70 years ago today

My parents were married in Glasgow on 27 August 1942.  My father was on leave from the forces,  I think he was based at Fort George at the time.

They were married in the Ca' d'Oro in Gordon Street in Glasgow. Mum had sweet peas for a bouquet and her cousin Ethel Sievwright was the bridesmaid. I still have the daisy brooch she is wearing. I don't think this is the wedding photo - it must be in the attic. She wore a mauve two piece and he wore a smart uniform.

They had a brief honeymoon in Nairn.

They lived at my grandparents' house in Knightswood until 1949. It must have been a full house as my uncle Colin lived there too with his family; so 6 adults and 4 children in a council semi!

Tour of Scotland 1964

I came across my mum's journal of the 1964 tour of Scotland we did when I was 13. We went up north, as far as John O'Groats and across the north coast, down to Ullapool and then Oban. I can remember some of the dodgy bed and breakfasts particularly an ancient iron bedstead with a mattress I sank into the middle of.

 Mostly we toured about stopping to take photos and short strolls. Not so dissimilar to our current holidays apart from the length of the walks!  Mum documented every meal.  What passed for a good meal in 1964 is fascinating as in this entry from 14 August 1964.

We lunched at the Thistle Restaurant (in Oban), really very smart like Nardini's in Largs and had tomato soup (Kay had tomato juice) then Kay had a cheese omelette and Cliff and I had a tomato omelette all with chips. Kay had strawberry ice and a glass of milk and Cliff and I had apple tart and custard and coffee (£1.4.11d) 7/6 and 1/- coffee.

1965 advert

They must have liked it at the Thistle as they ate there again in the evening (cold roast beef salad) and subsequent days (haddock & chips and braised rump steak, jelly & fruit). She also mentions seeing the new Columba ferry "much bigger than the Clyde ferries" and records a visit to the tiny isle of Easdale, which David and I repeated in June. They went to see a friend of my father's who had recently bought a cottage there. He and his brother were born in Glasgow but his father had been from the island. He left  in 1904 when work at the Easdale slate quarries was petering out after about 600 years. The roofs of Glasgow University and the Royal Infirmary are of Easdale slate.  The island now (1964)  has electricity and "many mod cons". Mum reports that the children wear shorts or slacks all the time except for ceilidhs or to go to church.

A typical view stop with me off to take a photo

Somewhere near Durness. Looks chilly for August

Bad hair day!

 

 We had these tweed skirts run up for us somewhere en route, maybe Strathpeffer. I don't think my mother wore slacks until the late sixties or seventies.

  Mum always took her knitting!

This one is from the 1962 tour at Hopeman. I'm 11.

Fun with the McFunns

Readers of this blog will know how I get caught up with names.

I like unusual names and I especially like unusual first names especially female ones.

The one that started me off on this route was a witness to the marriage of Agnes McMeekin and John Ross in Cumnock in 1864 - Hamilton Stillie.  I had seen Stillie before. Elizabeth Stillie was the first wife of husband's grandfather so I needed to find out more.

It turned out that these 2 Stillies were cousins.

But why was he called Hamilton? Often it would be his mother's maiden name. But not in this case. His parents were Daniel Stillie and Jean Adamson.  There were 3 other Hamilton Stillies in the extended family, so it must be important.

His grandparents were James Stillie and Jane McFunn, sometimes McPhun(n) born about 1780. Only Jane survived to the first census in 1841 in Cumnock and it gave her as born in Ayrshire.

Surname		First name(s)		Sex		Age		Occupation		Where Born		Remarks
		STYLIE		Jane		F		50				Ayrshire
		STYLIE		Daniel		M		20		Ag. Lab.		Ayrshire
		STYLIE		Ann		F		25				Ayrshire
		STYLIE		Andw		M		15		Ag. Lab.		Ayrshire
		STEEL		Janet		F		10				Ayrshire

I left it at that for a long time but today I had another look for McFunns in Ayrshire. I did a very wide search in familysearch.org with McFunn and Ayrshire
and one jumped out at me. A Catherine McPhunn married to John Walker had a child Hamilton Walker in Galston in Ayrshire. In fact they had 2 daughters named Hamilton in 1812 and 1814. Did the Hamilton name come from the McPhunn/McFunn line?

Had another look for possible parents of Jane McFunn est DOB 1780 (as first child b 1801) and found one in Glasgow to Archibald McFunn and Hamilton Leslie. They also had a Catherine.

Looking at James Stillie's and Jane McFunn's children names
first daughter was Hamilton ( named after her mother, traditional Scottish naming pattern)
and second son was Archibald (named after Jane's father) - a perfect fit. Now I'm convinced. It doesn't tie in with 1841 census saying she was born in Ayrshire but that's not 100% reliable.

So the first Hamilton Stillie in 1801 was a girl named after her grandmother, but the other four in subsequent generations were boys.

Now to work out where Hamilton Leslie got her name from. I may be some time…


Update here