her parents and later met John Hunter, who she lived with until her death in 1877 age 47. 

After her death John Hunter continued to live in Hawick with his daughter Isabella and appears on the 1881 census still working as a wool frame work knitter. He died on 4 Nov 1890 at the Melrose District Asylum age 62. Cause of death was paralysis of the insane four years (late stage Syphilis). The death was registered by Andrew Butler, Isabella’s husband.

By 1881 Margaret Notman/Hunter had left home and I spent quite a long time looking for her on the census. The most credible entries I found were: 

1. Margaret L Hunter age 21, birth year 1860 Hawick, Roxburgh. Working as a tablemaid at The Scores, St Andrews, Fife. (I couldn’t find a Margaret L Hunter born in 1860 in Roxburgh).
2. B) Margaret Hunter age 18, birth year 1863 Roxburgh. Working as a domestic servant and described as a visitor staying with Robert & Helen Gilholm at their home in Ancrum Roxburgh. I did find a Margaret Stodda Hunter born in Roxburgh 1863 but it wasn’t ‘our’ Margaret.

By 1891 there was no obvious candidate for her in the UK census. I decided to look at both Margaret Notman/Graham’s family and John Hunter’s family to see if Margaret had gone to live with any of them. 

John Hunter (born 20 Nov 1830) was the son of John Hunter born about 1792 and Margaret Budge baptised 7 Aug 1794 Langholm. He had several brothers and sisters. His elder sister Agnes Gaskill Hunter was born in 1815, she married Andrew Little and their first child was born in 1833. They had several children and their daughter Margaret Little was born in 1837. In 1856 Margaret Little gave birth to an illegitimate child called Alexander Mitchell in Hawick. He grew up to be a wool scourer and dyer. It’s pure speculation but I wondered if he could be the illegitimate son of Isaac Haig Mitchell’s father who was also called Alexander Mitchell who was also a wool scourer and dyer. It would perhaps explain how ‘our’ Margaret knew Isaac Haig Mitchell.

Alexander Mitchell/Little died age 28 of pulmonary consumption. In 1879 he was involved in a Sheriff Court paternity case with Sarah McWatters over the paternity of her daughter Ellen L Stainton McWatters. He went on to marry Betsy Young the year before he died.

I still don’t know where ‘our’ Margaret was in 1891. But it appears that at age 39 she married 32 year old Isaac Haig Mitchell. In 1901 age 41 she gave birth to Nancy Eleanor Mitchell, her only child. She maintained the lie about her age for the rest of her life.

Of course this was all speculation until my husband submitted a DNA test to ancestry.com and we discovered several distant cousins all descended from John Hunter and Margaret Notman/Graham which confirmed at long last that I had indeed found ‘our’ Margaret Hunter.

What happened to Margaret’s brothers and sisters?

Elizabeth Graham her half sister was born about 1849. There are a couple of possible marriages but I could not find anything to prove which was correct.

Joan/Jane Graham/Hunter born 1852 may or may not be George Graham’s daughter. By 1871 she is no longer with the family, she may have died or moved away. No further trace of her.

John Hunter born 1855 and died 3 May 1930 Kilmarnock. He married Isabella Wilson and they had 7 children. Their youngest, born in 1898, was called Maggie Notman Hunter.

William Hunter born 1857 married Agnes Sanderson Hutton and moved to Peebles. They had 4 children, the youngest was born in 1886 and was called Margaret Notman Hunter.

Isabella Hunter born 1863 died 5 Feb 1931 Paisley. She was run over by a lorry and killed, there is a procurator fiscal’s report attached to her death certificate. She married Andrew Butler and had 6 children, the eldest was born in 1885 called Margaret Notman Butler.

James Hunter born 7 Mar 1867 and died 6 Sep 1867 of whooping cough.

Mary Hunter born 17 Aug 1868 and died 19 Mar 1877 of tubercular meningitis.

Without DNA I would never have ben able to confirm that this was indeed ‘our’ Margaret Hunter.