Thanks Frances
Yes. You have provided this info in the past and I didn't think it related to my Mary Richie who is recorded with a birth in Stranraer, sometime around 1838-40. But she could possibly be the child of Mary Ritchie(daughter of Colin), born in IOM and brought up by the Staffords who maybe said she was born in Scotland to disguise illigitimacy. Or possibly the daughter of a Stafford girl fathered by the younger Colin Ritchie. It's the granddaughter link I need to establish, but I can't find any birth for Mary Ritchie or Mary Stafford in Scotland or the IOM. I think I have now established that she died in the Manchester Workhouse in 1885 aged 45 which, if correct, makes her birth 1840, making the IOM a distinct possibility. However in the 1841 census her age is given as 4, 1851- 13, 1861- 23, 1871- 28, 1881- 36(and born IOM), 1885- 45 so it is still rather confusing and nothing is beyond question. One day I'll discover the mising link.