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Originally Posted by Andy in West Oz  Well, my mind's in a whirl digesting all of that! Are there any Patersons still living in Milton?
Good research and supporting material, mate. What would Mr Paterson have been doing in Scotland? |
1. The Private John Paterson family moved out of Milton in July of 1921 and there are no Paterson's of any form around that have any knowledge of the events that I am tracing. The Historical Society Archivist checked all those routes.
2. John Paterson was from the Gartcosh area of Scotland so he might have been "poking about" prior to the war, in one way or another. My suspicion, but I have no facts, is that he may have been the father of the illegitimate daughter Mary and so he took off in great haste to Canada, either with Elizabeth in tow or following shortly. Mary was thus raised by the grandfather as there was no father, or mother and father had just beat it off to Canada.
You will note that John Paterson was off age to have a daughter of that age. It all comes down to the fact that the letters from the QMAAC refer to either "Mary" or the "daughter" and never to "Mary Paterson". I do believe that Elizabeth was the mother and was with John in Milton but Mary never was in Canada and was certainly never adopted by John.
I should have mentioned that in the past few days we have received confirmation that Mary Blaikley is commemorated on the Gartcosh War Memorial, so she is not left without proper acknowledgment of her deeds.