Mystery McIlwraiths

I love old family groups like this. I sadly don't have anything like this for our family.  This family portrait turned up in a box of items Cumnock History Group fell heir to when the Cumnock Chronicle office in Cumnock was closing. All it says on the back is McIlwraith, Springhill Terrace, Muirkirk 

Should be a piece of cake finding them! Ha!

First let's take a look at the photo.  It's a posed studio portrait and they are all in their Sunday best. Going by the clothes I'm guessing pre WW1. A family with first 3 sons then 3 daughters. or the youngest son and oldest daughter could be about the same age.

I look on scotlandspeople.gov.uk for any McIlwraiths in Muirkirk. I find a death of a young married woman in 1928 aged 36. Seems too young and the address is in Glenbuck village some miles to the east of Muirkirk  whereas Springhill I think is near Kames in the town of Muirkirk.

I have made the classic error of assuming the spelling of McIlwraith would be how they were recorded.  I try again using a wild card M*raith and I find a family of 8 in Muirkirk in the 1911 census. This looks promising. They have been recorded as McIluraith and when you look at the handwriting you can understand why.  They are not in Springhill Terrace but in Railway or Old Terrace. This at least is in the town of Muirkirk. They had 3 boys then 3 girls. They were all born in Dailly in Ayrshire and are there in 1901.

1911 census 4 Railway or Old Terrace, Muirkirk

William Mclwraith  48 coal miner (under manager)

Annie 47 wife m 21 years 6 children all living

William son 21 single colliery * keeper UG (=underground)

James son 19 single coal miner hewer

McEwan son 18 single horse driver U/ground

Margaret 14

Janet 10

Evelyn daughter 7

all born Dailly

They were in Muirkirk by 1909 as see in the Cairntable Echoes chapter 2 1909, assuminging this is the son James the second son who would have been about 17 in 1909.

By WW1 all the boys were of service age. I quickly found the youngest McEwan Mcilwraith because of his distinctive name. He was killed in 1917. I found him on the War Memorial in Dailly and a quick look through the other names on the memorial revealed the death of a James McIlwraith in 1915. He was in the Scots Guards.  The oldest son William is not on the Dailly War Memorial. If he served, he presumably survived.

I had a look at the father's death certificate to see who the informant was, usually the oldest son, but it was his son-in-law David Nisbet.

Here they are on the Cumnock Connections tree

I wonder why the Chronicle had the photo.

James Bayne

I am feeling quite pleased with myself.

The large Bayne/Bain family in Fife has been well researched by others before me, but I have found one, James Bayne, who so far hasn't figured on anyone else's tree. I think this is for two reasons
1  his birth in 1817 was not recorded
2 he had no children so no-one was working back up the way
He passed unnoticed until I downloaded his mother's death certificate from scotlandspeople and it was signed by James Bayne son in 1860.  Who he?

After some searching the censuses via ancestry I found him married to Margaret Kidd. They were at Arncroach in 1851 and 1861

I downloaded his death certificate to be doubly sure he was my GG uncle and he was.

His mother-in-law Sophia Kidd was living with them in 1851 and 1861 so that is how I knew his wife's name since I can't find a record of the marriage.  In 1861 a brother William Kidd, "fundholder", is living with them too. I couldn't find him in earlier censuses so I googled and found this photo
which gave me James Bayne's date of birth of 17 May 1816.  The inscription is also on Fife FHS CD but it is great to see the original stone. Thanks to Sandy Stevenson for posting it.

William Kidd had been in Calcutta. Still to find out what he was doing there, probably with the HEIC (The Honourable Company of Merchants of London Trading into the East Indies) or the army.

I found out all this because I got the certificate and read carefully all the details.