Record of birth for William Wheatley, son of Mary Ashcroft and Joseph Wheatley. William was born 2 October 1856 at 11:45 a.m. in Glasgow, Lanarkshire, Scotland. The family was living at 28 1/2 Parliamentary Road in Glasgow at the time of his birth. The informant for the registration of birth was his aunt, Hannah Ashcroft, Mary's sister. The father, Joseph, was an iron puddler, an occupation dealing with the manufacture of iron. It is not known what the family was doing in Scotland at that time. The two older children were born in Staffordshire; a younger child was born in Lancashire. William's maternal grandparents were William Ashcroft and Hannah Smith, the author's great great great grandparents through their daughter Esther Ashcroft.

Source: Scotland Registrar General, Record of birth: William Wheatley, 1856, Registers of births, marriages, and deaths, 1855-1875, 1881, 1891; and general index, 1855-1956, Lanark county births, parish nos. 644/1-644/2 1856, FHL MF 256490, Births in the Central District, Burgh of Glasgow, p.519, #1556.