When is a son not a son?

No, not an existential question, just a comment on the sometimes idiosyncratic indexing of census "families" on ancestry.

The 1881 census for Maryhill, Lanarkshire includes the military Barracks there.
In residence were William PAXTON, wife Mary PAXTON (formerly RUNCIMAN, nee DOUGAN/DUGGAN), John, Frances and Norman, her children from her previous marriage to George RUNCIMAN, and Mary, her daughter with William.

How do (John,) Frances and Norman appear on ancestry?

As children of William and  Bridget REYNOLDS:
William Reynolds 36 Head Soldier b(orn) East Indies
Bridget Reynolds 33 Wife b. Ireland
John Runciman 15 Soldier b. Ireland
Francis Runciman 8 Daughter Scholar b. Gibraltar
Norman Runciman 4 Son b. Malta

FindMyPast shows each of the family members individually (ie not listed as a family, but reported as head, wife, son..., my regrouping):
PAXTON, William Head Married M(ale) 34 1847 Soldier (born) England
PAXTON, Mary Wife Married F 31 1850 Lemerick
RUNCIMAN, John M 15 1866 Soldier Ireland
RUNCIMAN, Francis Daughter F 8 1873 Scholar Malta
RUNCIMAN, Norman Son M 4 1877 Malta
PAXTON, Mary Daughter F 2 1879 Hongkong

I confess to not having checked the original record, but do have sufficient evidence from other records for my conclusions.
A number of family trees on ancestry have come to a dead end on their ancestors as a result of not checking further, and assuming William & Bridget REYNOLDS are their ancestors.

For those interested, this family is included in the RUNCIMAN One Name Study.

17th: We're all connected really

One of those wonderful coincidences that I love about this hobby.
An email from a (4th) cousin from the WIGHT/RICHARDSON part of my tree, living in Edinburgh, greeted me this morning to point out that his mtDNA "Jasmine" (J) appears to have a fellow Jasmine descendant with Fairbairn ancestry, living in Wyoming.
Given that mtDNA matches fairly seldom result in anything useful within genealogical timeframes, I was treating that as of rather passing mild interest, until I spotted who the person was.
Her brother is represented in the FAIRBAIRN Surname DNA project (F-20) so the FAIRBAIRN is not his mtDNA connection.
Regardless of that, his ancestry is from the same area of Fife as my cousin's, and we have in the past corresponded about these FAIRBAIRNs and their IRELAND connections.
As to whether or not they'll find a match in their respective maternal trees, I do not know, but it does seem a wonderful coincidence that these two "met" and share me as a common contact.

25th: My cup runneth over ...

...with yet more WINE(S).
Thanks to Mike, a descendant of the IRELAND branch of the WINES forest, I've been reviewing where I'd got too on some of the Sth Petherton WINES and related families.
Having tidied up and expanded his particular branch, that of William IRELAND, son of George IRELAND and Anna NAPPER, he added that one of William's siblings had married a Bert HILLARD.
I noticed in passing that one of the earlier generations of WINES had also married a HILLARD and idly searched for Bert's parents to see if there was a connection.
Haven't yet figured that one out as I found Bert's mother was a Susan WINES.
Which trail led me to Windsor Castle, and a census entry I'd extracted some years ago.
When looking for a different Mary WINES, I'd found a Mary WINES of Sth Petherton enumerated as a confectionery maid in Windsor Castle in 1881, on page 5 of the schedule.
Page one began The Queen, Head, widow 61, Queen of Great Britain and Ireland and continued with HRH Prince Leopold and Princess Beatrice, occupations listed as prince and princess, then a visitor, 43 year old widow, Eugenie, occupation given as "ex Empress of the French", etc etc etc.
I now believe that this Mary, confectionery maid is the above Susan's sister, and that they are both children of Thomas and Ann (STUCKEY or STACEY) WINES, Thomas being my 3rd cousin 3 times removed (well he was born in 1821 and I wasn't), and the son of Joseph and Jane (HUNT) WINES
Always interesting to find the unexpected places one ends up following leads and hunches in this business.
Next WorldConnect db update will show a few more branches, and several updated dates/places for the above lot.

Another of the FAIRBAIRN DNA kits has made it back to the lab.