Annie Webster was born 12 February 1877 at the home of her grandmother Ann Smith at Market Square, Oldmeldrum, Aberdeenshire. The town is a rural settlement approximately 32 kilometres from the city of Aberdeen. She was the illegitimate daughter of Ann Smith, a dressmaker and James Webster, a railway carter. The identity of her father initially proved elusive. Annie used her father’s surname until her marriage in 1907, not always the case with illegitimate children, but also not necessarily unusual if a father admitted paternity and is named on the birth registration. There is no evidence her parents continued their relationship after her birth. It is possible that the Webster and Smith families knew each other and socialised from at least the 1850s with a newspaper article reporting on a ploughing competition in 1856 on the Smith farm, with an Alexander Webster, possibly the father of James, mentioned as having attended.
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