S Brooks, You've found some of the same census returns I did yesterday - only to realise that Anonymous Baker had already found them on Ancestry in answer to Drika's previous question. All three of us could of course be making the same mistakes, but here is the list of familysearch links for the records we've found in the Liverpool area between us to date:
1841 Walton on the Hill, Liverpool (West Derby Reg District)
1851 Oxton [Birkenhead], Cheshire (Wirral RD)
1861 Everton, Liverpool (West Derby RD)
1871 Liverpool (Catherine St, Mount Pleasant sub-district but not sure which RD)
Clara's age is rather variable and there are some transcription errors, but the family groups as a whole are the same, I think.
In favour this being the family of Drika's Charles:
- death reg and burial for John Malone MacDonald in Birkenhead in 1856 (notwithstanding the Clara / Flora transcription issue)
- mother's name (Clara was not a very common name in England for women of her generation)
- there is a brother called Dudley (transcribed Audley in 1861). Drika's Charles named his first son Dudley.
On the other hand, the household had all-but broken up by 1871 and Charles, who would have been 18, was not living with his mother. Had he died (in which case he's definitely not our man!) and if not where was he? I'm struggling to find any of the rest of the family after 1861, and Clara & Pauline after 1871. Did any of the rest of the family emigrate?
Another small point to note: St Andrew's, Conway Street, Birkenhead (where John Malone MacDonald was buried) was a Scottish Presbyterian Church, so presumably this was his religious affiliation and we should bear that in mind if looking for baptisms.
LP