Maggie Forsyth

Margaret was born about 1863 in Keith, Banffshire to James and Ann Forsyth. In 1887 in Glasgow, she married William Reid, a sign-writer. They lived in Glasgow, where her sons William and Henry were born. In early 1891, she returned to Keith with her children to visit or live with her father, and they were there on census night in March 1891.

When Maggie's father died in Aberdeen in 1896, his address was 68 Spital (the name of a street in central Aberdeen, still there today), and she was described as "Daughter and Inmate (Present)". The significance of "inmate" is not clear. Had they come upon hard times and was 68 Spital perhaps an annex to the poorhouse? (There was one nearby.)

The 1901 census shows Maggie as married (not widowed) and living in a single room in Edinburgh with son Henry. She was by then a worker (in a rubber factory), and this all suggests she was still struggling financially, and probably living apart from her husband. What had happened to him, and where was her other son?

Sources: Census [1]1881, [2]1891, [3]1901; [4]father's death record;

Page last updated 25 March 2003