Person:Ann Gilbert (12)

Anne Jones Gilbert was born 16 October 1825 at Edmonstone, Newton parish, Midlothian, Scotland. She was christened the following month on 13 November 1825 in Liberton parish, Midlothian, Scotland. By the time of the 1841 UK Census, she had left home, presumably to seek employment. Although she has not yet been definitively located in the 1841 and 1851 UK censuses, she most likely was somewhere in Midlothian, possibly in Edinburgh, based on the location of the rest of her family. In 1849, she gave birth to a daughter, Margaret, and in the 1851 census Margaret was listed with the last name Barclay and was living with Anne's parents, William and Margaret Gilbert.

On 14 October 1859, Anne married Thomas Baxter of Tranent, East Lothian, Scotland. Almost immediately afterwards, Anne and her new husband set sail for the United States of America. They sailed from Liverpool, England, on the Black Ball Line ship Harvest Queen, captained by E. Young, and they arrived in New York City on 2 December 1859. (Anne's daughter Margaret remained in Scotland to be raised by Anne's parents as their own daughter.) In 1860, the US Census lists Thomas and Anne living with an Irish family by the name of McShea in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. Thomas worked as a gardener at the time. Thomas and Anne had five children in the years between the 1860 and 1870 census, sons Thomas, Alexander, and William, and daughters Annie and Jessie.

In March 1870, Thomas died of a heart attack, just two months after Jessie was born. To support her family, Anne took in boarders. One of the boarders, David Forrest, lived with the family from then until as long as any record of Anne can be found (1910 Census). Family legend says that after Anne's death, her daughter Jessie found a marriage certificate for Anne and David Forrest hidden behind a framed picture. He certainly must have been a good friend to the family, since Anne's older daughter Annie named her first born son after him (David Forrest Montgomery).

After Anne's older children departed, she lived with her daughter Jessie and her husband, Frederick Berner. In the last census showing Anne (1910), she and the Berners were living in New Jersey. Anne lived to be at least 84 years old.