The fallen

In Flanders fields the poppies blow
Between the crosses, row on row,
That mark our place; and in the sky
The larks, still bravely singing, fly
Scarce heard amid the guns below.

We are the Dead. Short days ago
We lived, felt dawn, saw sunset glow,
Loved and were loved, and now we lie
 In Flanders fields.

Take up our quarrel with the foe:
To you from failing hands we throw
The torch; be yours to hold it high.
If ye break faith with us who die
We shall not sleep, though poppies grow
 In Flanders fields.

The author of this moving poem is  John McCrae who is a very distant relative of my husband (a McCrae married into the Wilsons.)

I looked through my extended tree to find those who fell in WW1. A lot of our ancestors were miners and stayed at home to keep the home fires burning so there are maybe not as many as in others' trees.

Aaron Dickens of Kirkintilloch died 7 Nov 1918 in France & Flanders. He was a private in the Highland Light Infantry.  A particulary sad case - just before the Armistice and only 21.

Alexander Shaw of Aberdeenshire a private in the Gordon Highlanders died of wounds on 26 Dec 1915 in France or Flanders aged 26.

William Rollie of Ayrshire died 27 Feb 1916 in France or Flanders. Only 18.

Tom Holmes of Featherstone, Yorkshire died 12 Apr 1917 in France or Flanders age 41.
Left a wife and 6 children.

Murdoch Ferguson of Skye died 5 Aug 1917 in France or Flanders aged 50. He was a corporal in the Queen's Own Cameron Highlanders and formerly in  the Lovat Scouts.

James Cook of Blackburn died 26 Sep 1917 in France or Flanders age 27.

William Mathieson of Ayrshire died 21 Mar 1918 in France or Flanders age 26.

Corporal Abraham Yates from Auchinleck, Royal Scots fell 19 Apr 1918 in France or Flanders aged 29.

Alfred Allan Walker of Aberdeen was killed in action on 14 Nov 1914 in France having served only 45 days. He was a corporal in the Gordon Highlanders and my great aunt Aggie's husband.  Their only son William Sievwright Walker died in the Second World War.

Richard Ewart Shearer my grandfather's younger brother was an engine fitter in the Royal Flying Corps and died of pneumonia in the military hospital in Ayr aged 19 on February 17th 1917.

Gone but not forgotten.

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