Hi Grant - I realise this post is quite old now and I apologise for not seeing it at the time I was writing. My brother, Mike, inadvertently came across your post while doing some research on our family shop, Skinner's, and realised it was in reply to one of mine so I'm really hoping you are still active on these boards as we're very interested in the fact you're related to Tom and Ray.
Tom was my Dad's uncle and originally had the baker's shop in Stephen's Brae. We think it might have been a baker's before this but are not sure. Tom was a hard-working, no nonsense, fairly strict man who took no prisoners but when we realised how much tragedy he had gone through in his life we understood him better. His wife, Fanny, died on Christmas Day (I'm not sure of the year) and he lost both of his sons to diphtheria, one dying on Boxing Day. Rumour has it that he ran through the streets of Inverness with the body, unable to bear his grief.
It was no surprise then that he became very close to his surviving daughter, Ray, whom he lived with in Auldcastle Road until he died. Ray ran a cafe at the bottom end of Church Street called, I think, Strattons, or something similar. (I need to check that out.) She never married and looked after her father until he died, still living in the same house in Auldcastle Road when she herself died.
We know of no-one named Grant on Tom's side of the family so wondered if you were connected to Fanny's family? We know almost nothing of her family at all so it would be really interesting to find out. Dad sadly died in 1976 but Mum lived until 2015 when she died at the ripe old age of 94! My sister still lives in Inverness as do 2 of her daughters and their families. I myself am in Aberdeen and my brothers, Ian and Mike, live in Fort William and London respectively.
Let me know if there's anything else you would like to know - I may not know the answer but can find out.
Margaret