When Margaret Mathewson (1828-74) died at Ballarat, her husband Alexander Mathewson (1827-91) registered the death and listed her parents as “Thomas Allison, commercial traveller and Margaret Simpson” and her age as 47 years.

When Margaret Alison married Alexander Mathewson in Cupar, Fife on 31 May 1852 she was listed as the daughter of the late “Thomas Alison, traveller of Cupar, Fife”. At the time, she resided at Regent Terrace, Edinburgh (Parish of South Leith) and the fashionable address suggests that she was in domestic service.

In the Cupar parish records there are four entries of a Mary (or Marg?) Alison where the father was Thomas Alison (1801-51). The first was an illegitimate child with Mary McPhill? born on 15 January 1823 and three children born to his wife Mary McRabbie (1807-80) on 23 May 1828, 13 November 1831 and 1 October 1837. The repeated name implies that at least one of these children died in infancy. There is little consistency in other records with Margaret Alison’s birth date being listed in a range from 1825 to 1830 so the child born on 23 May 1828 seems most likely.

Thomas Alison’s occupation was shown as “Weaver” until about 1830 after which he was a “travelling bookseller”. From his humble origins, what he was selling were probably chapbooks – small paper covered books that were sold by hawkers at markets and fairs. He died on 17 September 1851 at the home of his brother Henry Alison (1812-85) at Monimail and a newspaper entry confirms that his usual residence was the Bonnygate in Cupar. His brother Henry showed his birthplace as either Aberdeenshire or Fife and, despite extensive searches, no birth record for either of them has ever been found.

Mary McRabbie’s parents and ancestors lived in the Collessie and Monimail area that is about 10km west of Cupar. I have DNA links to far fewer descendants of siblings and cousins of Margaret Alison and her parents that I would expect, so so there continues to be real uncertainty about her parentage.