Have you tried locating the family on the Scotland 1911 Census you can view it on Scotlands People.

I had a search but couldn't locate any of the family on it.

Thanks - I'll have a go at that!

This is very strange - I have a copy of the 1901 census attached to Samuel Tillie's name in my family tree but ancestry isn't showing it now...and of course they don't have 1911 either. Scotlands People is showing nothing for 1901 for Samuel Tillie either...

This is the 1901 Census it's still there

Scotland 1901 Census
Name: Samuel Tillie
Age: 30
Estimated Birth Year: abt 1871
Relationship: Head
Spouse's name : Mary F Tillie
Gender: Male
Where born: Inchinnan, Renfrewshire
Registration Number: 644/12
Registration district: Gorbals
Civil Parish: Glasgow Govan
County: Lanarkshire
Address: 291 Thistle St
Occupation: House & Ship Painter
Household Members:
Name Age
Samuel Tillie 30
Mary F Tillie 27 Dundel Forfarshire
Mary A Tillie 7 Glasgow
Margaret Tillie 3 Glasgow
Samuel Tillie 3mo Glasgow

for Scotlands People try this

Surname: Tillie - Fuzzy matching
Forename: Samuel - begins with
Second person: Mary F
Age Range: 25-35
County: Lanark

one comes up it could be the one you are looking for

Do you have a copy of Samuel Tillie 1901 birth certificate it might be worth looking at that.

You are very helpful - thanks so much. I did try the fuzzy name thing, and I did try the birth certificate - no matches, but it was very late at night so maybe I should have another go.
The problem is that I think my Tillie ancestors were from Ireland the generation before Samuel, and I'm not having any luck with that either.
Being mightily stubborn, I will keep trying though :))

Found him - have the birth certificate - now I just need to find out what happened to the poor wee guy.

I have another question my knowledgeable friend - on baby Samuel's birth certificate, his mother Mary Fyfe isn't present. Does this mean she may have died in childbirth, or is it simply that it was less than 3 weeks after the birth and she didn't attend. I'm not sure what the protocols were at that time.

I seem to be having the same trouble finding death certificates for all of this family. Samuel Sr., Samuel Jr., Mary Fyfe Tillie and Mary Tillie Ralston. I've searched Death Certificates, used the fuzzy search etc. Nothing. Do you have any additional pointers?
I guess that's two questions! I hope you don't mind...?

Not quite sure about the Birth "his mother Mary Fyfe isn't present"?? Does it actually say she wasn't present??

Is it a birth record your looking at or baptism record??

On birth it should have the following
Column
1- name of child
2- date, time & place of Birth
3- Sex
4- names of both parents, usually father first with name & occupation and underneath mother and her maiden name and usually the date and place of their marriage.
5- name of informant and relationship to child, could be either parent and sometimes the doctor or district nurse but mostly one of the parents.
6- When & Where registered and Registrar signature


I'm presuming the Tillie family remained in Scotland??

Do you have the marriage certificate for Mary Ann Tillie to Ralston? When & Where married? A quick search brought up 1919.

Her marriage certificate may say if father is living or deceased at time of her marriage.

I'll have a quick look around the deaths and see what I can find, could be transcript error, there are a few of those.

This may be Mary, you would have to purchase to view the details but it's a possible.

Death possibility search

Mary Ralston details entered for search

Surname - Ralston - fuzzy matching
Forename - Mary - begins with
Other names - Tillie
Birth date - 1894 - plus 2
no county entered

brings up one death 1973

The best way for searching is put what you know, put just the basics Surname, Forename, date birth give or take 2-3 yrs, see what comes up, if you are absolutely sure of the county put that in otherwise leave it blank. Try searching, if quite a few come up narrow it down further.

Add one extra at a time to see what comes up, mothers maiden name, remember this is only what the informant knows or what he/she thinks it is, it is not always accurate.

If you know roughly the date of death put that in or use a wide range to start then narrow it further. i started with 1920 - 2000 and then narrowed it by 10 years on either end till it disappeared at 1950-1970 so it was either 1940-1950 or 1970-1980 so then you try those dates and it came back at 1970-1980 then you just pare off the years one at a time till you get 1973.

It doesn't always work, but it's well worth trying sometimes the record has nothing to do with your family but you can rule it out and try again.

The death record does not come up using mothers maiden name Fyfe, but does come up using other name Tillie.

Hi - on the birth record of baby Samuel 1901 - and it is a birth record for the District of Gorbals in Glasgow - there is a signature for Samuel Tillie as father in the column to the right. Below Samuel is Mary Tillie's name as mother, but in the column to the right of her name it just says (present) - in brackets just as I wrote. There is nothing else below that. There is no signature at all. Is this usual? I'm no used to these documents so I'm not sure what is usual and what isn't...

The other thing I wanted to say is that when I tried the fuzzy matching on the Surname, I twice got someone whose name was nothing like what I was looking for, and as it costs 1 point every time I'm a bit reluctant to do it first off. I will try again and put in the "begins with" on Forename. Maybe that's why I get such poor results.
I will try not to be such a bother from here on - you're just so helpful but I'm feeling both guilty and ineffectual! Thanks so much for your patience and all your help.

Hello! I found the elusive Samuel Tillie Jr. He actually lived until 1928 and was a housepainter. He died of an acute disease - took 1 month and 8 days to die poor man.

I decided to lengthen my search timeline and that's when I found him. Wouldn't have been so successful if I hadn't had your suggestions to follow! :)) Thank you.

I'm so glad you found him.