Merry Christmas in days gone by.

As an only child I was undoubtedly very privileged at Christmas.

Christmas Day would start with the discovery of Santa's goodies laid out in front of the fire. The postman would bring cards and parcels even on Christmas morning.

We would go to the Christmas Day Service and we would have the grandparents for Christmas dinner.

My mother would make a capon for most of us and a steak for dad who wouldn't eat poultry after he saw an aunt kill a chicken when he was small. This aunt may have been Jessie Rolinson as I remember seeing baby chicks when we visited Uncle Andrew Duncan.

We would all listen reverentially to the Queen's speech on telly at 3pm and watch telly in the evening.

The only difference nowadays is the church visit and the queen's speech are neglected. I cook beef as the head of the family doesn't like turkey and chicken nowadays isn't a special treat.

Here are some photos from past Christmasses.



Christmas Day 1956 at our house in Thornliebank



Left to right, mum, granny Shearer, grandad Shearer, me, Papa Rolinson, Dad (and a bit of granny R)

New Year's Day 1957 with the Rolinsons, possibly at the grandparents' flat in Dennistoun.

mum, Fay, George, back of Papa's head, granny, Ted


Uncle George and Auntie Fay whooping it up watched by Jim and me.


Christmas 1958. Dad would have liked a son!


Christmas 1959 in our new house in Giffnock




Going to my first dinner dance in 1969. I still have the red glass vase that's on the mantelpiece and the pearl bracelet from Majorca. The dress cost 21 guineas from a shop in Renfield Street and ended up in my daughter's dressing up box.

James Clifford Rolinson 1913-1994

Thinking of my father Cliff today on his 97th birthday, were he alive.

He was the first of three sons of James Ball Rolinson and Margaret Mayes Haig. They were in service at Dollarbeg in Clackmannanshire in 1913. By 1917 they were living in Glasgow.

My grandfather bought a car - a 12 HP Austin - in 1927 which must have been quite unusual. That first year they had it dad aged 13 wrote a diary of the weekly trips they made in it going to Loch Lomond or Gleneagles, sometimes taking neighbours along for the run. Its registration was V-9508, its year 1922, it had 5 seats. Its colour was Royal Blue and its fittings an Auster rear screen, side curtains, auto wiper and electric horn. He noted the route, the mileage and petrol consumption. I wonder if that is it in the photo above. The day they bought it 26 August they went to Dunoon and the following day to Calderbank, presumably to show the grandparents.
As a child in the 50s, I still remember going for weekend runs in my grandfather's big Humber Super Snipe.

My parents met at a dancing class I think just before the war. They married in 1942. Dad was in the Gordon Highlanders and served in Greece and Italy. He did winter training in Banff National Park in Canada which he often talked about, though I couldn't imagine him skiing. I never saw him do any sport unless minigolf.

Before the war he was an Insurance clerk for Legal and General but after the war he joined his father and brothers in the family garage business started in 1935. They were Rootes dealers - Hillman, Humber, Sunbeam in the Gallowgate in Glasgow. I remember when the Hillman Imp came out at first. My dad hit the accelerator instead of the brake when driving a brand new one.

He didn't have many hobbies but he liked photography. He was an elder in the Church of Scotland and did slide shows for the Men's Association. We would holiday in Scotland right up until 1968 when something persuaded him to go to Majorca. Thereafter my parents went abroad regularly. He had a heart attack in 1976 and we realised that he had never walked the length of our street, always taking the car! He recovered well from the heart attack but he was principal carer to my mother who had suffered a stroke. After she died in 1985 he had a good spell of retirement and enjoyed his grandchildren but gradually his sight deteriorated which was very frustrating for him.

He was an easy going man. I can't recall him ever losing his temper. I remember being shocked when he used bad language in the garage. To go to work or church he wore an overcoat and trilby. He would go out to lunch every day in Goldberg's in Glassford Street where he met some pals. Social life centred around the church. At Christmas time there was the motor traders' ball in Glasgow City Chambers and in the sixties the 5 past 8 Show at the long gone Alhambra Theatre in Glasgow's Wellington Street.

He was good with his hands and made furniture, a doll's house and a record player cabinet. He could type amazingly fast with just two fingers. He wrote a church newsletter which was cranked off on a hand turned Gestetner. He would have loved computers!

Dad and I on a picnic in 1957

Lest we forget

In this armistice week it is appropriate to remember those who made the ultimate sacrifice.

Agnes Wilkie Clark my great aunt and a grandaughter of Colin Sievwright lost her husband Alfred Allan Walker aged 33 on 14 November 1914 in France. He had served only 45 days. I found his service record online. It was, not surprisingly, rather short. He was a corporal in the Gordon Highlanders, had grey eyes and black hair. He was a marine engineer.

Their only son William Sievwright Walker who was 11 when his father died, also died as a result of "enemy action" on 9 November 1940. He was second engineer on the MV Shelbrit 2 when it was bombed. The ship survived. I think it must have happened in harbour at Portslade, Sussex. He was 37.

My great uncle Richard Ewart Shearer died of pneumonia in Ayr Military Hospital in 1917 while serving as an apprentice engine fitter with the Royal Flying Corps. He was only 19. He is remembered on war memorials in Ayr, Hightae and Lockerbie. I do wonder though, why they were working on planes in Ayr. It's not exactly convenient for crossing the Channel.

Sievwrights - the wealthy ones!

Widow Helen Low Sievwright who died in 1838 left her estate to 3 of her children Joseph Alexander, Marjory and Catherine. Marjory was the easiest to find as she never married and died in Brechin, where she was born, in 1874. But in the 1861 census she wasn't in Brechin but in Newington, Edinburgh with a sixteen year old Helen C Sievwright born in Halifax, Nova Scotia. Both are listed as boarders so no clue as to their relationship there. In 1871 they are both in Crieff, Perthshire along with girls B H and C C Sievwright aged 23 and 20 respectively both born in New Brunswick. Again they are lodgers.
I have done much googling and found a reference to Joseph Alexander Sievwright *  on a MI (memorial inscription) in New Brunswick. He died in in 1856 and was married to Catherine Hoyt who seems to have been the widow of Samuel Edwin Hoyt, so I don't know her maiden name. She died in 1866. This would fit in with the orphaned sisters moving back to Scotland. But I can't find any births or census records of them so how to find out their names and parentage?
Marjory must have been a wealthy woman so there must be a will! There is, dated 1864! And in it I find unequivocal proof that they are her nieces the daughters of her "dear, deceased brother Joseph Alexander" and their names?
Helen Catherine Sievwright born about 1842,
Henrietta or Betty Horre(?) Sievwright 1847
Colina Charlotte Sievwright 1849
Marjory leaves them everything, with Helen getting all her silver plate (to be retained for her until she reaches majority or is married!) all the bed and table linen, the chair covered in worsted and the 2 ottomans in leopardskin (! maybe similar to the one in the image), sewed (sic) foot stools, her books, wearing apparel and trinkets to be retained for her own use and the old china and ornamental china, all her household furniture and if sold the proceeds of this to be hers in money. To Henrietta, her gold watch and chain. To Colina Charlotte, her best set of china. Perhaps she had not met the 2 younger girls in 1864 when the will was written. Helen certainly comes off best!
With this information I am able to find Helen Catherine Sievwright married to Henry Speid 22 years her senior who was from a local family but had left home in Ardovie near Forfar and travelled via Portugal and South America ending up in Canada. Quite how they got together is a mystery. I can't find a marriage in the UK so think they must have married in Canada in the late 1870s. They had a son Arthur Theodore Speid in 1882. In the 1901 census they are in Lennoxville, Quebec.
Arthur had 3 daughters Catherine Speid, Janet Marion Speid and Lorna Speid. Catherine graduated from Bishop's University in Lennoxville in 1936. Both married academics. Janet had 3 children, Catherine had none and died only last year in her nineties!
I haven't found any trace of Henrietta although there is a death of a Hetty Sievwright in Canada in 1884 which may be her. You'd think Colina Charlotte would be easy to find, but no joy so far. Update: now think she married George Dixon about 1889. Seems she used Charlotte rather than Colina.

My tree here

* Update on Joseph Alexander Sievwright here 

Catherine Sievwright's story here

Solomon, John and Norman Sievwright (updated)

I have been sent a copy of a letter from cousin Lyndsay written in 1886 by Colin Sievwright to his grandson in New Zealand which details his family history. Gold dust - a primary source!
His father was Solomon born about 1776 which we knew. Solomon apparently was an officer in Nelson's navy and didn't return to Scotland until after Napoleon's exile in 1815. This fits with his marriage to Martha Burnett in November 1816.
I can't find any reference to Solomon to support this but no reason to think it is not the case. According to the letter, Solomon was the oldest son of John, the only son of the Rev Norman Sievwright. Since John was married to Helen Low in 1788, either John was married before or Solomon was illegitimate. There is no baptism for Solomon which is strange for the grandson of a clergyman. Mind you only 2 of Norman's 7 children have baptism records.
His grandfather Norman Sievwright was educated at Aberdeen University and was first a schoolmaster in Monymusk and then presbyter in the Scottish Episcopal church in Brechin from 1749 until his death 1790. My granny maintained she had an ancestor who was a Bishop! He was a learned scholar of Hebrew.
His son, Solomon's putative father, John was a writer in Brechin and appears to have been quite wealthy. I have seen (the transcript of ) his widow Helen's will dated 1828. They clearly had property, land and stock in the London Docks Company. Solomon does not get a mention in the will although he was still alive and living nearby until 1843.
Of John and Helen's children only 3 are mentioned in the will. Presumably the others were already deceased. Joseph Alexander who is living on a frustratingly illegible island*, Catherine who is married to a Frenchman Louis Apollinaire Pellerin and living in Paris and Marjory who remains unmarried until her death in 1874. I can't find any more about the Pellerins. But I have found Joseph Alexander in Canada - for another post.
John and Helen also had a son Colin b 1792 after whom Solomon may have named his son Colin, the poet. There is a reference to a Colin Sievwright, a fellow of the royal college of surgeons. I need to go through to Angus Archives for a look at that! Perhaps he too was in the navy and perished!
Now at least we can see that Colin, the poet, had brains in his genes!

My tree

* Since writing this I have purchased the original will and can see that it is the Island of Demerary. The mystery deepens and no such island exists in the present day. I think it is part of Guyana in central America.

Colin Sievwright, weaver and poet, 1819 -95; part 2

This week I went through to Forfar in Angus where my GG grandfather lived most of his life. The object of the exercise was to get my hands on copies of his published poems which are in the reference section of Forfar library.

I found in two of the 4 books dedications in his own hand, so my gg grandfather must have handled these very books.

It seems that his poems about the people, the folklore and the places he knew were published weekly in various local papers and were so popular that many locals funded the publishing of at least one of the books. Benefactors included the Countess of Strathmore - the grandmother of the future Queen Mother.

He acknowledges that he takes his ideas from other works and offers his works in a spirit of "take it as you find it". When writing in prose he demonstrates a fine style and eloquence, quite remarkable for his circumstances.

A touching poem "Robin's awa" laments the early death of a brother. He certainly had a brother Robert but he didn't die until 1901 aged 76, so this is a mystery. He mentions a sister and her Johnnie. I think this refers to Isabella who married John Smart.


This page is from "The Bards of Angus and Mearns" and, what a thrill! has a photograph of him. He seems to have been highly thought of at the time.


First post about Colin here

Tree here

Charline Clark Shearer, born 100 years ago today!

My mother would be 100 today, if she were still alive. Thought it would be nice to remember her today with a piece about her.
She was the first child of Willie Shearer and Charline Amelia Annie McKenzie Clark. She was born in the Lodge House of Kincaid House in Milton of Campsie where Willie was the chauffeur. After the war Willie was chauffeur at Millburn House near Dalserf. I have piano music with her name Lena Shearer, Millburn Lodge. She was a good pianist, had passed exams and gave lessons. She played country dance music for the women's guild. I still have her piano which is sadly seldom played.
She worked as a typist in the Labour Exchange. She was an ARP warden during the war.
She met my dad at dancing lessons. He was not a great dancer. Her petname for him was QQS - quick, quick, slow.
They married in 1942. After the war they lived with her parents and her brother Colin and his family all in a council house in Knightswood. They got their own house in 1949. She had many miscarriages before I finally came along in 1950.
She was an intelligent woman but wasn't allowed to go out to work after marriage. The husband would provide. She knitted and made my clothes. She flung herself into church work, making crafts to sell and organising events like fashion shows. She liked crosswords. She passed her driving test but was too nervous to drive.
She was funny, had a wicked sense of humour and a fine turn of phrase including Scots words and phrases.
In the late sixties my parents discovered foreign holidays and went to Majorca, Tenerife, Sorrento, Lake Garda and went on a Rhine Cruise.
She had a stroke in 1973 and life changed dramatically. My father looked after her well, having to learn to cook and work a washing machine.
She died in 1985 sadly never knowing her son-in-law or her grandchildren.

Willie Shearer 1881 - 1960

Grandad with me in front and my pal Elizabeth Ross behind

My grandad William Corbett Shearer was born to David Shearer and Nicholas Hyslop Corbett in Maxwellton, Dumfries. In 1901 census he was a cab driver at the Kenmure Arms in New Galloway near Castle Douglas.


He was working as a chauffeur at Kincaid House in Milton of Campsie when he married Charline Clark in 1909. My mother Lena was born in Kincaid Lodge on 1st September 1910.

During the Great War he was with the Army Service Corps, Military Transport and served in France. I have some cards he sent from France to Lena between 1915 -1919 at Millburn Lodge, near Dalserf in the Clyde Valley where he was chauffeur.







Later they moved to Glasgow where he was chauffeur to Sir Daniel MacAulay Stevenson, who had been Lord Provost of Glasgow between 1911-1914.

In 1922 they were living at the prestigious 5 Parkgrove Terrace in Glasgow where my uncle Colin was born. This sounds like the home of an employer.

He was also employed by James Morton of 7 Hughenden Terrace.  I have a postcard sent to him c/o this address from actress Doreen Morton in Jamaica in 1936 commenting on the roads there.

I don't think he ever owned a car himself but he was still going his bike in his seventies!

In Westbourne Terrace Glasgow

Mary Ann Price

I have an admiration for Mary Ann who seems to have flown in the face of convention! She had 11 children, only 3 of whom were born legitimate. We shouldn't judge the lives of our ancestors whose circumstances were very different to ours.

Mary Ann's mother Mary Ann Holmes is the sister of my GG grandmother Jane Holmes.

Mary Ann Holmes married Joseph Price in 1843 in St Peter's, Wolverhampton and by 1850 they were living in Dalry in Ayrshire. They were, as far as I can see, the first of the Black Country miners in my family to move to Scotland.

In 1851 Joseph is an ironstone miner in Dalry. In 1861 he is an ironstone miner in Beith and they have 3 children Joseph Price junior, Mary (Ann) and Margaret Price. Sometime in the next decade Jane Holmes Rolinson's family and Joseph and Mary Ann Price all move to Cumnock.

In February 1871 Mary Ann aged 16 is married to her cousin Matthew Rolinson age 24. They have 3 children Jean/Jane Rolinson, Margaret Rolinson and John Dudley Rolinson. Neither Matthew nor Mary Ann can write so their surname is spelt various ways according to how it is interpreted by others. Mary Ann has a fourth child in 1876 recorded as Aaron Price or Rollison. On his birth certificate she states that her husband is not the father and that they have been apart since 1875. This must have been pretty scandalous and no doubt caused some family strife since their mothers were sisters.

In 1881 Mary Ann is with her parents in Auchinleck and the children with her are Jean, 9, John, 4 and Aron Robinson, 3. She is 26 and working in a woollen factory. I don't know where daughter Margaret is. She dies in 1883 but I can't find her in the 1881 census. Husband Matthew is living with his parents.

I find a birth for an Agnes Rollison in 1881 born in Crookedholm near Kilmarnock (as Rorison!). Payment of about £1 to scotlandspeople shows the mother to be Mary Ann Price and Matthew Rolinson the father. But there is a note in the margin. Matthew is not the father and Mary Ann is brought to the Sheriff Court in Kilmarnock to explain herself. (I wonder who told on her!) She claims ignorance, which can hardly be the case after Aaron's birth certificate. However the Sheriff takes pity on her and she is admonished. I found the report in the Cumnock Chronicle. Sadly baby Agnes dies a few months later as does daughter Margaret. Another fatherless child James is born and dies at 8 months in 1885. Her parents die in 1884 and 1885 so she is alone with the children. Or is she?

Later in December 1885 Catherine Ross is born in Cronberry to Mary Ann and James Ross, a coal miner. The family move to Kirkintilloch and have 3 more children Hugh Ross 1887, Mary Ann Ross 1889 and Elizabeth Ross 1895.

In 1904 James Ross and Mary Ann Price undergo an irregular marriage in Glasgow witnessed by her sister Fanny Price and husband Charles Dickens. An irregular marriage is one sworn in front of witnesses usually after the couple has been living together for some time rather than being married by a minister. In it Mary Ann states that she is a widow.

However I checked up on her husband/cousin Matthew. He does not die until 1923. So she has lied again. It's hard to believe that she did not know he was alive but maybe there was no contact between the the Price and Rolinson families after the parents died.

When son Aaron Price marries, he gives his father as Joseph Price (his grandfather) and his mother's maiden name as Rolinson, which is no doubt what he has been told!

Link to Mary Ann here

Sievwrights in New Zealand

I have been doing some work today on the descendants of Colin Sievwright who went to New Zealand.

David Burnett Sievwright 1845-1931 (tree here) and his family emigrated some time between 1873- 1881*. He was a shoemaker. I wasn't making too much progress until I tried a google search. I am indebted to the New Zealand government for putting old newspapers online.

I found several mentions of their daughter Annie McKenzie Sievwright including her getting school prizes in 1881 for buttonholes and good attendance.

There are several court cases in which D B Sievwright appears involving fairly petty squabbles and verbal abuse. I particularly enjoyed the one in 1882 where a man is accused of assaulting Mrs Sievwright (Helen Grant). It seems a cow got into their garden and when the owner Mason came to retrieve it she demanded money for the damage. The judge dismissed the case saying "Mrs Sievwright was possessed of a hasty temper and it was evident she had no control over herself at the time and did not know what occurred."

Their son, James Dickson Sievwright 1863-1947 was a journalist and he too was involved in a court case involving slander over a business deal that went sour. He was defended by a Mr A B Sievwright which turns out to be his son Archibald Burnett Sievwright 1890-1978 who graduated LLB in 1913 and whose photo above is published here


* Update: they arrived on the Oamaru in Otago on  17 Feb 1875 having left Glasgow on 30 November the previous year. Record here.

Cornish miners in Loudoun parish, Ayrshire

Ladyton Loch near Loudoun Kirk

I'm related to these people by marriage but I got interested in them because of the similarities with my miners from the Black Country and because Loudoun parish is my home patch.

One of my Price descendants married a Burley in 1900. William Burley, a miner, was born in Loudoun, lived in Glengyron Row, Cumnock, where both my ancestors and David's lived. Further research, back a generation, finds his parents Thomas Burley and Amelia Clary marrying in October 1872 in Loudoun parish. They lived in Loudoun Rows just outside Galston. His father Arthur Burley was a copper miner. Witnesses on the certificate were James Phillips and Ellen Burley.

It seems that tin and copper miner families including Burley, Phillips, Chynoweth, Harris, Luke, Bunney, Mudge and Toy all emanated from Cornwall and moved to Loudoun from around 1867. I think they were brought in because of a strike* but they went on strike too.

On 26 July 1872,  3 related couples got married in Loudoun Parish. There must have been some party that night!

Arthur Burley married Ellen Jane Phillips
Elizabeth Ann Burley married James Chynoweth
Elizabeth Ann Chynoweth married Edwin Harris

Initially it seems they stuck together with their Cornish countrymen. I try to imagine how hard it would be for the locals to understand them and vice versa.

I found a much later link though. McMeekin descendant John Murdoch McMeekin married a Luke/Bunney grand-daughter Elizabeth Ann Bunney McHoull in 1914.

Burleys here
Chynoweths here
Phillips here

* 3rd Statistical account of Scotland: Ayrshire by John Strawhorn and William Boyd 1951 page 523

"In the 1860s there arrived in Galston a group of Cornish tin-miners as strikebreakers including Chynoweths, Burleys and Lukes, who still figure among the local families, Some of these were Methodists and held meetings which attracted some following. The original Methodist groups has not survived but a group which hived off from them formed themselves in 1871 into a company of Open Brethren whose present day successors number about 60."

Update August 2022

I haven't found any other evidence of strike breaking. But I did find an article in the Glasgow Herald 12th November 1866 that  Baird of Gartsherrie  was recruiting miners from Cornwall to come to work in mines in Ayrshire and Lanarkshire. There was a local shortage of miners and many had gone to be shale miners, whereas in Cornwall there were many out of work (tin and copper) miners. They were offered an engagement of 12  months and accommodation. But for every married couple, there had to be two single men as accommodation was in short supply. The wages were favourable compared to Cornwall and some 6-700 men had arrived in the last fortnight.  Hurlford Colliery was the only Ayrshire place mentioned in the article. It does mention that were were Wesleyans and most had brought a large family bible with them.

Donnan family of Monreith by Glasserton

Garlieston Harbour at low tide

Stewart Donnan was the wife of William McMeekin mentioned in a previous post. With such an interesting girl's name, her family merited further investigation.

I first found Stewart in a census with a William McMeekin in Lancashire and was doubtful it was the right McMeekin because of the location. I found eventually the marriage in 1870 to William McMerken (a new variant!) in Liverpool and got her surname from that. It was easy to find her then. She is the oldest of the 10 children of George Donnan innkeeper at Monreith and Helen Milroy. Here's the family on my ancestry tree.

They were both in their mid thirties by the marriage. I wonder what took them so long?

They both were born in the Machars (Wigtownshire) he in Sorbie about 1834 and she in 1836 in Monreith by Glasserton.

In 1861 she is a servant in Sorbie. I can't locate him in 1861 but in 1851 he was a sailor age 16 with his Flinn grandparents at Pouton in the parish of Sorbie (near Garlieston). Surely they knew each other then?

They lived at 63 Latham Street in Kirkdale (Liverpool dockland) from the 1871 census on. He was a mariner.

It is always worth checking out the neighbours. In the same house in 1881 are William Anglesea born Jersey and wife Agnes born Scotland. A marriage check 1877 shows she is Agnes Donnan, a younger sister. A few doors away at no 59 are Catharine Donnan age 26 and husband John Williams a mariner and baby son Albert.

In 1891 census they are still together at no 63 except in the meantime Agnes's husband has died and she has a new one. Similarly sister Catherine and her second husband are next door at no 65 and sister Jane Donnan, 40, is visiting. So 4 sisters in 2 neighbouring houses!

In 1901 William McMeekin has died. At no 63 there's Stewart and daughter Ellen sister Agnes and husband and children and brother Maxwell Donnan visiting, at no. 65 sister Catherine husband and children.

So, in case I've lost you, 5 of the Donnan children are at Latham Street in Kirkdale at some point.
Of the others they are mainly in Wigtownshire except for the youngest Robert Donnan who emigrated to the USA in 1910 and died in Hartford Connecticut.

Until writing these posts, I hadn't realised that William's sister Jane McMeekin and husband David Fraser also were also in Kirkdale in 1881 and 1891. Who went first?

Abraham Yates and Ann Rolinson

I first saw the names Abraham Yates and Ann Rolinson as witnesses on the marriage certificate of my great great grandparents John Rolinson and Jane Holmes in 1839 in Rushall, Staffordshire. Ann, I assumed, was John's sister. She is in the 1841 census with her parents aged 18. I thought no more of it, but the name Abraham Yates stuck in my mind.

While investigating the censuses of my great grandparents John and Emma who were in Cumnock, Ayrshire in 1871 and 1881 and in Calderbank, Lanarkshire I moticed that the lodger in 1871 Joseph Hunt pops up again in 1881 and in 1891 living very close by with a wife Louisa. I had to look for a marriage. He married Louisa Yates in 1874 in Glengyron Row, Cumnock. Her parents were "Abel Yates" and "Hannah Rolleston". Could this be Abraham and Ann? Versions of Rolinson I have seen include Rolieson, Rollason, Rowlinson, Robinson even Roberston, so it was quite possible. The marriage certificate was well worth the £1.20 fee. Normally you get the bride and groom's age, status, occupation, address, parents and whether deceased or not, father's occupation and 2 witnesses. On this certificate because Joseph was illiterate his x mark was witnessed by Benjamin Yates and Ann Maria Yates. They turn out to be a son and a daughter-in-law of Abraham and Ann and proof I was on the right lines. When I got Ann Rolinson Yates' death certificate it gave different parents to John's so I thought they were maybe cousins instead. Since the informant of the death of a person is quite often a child or son-in-law and may only know the deceased as "gran" they may be mistaken in the information they give. The only thing for it was to send for the marriage certificate from 1842 in England at a cost of £9.25 to get more accurate information. Statutory records in England start in 1837, earlier than Scotland which 1855. But you need to send for the certificate, you can't just download an image. When it arrived it confirmed her father was John, a miner, which fitted perfectly. Mother's names were not registered on English certificates, at that time anyway.

Abraham and Ann followed her brother John Rolinson to Cumnock. They had 9 children born in England and they all stayed in Scotland apart from Eli Yates and wife Ann Maria Colbourn, the aforementioned Ann Maria Yates on the marriage certificate. Many of the Yates were in Auchinleck and Dalmellington (Benwhat) and I have been talking to one of their descendants, now in Northamptonshire not so far from where they started out.

The strangest thing of all is that in the 1901 census my great great aunt Ann Rolinson Yates, a widow of 78, is still living in Glengyron Row next door to my father-in-law, David McMeekin, a boy of 8!

You can see Abraham Yates on my tree here

1901 Cumnock

John McMeekin & Helen Flinn from Newton Stewart

Sorbie Kirk in Wigtonshire where John and Helen's banns were read

The McMeekins have been hard to find because of the number of variations in spelling. Nowadays we often get it spelt with CH instead of K but not once have I seen this in the past, We've had McMeken, McMeikan, McMikin, McMickan, McMeckan, McMiekan, McMeeking and similar combinations. I have now learnt to do "wild card" searches where an * represents any one or more letters eg m*m*k*n

John McMeekin (McMickan) was born on 10 Jan 1811 in the parish of Penninghame in Wigtonshire which turns out to be Newton Stewart or thereabouts. I can't find a marriage locally for his parents leading me to suspect they may have come over from Ireland.

He married Helen Flinn in 1835. Her father Peter Flinn was definitely from Ireland probably county Antrim. He was still alive in 1841, 1851 and 1861 censuses and buried in the churchyard above.

John was a shoemaker in Newton Stewart in 1841 and 1851. Some time in the 1850s the family moved up the road to Cumnock in Ayrshire and he carried on shoemaking until about 1863 when he is a labourer.

They had at least 8 children and 6 of them moved to Cumnock with them. Around this time there are several records:
1859 son David McMeekin a miner marries Margaret Cunningham in Ochiltree
1861 census John 58, Helen 59, Elizabeth 21, Mary 18, Jane 12 and 2 lodgers
1861 daughters Elizabeth and Mary McMeekin have illegitimate children
1862 son Andrew McMeekin a miner marries an English girl Mary Sparks in Cumberland but moves to Cumnock
1863 daughter Ann McMeekin marries Peter McCulloch a baker from Wigtonshire in Cumnock, moves back to Wigtonshire. Has 3 children in 8 years.
1863 daughter Elizabeth McMeekin marries miner John McKay and has 7 more children in the next 15 years
1863 David's wife dies of scarlet fever after birth of a daughter who also dies.
1864 Andrew is killed in a rock fall in a Cumnock pit. His wife and baby daughter also die that year.
1865 daughter Agnes McMeekin marries a miner John Ross in Cumnock. A baby is born before 9 months has elapsed and they are in bother with the Kirk Session. They have 8 children in 14 years.
1869 daughter Jane McMeekin marries a miner David Fraser, has 7 children in 12 years. They move to Liverpool (near her brother William) by 1881 where he works as a docker.
1869 son David dies of chronic bronchitis leaving 2 orphans
1870 eldest son William McMeekin, a sailor, marries Stewart Donnan from Monreith, Wigtonshire in Liverpool. He witnessed the 1869 marriage of Jane in Cumnock. He lived with his Flinn grandparents in Garlieston in 1841 and 1851.
1871 census John 68 is a mason's labourer, cannot work, wife Helen 70 are looking after the 2 orphaned grandchildren

John dies in 1876 of chronic bronchitis and Helen in 1880 of hemiplegia.

We are descended from Elizabeth's illegitimate son. I can find no mention of her in the Kirk Session records which may have given the father's name.

There are 2 other unusual things.

John was born in 1811 to John McMickan and Mary McCreddie. But they had another son John born in 1816. Quite often the first named died. It is however not unheard of to have 2 living children with the same name (big John and wee John)? In traditional Scottish naming patterns the first son is named after the father's father, the second after the mother's father, the third after the father's oldest paternal uncle and so on. So it is possible that this is what happened.

Secondly Helen Flinn is twice referred to as Alice Flinn. The first time was in the Old Parish marriage records. She was from Sorbie parish and the record there has Alice but the record in John's parish of Penninghame has her as Helen. All through the censuses she is referred to as Helen but on her death certificate she is Alice again. All very strange.

You can see them on my tree here

Colin Sievwright, weaver and poet

I was surprised to find out that my great great grandfather Colin Sievwright was a published poet, mentioned in a database of labouring class poets at Nottingham Trent University. Granny failed to mention this. Or I failed to remember it!

He was born about 1819 in Brechin, Angus (to Solomon Sievwright and Martha Burnett.

He married Annie McKenzie in 1842 and they had 4 sons and a daughter, Jessie Sievwright, my granny's mother.

Granny's given names were Charline Amelia Annie McKenzie. Don't know about the Amelia or Charline but now I know where Annie McKenzie came from!

It seems that Colin was the oldest of a large family and went to work in the linen mills from the age of eight.

In 1841 census he was in Kirriemuir working as a Linen Handloom Weaver. He married Annie there the following year. He wrote about her in a poem Annie was my dearie, O quoted in an out of print book: One Hundred Modern Scottish Poets. I have yet to find the full text.

His first work was published in 1866

The sough o' the shuttle : or poems and songs
by Sievwright, Colin.
Dundee: Printed By Robert Park, 1866.

In the 1871 census he is in Forfar listed as a Starchmaker in factory and poet

Other works are

Love lilts o' the braes o' Angus / Colin Sievwright.
by Sievwright, Colin.
Dundee: Weekly News Office, 1878.

Rhymes for the children of the church : with an introductory note by the lord bishops of St. Andrews
by Sievwright, Colin.
Brechin: D. H. Edwards, 1879.

A garland for the ancient city : or, love songs of Brechin and its neighbourhood, with historical notes. 2nd ed
by Sievwright, Colin. Brechin: D. H. Edwards, 1899.

He lost his Annie in 1874. By 1891 he was living with one of his sons James D Sievwright a customs officer in Wales where he died in 1895. Son Thomas Wildman Sievwright was a market gardener in Arbroath and another son David Burnett Sievwright a shoemaker went to New Zealand and my great granny went to Aberdeen.

One of his poems appears online on another blog

I think I am going to have to go through to Angus as they have copies of his works in their reference library! (I did! see this post  and more about Colin here)

This is the link to Colin on my tree

David Shearer, a man of many parts

The village of Hightae and the War Memorial. Picture is the copyright of Lynne Kirton, Creative Commons Licence and originally posted on the wonderful geograph site

My great grandfather, David Shearer was born in 1854 in Maxwellton, Dumfries to John Shearer and Janet Ewart. His father was a shoemaker and the family lived in Glasgow Street in the 1851 and 1861 censuses. I pick them up in Dumfries in 1881 and 1891 but no sign of them in 1881. A search on ancestry suggested a family of Sheerer in Toxteth Park, Lancashire and I was very doubtful but, lo and behold, granny Ewart was with them. Bingo!

Back to David. On his marriage certificate he is described as a carter, but on various other censuses and birth and marriage certificates of his children he is a wood forester, farmer, van driver, fishmonger, market gardener and finishes up as a master grocer In the village of Hightae near Lockerbie.

He married Nicholas Hyslop Corbett, the daughter of a stocking maker in 1877. Nicholas at that time was often a girl's name. I have also come across a female Stewart and a Gordon and a female Garden!

David and Nicholas had 10 children. The youngest Richard Ewart Shearer was in the Royal Flying Corps based in Ayr and died there in 1917. He is remembered on the war memorial in Ayr Cemetery, in Hightae (pictured) and in Lockerbie.

Nicholas died about the time of Richard's birth in 1897 and in 1901 David has a new much younger wife Harriet born in England. This is typical of the situation when a partner is widowed with a squad of children to look after. It took a long time before I found the marriage in West Derby to Harriet Brown in 1898. It's a mystery how they got together. Unusually they don't appear to have had any children. Harriet died in 1953 in Brydekirk and her stepson Robert was the informant.

Link to David Shearer on my tree

Rolinson - Miners from the Black Country

All I knew about my grandfather James Ball Rolinson's origins was that he was born in Yorkshire that his mother was Emma and that they lived in Calderbank in Lanarkshire.

I found the family very quickly in the 1881 census. Good gracious, they are in Cumnock in the same miners' row that my husband's family lived in, Glengyron Row. I think that is what got me hooked on this genealogy.

Three generations of Rolinsons are there in Glengyron Row in 2 houses next door to each other. My great grandparents James Rolinson and Emma Ball and 3 daughters (my grandfather is still to come), the gg grandparents John Rolinson and Jane (Holmes), their son Matthew Rolinson who is married but with no wife present and a lodger. Next door is son Emmanuel Rolinson and wife  Hannah (Jones) 4 sons and 3 adult male lodgers. So 8 in one house and 9 in the other. These houses had 2 rooms! All of them are born in England except for 2 of the children who were born in Cumnock. They are all from Walsall or Tipton in Staffordshire.

Of course, I had to investigate the lodgers too. With Emmanuel and Hannah are Zachariah Jones and James Jones who turn out to be Hannah's brothers and one Charles Dickens (no, not that one) who later marries into the family, Fanny Price a cousin.

The other lodger Joseph Hunt also later marries into the family, Louisa Yates a cousin. They certainly stuck together.

10 years earlier they are in Cumnock too, at another address. I reckon Glengyron Row was built about 1873 to house the influx of miners, so it probably was the height of luxury, as it was at the time and a way of attracting miners to the area!

I find Matthew Rolinson with his wife Mary Ann Price who also turns out to be his cousin. More of her another time.

Although they are in Cumnock in these 2 census it seems they have gone back to England between censuses judging by the birthplaces of the children. I can only suppose they went where there was work.

In 1891 I find James and Emma in Calderbank, as expected, with widowed mother Jane and Matthew nearby. But between 1881 and 1891 they were in Yorkshire where indeed my grandfather was born. They stayed put in Calderbank and there are still some Rolinsons there.

Although my direct line is no longer in Cumnock others, Yates and Price, stayed on in Cumnock, Auchinleck and Dalmellington. I had no idea I had any connection to Ayrshire where I have lived since 1973.

My grandfather was a miner in the 1901 census but by 1906 he was driving the first public transport bus service in Edinburgh. In 1913 he was a chauffeur in Dollar. He worked for Anderson's in Newton Mearns and also Rosslea Motors and in 1935 he opened his own garage business in the Gallowgate in Glasgow. My father and his brothers also joined the firm and it went on until about 1980.

Papa at the wheel of a Maudsley bus of the Scottish Motor Transport Group, Edinburgh 1906

Link to the Rolinsons on my tree

Henry Wilson, grain miller and son William

I thought I would have trouble with my husband's Wilson ancestors, but in fact, by following the usual principles of working back from what you know, I have got there.

All I knew was his grandmother's name Mary Cowan Wilson who married a Fleming. From her marriage certificate I got her parents' names William Wilson, carter and Isabella Mcfedries. I found them in a census in Tarbolton. On his marriage certificate to Isabella he is 42 in 1872 so he was born in Lanark about 1830. From the marriage certificate I got his parents - Henry Wilson corn miller and Janet Ewart. But I still couldn't find his birth.

Since 1830 is before statutory recording, it is possible there is no record. You can search the family search (church of the latter day saints)for free, good for up til 1875. Old Parish records can be searched for free on Scotlandspeople but you need to pay to see the results!

I found Henry Wilson and son William both at Cambuskeith Mill on the river Irvine outside Kilmarnock in the 1861 census.

I got stuck at this point for a while. A good piece of advice I got when I was starting out is to publish your tree on several sites and I now have 3 online trees. I put what I knew on the Ancestry site and a gentleman in Australia got in touch. It seems that shortly after 1861 Henry and his second wife went to Australia. From Australian certificates it turns out the mother's surname was Jean Dewar not Janet Ewart! William's marriage to Isabella was his second, she was much younger, and he lied about his age. Or maybe he truly didn't know how old he was and presumably he had only heard his mother's name. He was actually born in 1822. The morals of the tale are keep your search wide and don't believe everything you read on certificates!

Cambuskeith Cottage (pictured) is up for sale. The mill ruins are in the garden.

Link to Henry Wilson on my tree

John Oliphant & Margaret Haigs

Margaret Haigs is my g g grandfather's sister. (My grandmother has the same name.)
She was born in Cameron, Fife in 1815. She married John Oliphant (1812) in 1834 and the family flourished.

In 1841 census he is an agricultural labourer (ag lab) at Tosh in Dunino and they already have 4 children. The oldest Ann is with her grandmother and other relations nearby at Erbetshall Farm.

By 1851 census he is a farmer of 14 acres at Smithfield Farm in the parish of Crail and the family has increased to 8, as typical of the period - a child every 2 years.

In April 1855 John succumbs to typhoid fever at the age of 42 and dies at home after 10 days leaving 11 children and then his wife gives birth to another son Alexander in November.

1855 is the start in Scotland of the statutory recording of births marriages and deaths and the 1855 death certificates give more detail than the later ones. It lists all his children. One had died. So in all they had 13. I think it was a twin of either Elizabeth or Janet (who come before and after in the list), who died at birth since all the others have baptism records, but it is hard to make out the writing.



Worse is to come. The East Neuk of Fife suffered an outbreak of smallpox in 1863 and Margaret succumbs age 45 on 13 May. Scottish death certificates show 3 deaths and the other 2 deaths on the certificate are also from smallpox and another relation is one of them. Alexander Forgan, the 19 year old son of Mary Oliphant (John's sister) and Alexander Forgan. Further investigation shows his parents had also both died of smallpox the previous month, within a day of each other.

I wonder what became of the Oliphant children. There were plenty of relations nearby to help out. It was my gg grandfather George Haigs who registered the deaths of both his sister Margaret and her husband. Another Haigs sister married another Oliphant - Thomas Oliphant and Christian Haigs and they were at Erbetshall Farm although Christian was also a widow by 1852.

You can see the people mentioned in my tree here
Maybe you can see why I get caught up in the research!