I only know of Margaret Fleming through the death certificate of her son, Alexander Kerr. I also know from Alexander's death certificate that Margaret was married to William Kerr. I have searched births, deaths, marriages and Censuses for her, but can't find anything. The fact that there seems to be no record of Alexander Kerr's birth suggests that Margaret and her husband, William Kerr were not church goers and that may be why there are no records. As for Censuses, he may well have died before the 1841 Census.

As with Margaret's husband William, it is not really possible to estimate Margaret's age at the time of her son Alexander's likely birth period of 1805 / 06. Alexander might have been Margaret's first child; last of many; or somewhere in between. William and Margaret may or may not have been married (although Alexander's death certificate suggests they were) and they may have started having children early or late. So, the best I can really do is, speculate that if she married early and Alexander was her first child, she may have been around 20 at that time. If on the other hand, she married late and Alexander was the last of a few children, Margaret might have been around 40 at that time. So, date of birth could have been anywhere between 1865 and 1885 and date of marriage, anywhere between 1880 and 1806. I've searched these periods (and beyond) for birth and marriage records for Margaret, but found nothing.

KEY EVENTS AND DATES

1805/06

I believe Margaret's son, Alexander Kerr, was born in this period. This derives from the 1851 Census that records Alexander's age as 45. No record of the birth has been found yet.

10th March 1826

Margaret's son, Alexander, married Margaret Paterson in Dalkeith. Alexander lived in the Parish of Dalkeith, while Margaret lived in Liberton Parish. Interestingly, one of their witnesses was called James Patterson, Named for the bride - is the double 'tt' a mistake and this is a relative of Margaret's, or is it a coincidence? There was no record of Alexander's parents in the entry.

8th September 1877

Margaret's son, Alexander, died at 7.30 p.m. at Wilson's Land, High Street East, Dalkeith. He was a widower at the time and aged 70. His occupation had been Coal Merchant. The death certificate records his parents as having been William Kerr, a Stone Quarrier and Margaret Fleming, both deceased. The cause of Alexander's death was Heart Disease and his death was reported by his grandson George Sutter (4).