I have made progress in my search for these two children of Jane Sim and Alexander Thomson.
I had traced ANN to the 1891 census when she was governess at a small girls’ school in Perthshire but could not find any other links in Scottish records. However, I did find Annie E Thompson (note the p) as a general servant (domestic), age 37, to Richard F Russell, newspaper proprietor, in Croydon at the 1901 census. Her place of birth was Scotland, Kincardine which matched with her birth certificate. I could not find her in 1911 under either spelling of her surname. However, using the name of her employer, I searched the 1911 census and found him as Richard Falconer Russell at Thornton Heath, Surrey, a retired publisher, aged 69, born Old Monkland, Lanark. His housekeeper was Annie Easton Thomson, aged 40, born in Stonehaven, again close to the exact location of Kinneff and Catterline. Thornton Heath is just north of Croydon.
A death notice appeared in the Croydon Times 27 May 1914 for Annie E Thomson, aged 50. Could this be her death? Age is correct as is the location. I sent for the death certificate but that did not tell me much more since it does not have the names of parents. However, it does give the address as 160 Melfort Road, where she was in the 1911 census. She died of stomach cancer.
In 1891, DAVID was living with his aunt Eliza, who had a boarding house in Edinburgh. He was a law clerk. He did not appear in any later Scottish census records. I found his death recorded on a gravestone in Morningside Cemetery, Edinburgh, though he had not died there but in Natal, South Africa, where he had been fighting with London Scottish in Boer War.
The gravestone is a partial family tree, recording the deaths of Robert Sim’s daughter, Jane, and her husband, Alexander Thomson; their sons David Easton Thomson and William Alexander Thomson; daughter Jane Sim Thomson; and Eliza Sim, sister of Jane Sim. Deaths of others in the family are nor recorded on the gravestone.
simsofgourdas.com 