World War One part 2

My father-in-law David McMeekin, 1892-1973 was a miner,  son of John McMeekin and Annie Gibson Murdoch of Glengyron Row. We know he was in the Royal Scots Fusiliers and served in Palestine; he was fond of talking at length about Palestine. Unfortunately his son did not pay much attention to his tales. His service records did not survive, but he did.

David McMeekin aged about 22

His younger brother Jimmy 1895-1978 also a miner, enlisted in the Royal Scots Fusiliers and his records survive. He enlisted at Cumnock on the 28th August 1914. He was recruited by recruiter John Sykes. He gave his age as 20 years and 160 days but he was only 19. This was probably a mistake and not an attempt to enlist when too young. You could enlist at age 18 but you weren't sent abroad till you were 19. He was 5 ft 5 and a half inches, blue eyes, fair hair, teeth defective, but nutrition good. Pulse 70 (underlined, is this good?). This noted by Dr McQueen in Cumnock. He was discharged at Aldershot after 25 days, as he was "physically unfit for active service due to chronic rheumatism and valvular heart disease". Nevertheless, he continued to work as a miner and died age 83!

Although none of the family died in the war, the family did not escape unscathed. A third brother Andrew died in 1916 in a rock fall in Garallan colliery. He was only 19. I wrote about his death here.  On his death certificate his father John is listed as a miner and a private in the Royal Defence Corps (the Home Guard).

Cumnock soldiers have a blog of their own
https://cumnocksoldiers.blogspot.com

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

John McMeekin 1932 - 2012

This is my dear brother-in-law Jock who died earlier this year just a few weeks short of his 80th birthday.

He was born in Glengyron Row where the family lived until 1939 when they moved down to Cumnock.

On leaving school he served in the army in Malaya and Singapore and carried some photos from that time in his wallet. He never went abroad again!

He married Margaret on 6th June 1952 when they were both 20 and they went on to have 8 children.

He was a skilled bricklayer and generally very good with his hands.  

with his mother Bel circa 1980

For a while he drove a baker's van and his wee brother was his van boy. David recalls how well he dealt with his customers.

He was a wonderful family man investing in a minibus for outings. The family grew as the children married and gave him 19 grandchildren and 14 great grandchildren. The family home was never empty for long.  However they were chased home on Sunday evening as that was the night he and Margaret would head for the Juniors Club for some R and R.

The annual family bash on the 2nd January was legendary. Jock would sit in his armchair like the ayatollah as food and drink were delivered to him. He would dispense balloons and pennies and hugs and kisses to the wee ones. He was a truly lovely man and had time for everyone.

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?

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