Hello Jean,
I tried to reply to youby email but it just bounced back! I shall try again
Thank you for your very prompt and helpful reply, you ask many questions, most of which myself and my extended family have puzzled over for many years.
We have a mention of Tom's army details, he was a captain, and in the pay corps, I re -unearthed the mention and found that it gave his birth as april 1891 but the fourth of april not the twelfth.I checked the birth certificate copy with an uncle who it seems has the original, and was assured that my copy matches with his original. He is very elderly though.
There was one other Tom mcGain who we found , born in Liverpool a year or so either side of 1891 but his dad was a police man and I don't think he was adopted.The birth certificates adress is exactly the same as the one on the census although the names Mary Watson, Mary Mcgain formerly watson we believe that watterson and watson were misheard by the registrar. are different it's difficult to imagine two women with such close names being in the Boundary road lodgings at the same time or so very close to each other.
WilliamHenry and his sister Annie Mcgain are listed in the 1891 census as being with their Watterson grandparents, while she was in domestic employment with the Laughtons [perhaps the 'big house' ] mentioned in family tales again.It seems to me that she just airbrushed Tom, and the whole episode out of her life, not even acknowledging his existence on the 1911 census.
There was another family tale that money was left for a private education for him and he certainly did well enough to rise to the rank of army captain. I too have come across the christening certificate naming Annie Mcgain as mother, that needs some further exploration I feel !
I should explain that I never met my grandfather he and my grandmother were divorced and he was decidedly personna non grata with the rest of the family.
The reason I was trying to find out about Martha's husband William Mcgain is because he does not apear in any r3ecord which I can find after the birth of their son and daughter wm, and Annie, I am kind of casting round for possible reasons as to why she took this extreme step.Very mysterious.
Thanks again for your very helpful comments.
I am attaching a scanned version of Tom's birth certificate.
Kind regards

Maureen Lacey
It seems my birth cert file is too large I shall resize it and resend