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Thank you!

This will be that second marriage - not that it helps:

MURRAY
BERT
MCLANDERS
ELIZABETH
1919
282/1 435
St Mary and St Peter

Bert got married very soon after his divorce but I can’t remember where I saw the record. I didn’t understand the significance of his new marriage but it’s likely his new wife raised Albert Joseph as her own I suppose.

Yes, Chris, that’s them.

(presuming this is the family below)

Chris :)

1901
Margaret Malcolm Head Single Female 46 1855 Charwoman Kincardineshire, Scotland
Louisa Malcolm Daughter - Female 8 1893 Scholar Kincardineshire, Scotland
James Malcolm Father Married Male 88 1813 Retired Farmer Birse, Aberdeenshire, Scotland
Jessie Malcolm Mother Married Female 80 1821 - Kinneff, Kincardineshire, Scotland
Arthur Malcolm Brother Single Male 43 1858 General Labourer Kincardineshire, Scotland
Helen Hogg Boarder Single Female 74 1827 Living On Own Means Kincardineshire, Scotland
64, Barclay Street, Fetteresso, Kincardineshire, Scotland


06 March 1902 - Stonehaven Journal - Stonehaven, Kincardineshire, Scotland

Death
MALCOLM - At 64, Barclay Street, on 28th Feb., Jessie Airth, widow of James Malcolm, late of Feathers, Dunnottar, aged 80 years.

The Salvation Army Home seems to have been a Magdalen Home, which might explain how Bert and Louisa met. On their marriage certificate it says that he’s a laundry labourer and she’s a laundress.

I think by 1911 both Margaret’s parents had died. By the time Louisa has gone to court she’s living in Great Western Road, which is in Aberdeen itself. Stonehaven is about ten miles out if I remember correctly.

I just added an edit above about the confusion around her Dundee address. I’m wondering if the marriage was purely so Bert’s family could keep the baby. That would be the second baby Louisa gave up, my grandmother being the first. A poor young woman, getting pregnant while living in a “reformatory” would be highly unlikely to be allowed to keep her child I would have thought.
Sigh, I’m feeling so sad for Louisa.

Hmmm, yes, I've re-read Chris's post.

He "had not lived with his wife" - depends if the newspaper reporter got the story right or not. Surely Bert must have lived with Louisa at some point - even for a short time when first married.

It sounds as if she was living at the Salvation Army Hostel 1913-19, at least - having been placed there presumably to be supervised, to correct her criminal tendencies.


In 1911 she's still living in Fetteresso - but not with anyone else named Malcolm:

MALCOLM
LONISE
1911
F
19
258/1 3/ 7
Fetteresso
Kincardine

Her mother Margaret is in a different household in Fetteresso, with no other Malcolms.

I don’t quite know what was going on. Having read Chris’s edit it seems the hostel was her home as ordered by the court in Aberdeen in 1913. On her marriage certificate to Bert she has the same address as him so she either temporarily lived there or they didn’t want the registrar to know where she really lived.

In the newspaper cutting about the divorce Bert says he didn’t live with his wife, which seems strange wording. Saying he no longer lived with her would be more usual phrasing, no? It sounds like they never lived together and Bert’s family kept the child.

Edit: it seems that the Salvation Army Home was a place for women and girls in distress. I’m thinking it’s likely she never got to keep Albert Joseph and that the marriage may have been done so Bert’s family could keep the baby.

Blimey, the lot of women was harsh.

If so, that must have been with a child earlier than Albert Joseph.
Six children with surname Malcolm were born in Dundee in 1919 - but impossible to say if any were hers, without buying all the certs.
(Well, cut that down to four, as mms of two who died wasn't Malcolm.)

But maybe she was working and living there - not one of the unmarried mothers.

Albert J was definitely Bert's son - Bert was the informant on the birth cert.
Or else Bert was a very big-hearted and forgiving man who was willing to take on responsibility for another man's child!

Hmm, it seems that in 1919 the Salvation Army Hostel was a place for mother’s and children - probably for women to deliver children...

I’m now wondering if Louisa was pregnant by someone other than her husband - one of the soldiers and sailors...

Chris, I suppose I shouldn’t laugh at her messing around with soldiers and sailors but it sounds like she loved life! :-S

Argyll Gran - no that’s just clumsy wording on my part. As far as I’m aware there were only the three children. I’ve found out a lot more from poking at Percival Atkins. It seems that Louisa and Grace lived with him almost for the rest of their lives. It seems Grace was quite “delicate” and had to be home educated. Louisa may also have managed the Mermaid Hotel in Mumbles before becoming housekeeper for Percy Atkins.

As Grace never married, and there are no illegitimate Grunnell births in Swansea, it seems unlikely that she had any children.
Of course there's always the possibility that she lived elsewhere for a time, unmarried, and had a child registered under the father's surname - but impossible to tell.

You say "any of her other children". Do you mean Louisa had more children, other than Albert, Grace, and your grandmother?

It's impossible to tell from SP if Albert Joseph and Constance had children.
MMS can't be specified as a search term for such recent births, and Murray is a very common name.

She would have been c43 when they married, so possibly not.


For elimination purposes -
there's an Albert Joseph Murray (1915) in Birmingham in 1939, with wife and family - but that's NOT your Albert with a previous marriage. The Birmingham one was also born in Birmingham, and has a different DOB.
Your Albert J was born 25 Sept 1915 - I had a look.

(well there is below!)

Chris :)

08 November 1919 - Dundee People's Journal - Dundee, Angus, Scotland

On the ground of infidelity, Bert Murray, drummer in the army, was awarded a decree of divorce against Louisa Malcolm or Murray, Salvation Army Hostel, Dundee. Pursuer stated that he had not lived with his wife, he had heard she was carrying on with different Soldiers and Sailors.


07 December 1899 - Stonehaven Journal - Stonehaven, Kincardineshire

Soldiers and Sailors families Association.
Stonehaven County Council District.
Parishes of Fetteresso and Dunnottar.
The Teachers and Scholars of Fetteresso Infant Department, Public School.
Louisa Malcom 2d.


05 March 1913 - Aberdeen Press and Journal - Aberdeen, Aberdeenshire

ABERDEEN POLICE COURT.
DISHONEST DOMESTIC SERVANT. At the Aberdeen Police Court Baillie Duncan on the bench —Louisa Malcolm, domestic servant, Great Western Road, appeared on charge of stealing a gold finger-ring from a house in Carlton Place, occupied by Mr. Gavin Sinclair, Solicitor, and a clothes brush, brooch and veil from the house of Mr. Peter Wilson Smith, dental surgeon, Great Western Road. She pleaded guilty.
The Fiscal (Mr. Robert Lamb) said accused was a domestic servant, formerly employed with Mr. Sinclair, and while in his service, took the opportunity to steal the ring, on leaving that situation she went to a house in Great Western Road, where she continued her habits of pilfering. She was 21 years of age, an orphan, and had previously appeared in court, on a charge of theft. She belonged to Stonehaven, and sometime ago was implicated in a serious theft there.
The magistrate adjourned the case on condition that the girl went to the Salvation Army home at Dundee.

Edits
(probably more items, if you filter round Counties, and using different names, addresses, keywords etc .(Worth getting a subscription, either Find My Past, Genes, or below)

https://www.britishnewspaperarchive.co.uk/

Argyll Gran, she’s been a nightmare to find. She gave birth to my grandmother in Aberdeen in 1912 in a maternity hospital for unmarried mothers and immediately put the baby into Nazareth House children’s home. It really affected my grandmother that she’d never known her mother so I’m trying to track her down to bring some family closure really. It would be great to know if any of her other children had families. I’ve ordered a death certificate to see who registered her death but I fear I’ll never get to the bottom of Louisa’s colourful life :-D

She also seems to have been attracted to equally chaotic families. Her Father in Law, Joseph Murray is listed on various census entries as “ glass repairer” “herbalist” and “punchinello”..

"Leuisa" on her birth record is probably just how the registrar thought it should be spelled - or else it's how her mother told the registrar it was to be spelled.

But yes, she does like changing her name - as well as her men!

Louisa does seem to be a bit of a “character”. Sometimes her name is spelled Leuisa and she changes her middle name like the wind ??

Thanks Chris, that’s great!