Hello Paul,

Sorry it has taken me so long to respond to your post. Over the winter I have been concentrating on the McDonald family in Scotland, where I have found that the birthplace of Isabella McDonald is Hilton (a seaboard port) in Ross-shire, and that her parents Isabella McDonald (Snr.) and Donald McDonald were first cousins.

All I can say at the moment is that everything everyone has responded is correct as far as my ancestors are concerned and my grandfather was the eldest son (William) of Thomas Kelly and Isabella McDonald who married at the Grand Hotel in Lerwick.

Unfortunately I cannot confirm if William had a younger sister called Annie as my investigations stops at the 1911 census which confirms that the Kelly family that I am researching moved to Earlestown in England and there they had two more sons, John born in 1905 and Stanley born in 1907.

However, have you obtained a copy of Annie Kelly's birth certificate? and if so, does it say that her parents were Thomas Kelly and Isabella Kelly (nee McDonald). Also I would be interested to hear where Annie was born? because if it is not Earlestown, England it would mean that the family moved again after 1911 and prior to Annie's birth. Because Sue has found a birth for an Annie E Kelly in the June quarter of the 1913 Free Births, Marriages and Deaths which took place in Gateshead. I must say I would be tempted to send for this birth certificate to see what the Christian names of her parents were.

I am sorry that I have not been any more help to you than the previous responders to your query, but wish you well with your search.

Dennis