Davies-Rowberry-Harley family history

The Mystery of Kenneth Harley

My maternal grandfater, Kenneth Harley, has always been believed to have been born in Scotland, somewhere in the Edinburgh area, in 1874.

He has also always been believed to have married my grandmother, Myrtle Preston (b.4/4/1896 in Bridlington,) "by declaration" in Scotland in 1920.

The only facts known for certain are that he fathered nine children (six living) to Myrtle between 1921 and 1936 (inclusive) and that he died on June 1948 at the Western General Hospital, Hull and was buried in the Eastern Cemetery on

However, exhaustive searches of the Scottish Records Office reveal:

1) No Kenneth Harley was born anywhere in Scotland between 1553 and 1854 (Parish Registers)
2) No Kenneth Harley born anywhere in Scotland between 1855 and 1901 (Statutory Records)
3) Only one death of a Kenneth Harley was recorded in Scotland between 1855 and 1951 : a Kenneth Grant Harley d. 6/2/1950 aged 1 yr. 3 months
4) No marriages of a Kenneth Harley recorded anywhere in Scotland between 1553 and 1926
5) Ditto Harley - Preston marriages in Scotland.
6) No Kenneth Harley was recorded in the 1881, 1891 or 1901 censuses of Scotland.

Searches of the 1901 Census of England and Wales also reveal no Kenneth Harley anywhere in the UK. (His family thinks he may have served in the Boer War 1900 - 1902 as he had military uniform items and did not serve in WW1 as he was 40 in 1914.)

So - How to trace my ancestry any further back?

His eldest daughter is named Ada Rosina, and the family have always believed this was after a sister called Rosina.

Searches of the Scottish Records Office reveal :

1) Two Rosina Harleys - mother and daughter - in the 1881 census.
2) Family trees of Rosina Harley can be traced back to at least 1808 (q.v.)
3) Rosina & Alexander Harley and family were last recorded in 1889 with birth of William Gibson Harley in Dunfermline.
4) No further records of the family appear in the 1891 or 1901 censuses.
5) Rosina's sister Minto / Aminto Harley nee Gibson married Alexander's brother David; Scottish records for their family are complete; Minto died in Glasgow in 1927.
6) Alexander Harley (husband of Rosina nee Gibson & father of Rosina jr.) was a Police Constable in Dunfermline; in 1878 a Police Constable named Alexander Harley is cited as the father of an illegitimate son, also Alexander, born in Dunfermline to Ann Anderson.

These facts raise a number of questions :

1) Is it possible that there were two Alexander Harleys on the Dunfermline Police Force at the same time?
2) Where did Alexander & Rosina Harley and family go after 1889?
3) What does "married by declaration" mean?
4) Who was Kenneth Harley? Was he in fact one of the many Alexanders in this family who changed his name to the uncommon Kenneth in order to avoid confusion?

The search continues!! Meanwhile I have researched the two Rosina Harleys I have found : the information and ancestry I have uncovered can be studied here