Mary Robb 1852-1928
1852. Mary Robb was born to John Robb & Ann Robb on 30/11/1852 at Loanhead, Glenisla
1871C
1876 Annie Robb was born 29/1/1876 Loanhead, Glenisla, Angus/Perthshire, Mary Robb, single mother . . . ?Coutis?. Glenisla is on the border of Angus and Perthshire, the birth being registered in Angus
1880. Mary Robb, 27, married James Thomson, 20, a shepherd, on 26/11/1880 in Loanhead, Glenisla. Mary's parents were John Robb, farm servant, deceased, & Ann Robb. Witnesses were Alex Robb & Martha Coutis : is this Mary's grandmother??
1881C. Where are James Thomson, ~21, Mary Thomson ~28 and young Annie Robb Thomson ~5 . Cannot find any of them on Ancestry/FMP. Another search 9/9/2022.
1891C. Mary Thomson, 38, , was living with her husband, James, farm servant, and 6 children at Meadows Of Ballied Blairgowrie Perthshire
So, Annie Robb 1876 had 5 half siblings: Marjory Betsy Mcines, James A, John 1886 & William 1889 : these by 1891, and then another Robert in 1896
1901C. Mary Thomson, 48, , was living with her husband, James, sawmillers labourer, & 2 children, ,at Lethendy and Kinloch, Perthshire. Her first daughter, Annie Robb, 1876. had left home
1911C . Mary Thomson, 57, was living with her son, John, 24, and his neice at Cargill, Perthshire, Scotland,,Hatton of Cargill cottage
1928. Mary Thomson, 75, widow of John Thomson, crofter, died on 2/7/1928 at 9 Smythe Street, Alyth Her parents were John Robb & Ann Robb, and the informant was John Robb, her son, of West Leetfic?, Alyth
~1946 David W Keene, at the age of 5 or 6I managed to burn down three haystacks. He and his mother, Lilian, daughter of Annie Robb Thomson, and likely Annie herself and David's father, were staying for the summer with relatives of my mother in Scotland: these would be the Thomson half siblings of Lilian Conway's mother, Annie Robb Thomson They had a farm near Blairgowrie. It was a very exciting place to be. David rode on tractors, watched fields being mown and the rabbits dashing wildly out as the unmown area got smaller and smaller, and he drank milk squirted straight from the cows. One day he found a box of matches. Experimentally he wondered whether the sort of hay at the corner of a hayrick would burn or not. He thought that if it did, he could just knock it out. He couldn’t. The flame spread amazingly fast, licking up the side of the stack and catching the whole rick. he ran inside the farmhouse screaming. He heard the fire engines come, but they couldn’t save the rick or the two next to it.
He gathered later that his farming 'cousin' ( David cannot remamember anything about him, his age, or whether any children, ...) suffered not at all from this episode. The insurers paid up, and the sudden injection of a capital sum into the farm gave it a boost from which it never looked back.