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

It is not really possible to estimate William's age at the time of his son Alexander's likely birth period of 1805 / 06. Alexander might have been William'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 he married early and Alexander was his first child, he may have been around 20 at that time. If on the other hand, he married late and Alexander was the last of a few children, William 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 William, but found nothing.

KEY EVENTS AND DATES

1805/06

I believe William'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

William'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

William'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).