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.