Here are some further puzzles from my research. My grandfather, James Donald Blair, was taken from his actual parents when he was just a baby (under an order from the Geelong Court). He was eventually "adopted" by Frederick Tucker and his wife, Margaret Allison Tucker. Frederick and Margaret were comfortably off and spent their final days near the beach at Hampton, Victoria (Australia).

Coincidentally or otherwise, Margaret Tucker was originally Margaret Allison Blair. Her parents were James Blair and Eleanor "Ellen" Price. James was the younger brother of William Allison Blair, who did well for himself and lived in the Maidstone / Essendon area of Melbourne in the late 1800s. The brothers were born in Scotland and emigrated to Australia in the 1850s.

James Blair and his wife, Ellen, lived in Collingwood and Fitzroy. He was a hatter. They had five children, only one of whom survived (Margaret Allison Blair). The last child was born and died in 1865. Then, in 1866, Ellen Blair began to have children with another man, Robert Simpson. Robert was a confectioner. She had the children registered with the dual surnames "Simpson Blair". Only one of these children survived - Ellen Simpson Blair.

Where was James Blair? Had he gone back to the UK? Had he run off to the goldfields? Was he dead? I have been unable to find any definitive information on this.

Ellen Blair died in 1874, aged only 42. How did her two surviving daughters (Margaret Allison Blair and Ellen Simpson Blair) manage to look after themselves? Did their uncle, William Allison Blair, take them in and care for them?

If anyone can shed light on these intriguing questions, I would love to hear from them.