20th March 1877 - Fanny Margaret Blake, daughter of Joseph and Mary Eaton, is born in Castlefin, Donegal.
20th March 1897 - Patrick Boylan plays for Woolwich Arsenal reserves v St Mary Grays in the Kent League.
Monday, 20 March 2017
Sunday, 19 March 2017
On This Day...
A new section now for our wee family history blog! I have been collating dates into a family calendar and will post daily updates as we go along. Starting today, Sunday 19th March 2017...!
19th March 1887 - Peter McGourty, father of Nora, is pensioned off from the Royal Irish Constabulary.
19th March 1887 - Peter McGourty, father of Nora, is pensioned off from the Royal Irish Constabulary.
19th March 1913 - Kurt Pauli, uncle of Ursula Piech, is born in Boblingen, Germany.
19th March 1930 - Christina Campbell, wife of Captain John McTavish, dies in Roseneath, aged 75.
Latest Press
Here's a match report from the 01/04/1897 match between Rest Of Kent v Woolwich Arsenal, featuring our very own Patrick Boylan.
Reproduced here courtesy of The Sporting Life, published on the 2nd of April 1897.
Reproduced here courtesy of The Sporting Life, published on the 2nd of April 1897.
The Conlon Family in Edinburgh
On our paternal side, we have the CONLON family living at 67 Leith Wynd, Edinburgh. Son David is born there on the 4th January 1864 to Hugh Conlon and Helen Connolly. On looking into this street I found this from Angus McDiarmid on Flickr...
A reeking slum filled with prostitutes and thieves or an ugly car park and rear-end of a train station. The area around the bottom of Calton hill hasn't ever been a salubrious area, but at least the scene on the left is sort of pretty.
A reeking slum filled with prostitutes and thieves or an ugly car park and rear-end of a train station. The area around the bottom of Calton hill hasn't ever been a salubrious area, but at least the scene on the left is sort of pretty.
The pictures show the foot of Leith Wynd in 1818 and 2010. The only surviving features are the wall of the Old Calton burial ground and the monument to David Hume that sticks up above it—the neighbourhood in the valley was demolished when the railway went in.
Leith Wynd was a steep, narrow street of tenements that ran from the top of the Canongate to Leith Street—starting at the crossroads just below the Netherbow (where the World’s End pub is) and progressing under the Regent Bridge that joins Waterloo Place to Calton hill.
Here’s a description of the street from a letter to The Scotsman in 1850:
“From a precipitous, narrow, and filthy close, you look up to the heights of huge mansions, honeycombed into the receptacles of a hundred inhabitants; and at a height which it makes the head giddy to look up to or to look down from, you see two or three heads of children projecting, or the filthy and squalid figures of their mothers, or of the other female inmates.
“You ascend through dirt and darkness, stair after stair, every stair leading you in succession to a floor in which every miserable room contains a household, and where, by opening doors and barring up doors, and from the absence of sufficient light even in the day time, you hardly know when you turn yourself whether you are coming or going out of or going farther into the labyrinth. Into these places, parties in recent times have been dragged, forcibly stripped of their clothes, and flung out again; and innumerable crimes have been committed of which the world remains in ignorance.”
Wait—if the world remains in ignorance of these innumerable crimes, how come this letter-writer knows about them? Never mind; you get the point. The street was horrible, like the rest of the old town at that time. Leith Wynd was held to be worse than the rest of the streets off the Royal Mile, though, as it contained three notorious towers of vice: the Holy Land, the Happy Land and the Just Land, which are described in “An Enquiry Into Destitution, Prostitution and Crime in Edinburgh”, published in 1851 by A Medical Gentleman.
“On the east side of the wynd … there are three tenements, we may say, wholly tenanted by prostitutes and thieves. These tenements are known to the initiated as the Holy, Happy and Just Lands, the inhabitants of the last styling it simply “No.24”. The Holy and Happy Lands closely resemble each other, and are tenanted by prostitutes and their fancy-men [pimps], there being about one man to every two or three women, to all of whom he is useful when any robbery is “up,” either by frightening the victim or, perhaps, by absolutely choking him, to keep him from crying out, or by making off with and planting the stolen goods in some safe place.
“‘No.24’, on the other hand, got its soubriquet of the Just Land on account of the supposed greater honesty of the girls, who professed to live by prostitution, but not by robbery; and the name we may remark, was given as a term of reproach or contempt by the denizens of the Holy and Happy Lands. In the Just Land, there are no fancy-men, or perhaps we should say, none who regularly stay with the girls and live on plunder.
“The girls in the Just Land, complain bitterly that in consequence of the immense number of robberies committed in the Holy and Happy Lands, it is now almost impossible to get any gentlemen home with them, and the consequence is that they have to go to one of the brothels in the New Town, and thus the girl loses both “the price of the room” and the profit on the drink—this is a very considerable source of profit, the charge for all sorts of liquors being at least 100 per cent above the cost price.
“All these lands or tenements are sub-let to the girls, mostly in single rooms. We were surprised to find cases of sisters living together, and together plying their filthy trade. But shocked as we were at this, it apparently was looked on quite as a matter of course by their neighbours, who quickly enumerated three or four similar cases, and mentioned, in particular, one where the mother and two daughters, all prostitutes, lived together and walked the streets together!
“In the Holy and Happy Lands, the stairs are steep and narrow, and in a ruinous condition, gradually becoming worse the higher you ascend. Almost all the doors are split and broken, which they accounted for by saying, ‘O, Jack came home the other night drunk and kicked it in,’ or, ‘I lost the key when I was out drinking and had to break it open.’ Often, too, the officers of police, in search of suspected persons, burst open these doors, and that without the slightest ceremony.
“In one of the rooms, a girl insisted on our drinking a glass of whisky, and on our refusing, roundly swore that we should before we got out. Another, however, interfered, saying that perhaps we were a teetotaller, but on our confessing that we were not, only that we never drink in the forenoon, the whole three in the room joined against us, and we were told that we were ‘too proud’, that they supposed we were ‘too good to drink with the like of them.’ However, we regained our lost ground with them by taking a cup of tea.
“We found the greatest difficulty in getting them to speak seriously on any subject, but happening to mention emigration, they all in a breath declared that they should so like to emigrate, and they mentioned several of their class who had already done so.”
And from www.rebridgethegap.org I found the above map and this description..
Before the draining of the Nor Loch and the development of the New Town, the primary route from Edinburgh to Leith was to exit the burgh via the eastern Nether Bow Gate and turn left down Leith Wynd. You can see Leith Wynd on the right side of the map below, just north of the Nether Bow. This led to Calton Road, noted on the map below as ‘The Western Road to Leith,’ which proceeded down to Leith roughly along the route of the current Leith Walk. There were no routes from Edinburgh to Leith further west as the Nor Loch prevented crossing from Edinburgh to the land that was to become the New Town.
On Edgar’s 1742 map below, generally agreed to be the first accurate scale map of Edinburgh, you can see that St Mary’s Street (St Mary’s Wynd in 1742), the High Street, and the Canongate are all in the same place as they are today. Calton Road roughly follows the same route as today though it was moved slightly to be closer to the crags during Waverley’s redevelopment in the 1890s.
You can also see Trinity College Hospital & Church (including the Orphan Hospital) which was demolished, along with its physic garden, and partially moved when the original Waverley Station was built in the 1840s.
Saturday, 9 January 2016
THE WEIR FAMILY 1785 - 2016
Following on from my earlier post regarding the history of the Weir name and our links to the famous Norman De Vere family, allow me to update you on the latest evidence I have uncovered from the records held in Edinburgh.
The earliest documents I have found and can be sure of is the 1820 birth record of my paternal great great great grandfather, John Weir in Carnwath, Lanarkshire. He was the son of Blacksmith James Weir and Catherine Brown.
So far I can find little information on James and can only surmise he was born around 1785, probably in the village of Carnwath, Lanarkshire. There are lots of Weirs in this area, but finding the correct family is proving elusive. Perhaps a visit to the Old Graveyard in the town may unlock this mystery?
His wife Catherine died in 1862 aged 77 in Carnwath and was a widow. Carnwath photo below:
Their son John was born in 1820 and moved to Old Monkland when learning his trade as a Blacksmith, where he appears in the 1841 Census. He married Rachel Goodwin Murphy in 1842 and the couple had at least 7 children.
When we catch up with the family again in the 1861 Census, when they are living at 13 Bailie's Lane in New Monkland. Head of household John Weir is now a Master Blacksmith and 41 years old. His Cambusnethan born wife Rachel is 32 and son James is a 15 year old Apprentice Blacksmith. Daughter Elizabeth is missing from this Census and may have married and moved elsewhere. The other children are Catherine, William, John, Robert and Alexander, all of whom were born in either Coatbridge or Bothwell, so the family must have lived in Coatbridge around 1845 and moved to Bothwell around 1849. Below is a photograph of New Monkland's Bank Street in 1906.
The WEIR family settled in Airdrie, moving to 84 Graham Street. In 1865 John Weir died following a year long illness, aged only 45. James takes over as Head of the household and is now a Veterinary Surgeon, a natural progression for a blacksmith dealing with horses every day. His brothers Robert and Alexander are apprentice Blacksmiths and Fleshers in the 1871 Census and living at Gartlea Road. In 1888 Alexander marries Isabella Tait of 94 Hallcraig Street and a Domestic Servant. He is now a Master Blacksmith.
In the 1891 Census, Rachel has returned to work as an Accountant and has moved in with her daughter Rachel's family and husband Robert Allison, a Butcher living in Baillieston. Alexander is living with his Falkirk born wife Isabella at 90 Graham Street.
Rachel Goodwin Murphy Weir died the following year in Mack's Land, Baillieston aged 72. In 1893 Alexander's son John was born in Gartlea Road, followed by George Tait Weir in 1895 and daughter Rachel born in 1899. In the 1901 Census they are living at 3 Gartlea Road. Another son, Alexander was born in 1903, and the family are all still there in the 1911 Census.
On the 6th of November 1913 Alexander Weir was elected onto the Town Council Of Airdrie, as Councillor For The 4th Ward, having previously served as a Valuer under the Board Of Agriculture's Tuberculosis (Animals) Order, and this caused an objection to his appointment as Councillor by Baillie Reid. He is pictured below and features heavily in all of the Minutes from Council meetings until 1920, with notes such as 'arranged loading bay for cattle to Gartlea Road. Councillor Weir to meet with butchers." Interesting as his brother James was a vet in Gartlea Road, himself a Blacksmith and also living there!
The land described in this record bordered a football pitch, which is rather interesting as son John became a noted professional footballer, firstly with Renfrew Juniors, signing for Third Lanark in 1916 and scoring a hat-trick on his debut against Aberdeen FC at Cathkin Park. On the train to Glasgow he met Elizabeth Morrison of West Maryston and they married in 1918, when John was living at 84 Hallcraig Street in Airdrie.
Brother George, now also a Vet and living at 81 Hallcraig Street, married Janet Young in 1929 in Edinburgh in the presence of his parents. Father Alexander is serving on the 'Roads, Fire & Lighting Committees' and had received chains of office for the Royal Visit of 1914 of King George V and Queen Mary, photos of which are below.
Baillie Alexander Weir is standing on the second row, second from the left, with the Town Councillors. These photos are courtsey of the Lanarkshire Archives in Motherwell, discovered in 2014.
In the picture below, Alexander is standing in the second row, third from the right. I have records of his involvement with the Council until at least 1920. It makes fascinating reading and am proud of his good work on improving conditions for the people of the town and involvement in trying to ease the refugee crisis which came in advance of the First World War.
Alexander is pictured below in the 1927 Town Council official photograph standing in the back row, fourth from the left and it was fascinating reading reports actually signed in his own hand! In 1932 his youngest son Alex married Agnes Young Miller in Glasgow. He was now a Chartered Accountant and the family address is given as 81 Hallcraig Street, Airdrie.
By now his son John has moved from Third Lanark in 1920 to Airdrieonians FC for two seasons, before playing for Armadale, Kings Park, St Bernards and Bo'ness. He then worked as an Electrical Engineer with McNicol & Son in Glasgow. He and Elizabeth had four children, named John Morrison, Isobel, Elizabeth and Alexander. John Weir is standing second from right in the back row of this photo
above. His wife Elizabeth Morrison seated in the middle beside her mother Mary McTavish and the baby in her arms is Elizabeth Weir. An odd photograph in which the men seem to be sporting their wives hats! I suspect the others in this photo are Morrison brothers and wives and children and the photo was taken in the 1920s in West Maryston, Baillieston.
In 1938 Isabella Tait Weir died at 81 Hallcraig Street aged 78. Alexander followed in 1940, aged 83 at the Hartswood Asylum and his death certificate below was signed by his daughter Rachel, also living at 81 Hallcraig Street.
Rachel was a Stockbroker's Clerkess and like most of the Weirs was a brilliant mathematician. There is a family legend that she was one of the first woman on the Stock Exchange. She moved to 180 Glasgow Road Baillieston, where she died in 1960 aged 61. She never married.
When war broke out again in 1939, John's son John Morrison Weir quickly signed up for service as aircrew in the Royal Air Force. He was a talented boxer and had just been fired from his father's Engineering firm for punching a Foreman! He is the chap in the middle in the photo above, taken at RAF Elsham Wolds in 1944. His tale has been told elsewhere in this blog, but not long after he survived being shot down in Lancaster PB265, he married Helen Smith, a 19 year old Tobacco Factory Clerkess, living at 15 Dunclutha Street, Glasgow, pictured below in the 1960s in South Africa!
After the War, John Morrison, known as 'Jackie' Weir lived and worked in South Africa building the Kariba Dam. Their only son John Philip was schooled in St Joseph's Dumfries before attending Glasgow University, qualifying as a Doctor. He married Mary Rose Ryan in 1972, son Simon (me!) being born the following year, followed by Robin, Timothy and daughter Lucy.
The family all still live in Glasgow, Scotland. Simon is an Actor, Robin a Surgeon, Tim a Lawyer and Lucy a University Lecturer. The Weir Clan continues with the arrival of Robin's children Lily and Leo Weir..! Through some diligent research in 2014 and 2015 we have managed to get back in touch with George Tait Weir's daughter and her family, all still living in beautiful Perth, as does Elizabeth (Weir) White's son Iain and his family. They had been near neighbours for years and never known the family connection and was wonderful to reunite Betty and Margaret (Weir) Watson again after 55 years!
The earliest documents I have found and can be sure of is the 1820 birth record of my paternal great great great grandfather, John Weir in Carnwath, Lanarkshire. He was the son of Blacksmith James Weir and Catherine Brown.
So far I can find little information on James and can only surmise he was born around 1785, probably in the village of Carnwath, Lanarkshire. There are lots of Weirs in this area, but finding the correct family is proving elusive. Perhaps a visit to the Old Graveyard in the town may unlock this mystery?
His wife Catherine died in 1862 aged 77 in Carnwath and was a widow. Carnwath photo below:
Their son John was born in 1820 and moved to Old Monkland when learning his trade as a Blacksmith, where he appears in the 1841 Census. He married Rachel Goodwin Murphy in 1842 and the couple had at least 7 children.
When we catch up with the family again in the 1861 Census, when they are living at 13 Bailie's Lane in New Monkland. Head of household John Weir is now a Master Blacksmith and 41 years old. His Cambusnethan born wife Rachel is 32 and son James is a 15 year old Apprentice Blacksmith. Daughter Elizabeth is missing from this Census and may have married and moved elsewhere. The other children are Catherine, William, John, Robert and Alexander, all of whom were born in either Coatbridge or Bothwell, so the family must have lived in Coatbridge around 1845 and moved to Bothwell around 1849. Below is a photograph of New Monkland's Bank Street in 1906.
The WEIR family settled in Airdrie, moving to 84 Graham Street. In 1865 John Weir died following a year long illness, aged only 45. James takes over as Head of the household and is now a Veterinary Surgeon, a natural progression for a blacksmith dealing with horses every day. His brothers Robert and Alexander are apprentice Blacksmiths and Fleshers in the 1871 Census and living at Gartlea Road. In 1888 Alexander marries Isabella Tait of 94 Hallcraig Street and a Domestic Servant. He is now a Master Blacksmith.
In the 1891 Census, Rachel has returned to work as an Accountant and has moved in with her daughter Rachel's family and husband Robert Allison, a Butcher living in Baillieston. Alexander is living with his Falkirk born wife Isabella at 90 Graham Street.
Rachel Goodwin Murphy Weir died the following year in Mack's Land, Baillieston aged 72. In 1893 Alexander's son John was born in Gartlea Road, followed by George Tait Weir in 1895 and daughter Rachel born in 1899. In the 1901 Census they are living at 3 Gartlea Road. Another son, Alexander was born in 1903, and the family are all still there in the 1911 Census.
On the 6th of November 1913 Alexander Weir was elected onto the Town Council Of Airdrie, as Councillor For The 4th Ward, having previously served as a Valuer under the Board Of Agriculture's Tuberculosis (Animals) Order, and this caused an objection to his appointment as Councillor by Baillie Reid. He is pictured below and features heavily in all of the Minutes from Council meetings until 1920, with notes such as 'arranged loading bay for cattle to Gartlea Road. Councillor Weir to meet with butchers." Interesting as his brother James was a vet in Gartlea Road, himself a Blacksmith and also living there!
The land described in this record bordered a football pitch, which is rather interesting as son John became a noted professional footballer, firstly with Renfrew Juniors, signing for Third Lanark in 1916 and scoring a hat-trick on his debut against Aberdeen FC at Cathkin Park. On the train to Glasgow he met Elizabeth Morrison of West Maryston and they married in 1918, when John was living at 84 Hallcraig Street in Airdrie.
Brother George, now also a Vet and living at 81 Hallcraig Street, married Janet Young in 1929 in Edinburgh in the presence of his parents. Father Alexander is serving on the 'Roads, Fire & Lighting Committees' and had received chains of office for the Royal Visit of 1914 of King George V and Queen Mary, photos of which are below.
Baillie Alexander Weir is standing on the second row, second from the left, with the Town Councillors. These photos are courtsey of the Lanarkshire Archives in Motherwell, discovered in 2014.
In the picture below, Alexander is standing in the second row, third from the right. I have records of his involvement with the Council until at least 1920. It makes fascinating reading and am proud of his good work on improving conditions for the people of the town and involvement in trying to ease the refugee crisis which came in advance of the First World War.
Alexander is pictured below in the 1927 Town Council official photograph standing in the back row, fourth from the left and it was fascinating reading reports actually signed in his own hand! In 1932 his youngest son Alex married Agnes Young Miller in Glasgow. He was now a Chartered Accountant and the family address is given as 81 Hallcraig Street, Airdrie.
By now his son John has moved from Third Lanark in 1920 to Airdrieonians FC for two seasons, before playing for Armadale, Kings Park, St Bernards and Bo'ness. He then worked as an Electrical Engineer with McNicol & Son in Glasgow. He and Elizabeth had four children, named John Morrison, Isobel, Elizabeth and Alexander. John Weir is standing second from right in the back row of this photo
above. His wife Elizabeth Morrison seated in the middle beside her mother Mary McTavish and the baby in her arms is Elizabeth Weir. An odd photograph in which the men seem to be sporting their wives hats! I suspect the others in this photo are Morrison brothers and wives and children and the photo was taken in the 1920s in West Maryston, Baillieston.
In 1938 Isabella Tait Weir died at 81 Hallcraig Street aged 78. Alexander followed in 1940, aged 83 at the Hartswood Asylum and his death certificate below was signed by his daughter Rachel, also living at 81 Hallcraig Street.
Rachel was a Stockbroker's Clerkess and like most of the Weirs was a brilliant mathematician. There is a family legend that she was one of the first woman on the Stock Exchange. She moved to 180 Glasgow Road Baillieston, where she died in 1960 aged 61. She never married.
When war broke out again in 1939, John's son John Morrison Weir quickly signed up for service as aircrew in the Royal Air Force. He was a talented boxer and had just been fired from his father's Engineering firm for punching a Foreman! He is the chap in the middle in the photo above, taken at RAF Elsham Wolds in 1944. His tale has been told elsewhere in this blog, but not long after he survived being shot down in Lancaster PB265, he married Helen Smith, a 19 year old Tobacco Factory Clerkess, living at 15 Dunclutha Street, Glasgow, pictured below in the 1960s in South Africa!
After the War, John Morrison, known as 'Jackie' Weir lived and worked in South Africa building the Kariba Dam. Their only son John Philip was schooled in St Joseph's Dumfries before attending Glasgow University, qualifying as a Doctor. He married Mary Rose Ryan in 1972, son Simon (me!) being born the following year, followed by Robin, Timothy and daughter Lucy.
John Weir - Third Lanark FC
John Weir, played at the ground for Third Lanark from 1916 to 1919. “John Weir made his debut on January 29, 1916 against Aberdeen and he scored a hat-trick in a 6-2 win which was pretty good going. He played a further 15 times that season
John Weir’s last game for the 'Hi Hi' was on March, 1 1919 against Ayr United and he started the next season at Airdrieonians before moving to Kings Park and then Armadale from 1921 to 1924. Weir then played at St Bernards, before finishing off his career with Bo'ness, helping them win promotion to the first division as Scottish Football League Second Division champions 1926–27
John Weir’s last game for the 'Hi Hi' was on March, 1 1919 against Ayr United and he started the next season at Airdrieonians before moving to Kings Park and then Armadale from 1921 to 1924. Weir then played at St Bernards, before finishing off his career with Bo'ness, helping them win promotion to the first division as Scottish Football League Second Division champions 1926–27
Thursday, 7 January 2016
January 2016 - Latest Research Updates
I have spent the last 3 years thoroughly researching my Clan Weir family history and trying to solve some long held family mysteries. At last I have made several important breakthroughs! A lot of the latest research I have included in my family magazine, The Macamhaoir Times, 12 editions of which I have published and are available online. The link to Issue One is here: https://readmo.re/e/04DV4
I have had a huge amount of help filling in the Lambie story from family historian Paul Lambie, who has done excellent work tethering together all of the various family strands together. The various geneology sites such as Ancestry, Find My Past, Geni and especially Scotland's People have been invaluable.
Recently I discovered more living descendants from my ancient forebears as well as the graves of my great great grandparents and have reconnected with family not heard of for 55 years. But in order for these revelations and discoveries to make sense I must first begin to tell our family story piece by piece and name by name!
I have had a huge amount of help filling in the Lambie story from family historian Paul Lambie, who has done excellent work tethering together all of the various family strands together. The various geneology sites such as Ancestry, Find My Past, Geni and especially Scotland's People have been invaluable.
Recently I discovered more living descendants from my ancient forebears as well as the graves of my great great grandparents and have reconnected with family not heard of for 55 years. But in order for these revelations and discoveries to make sense I must first begin to tell our family story piece by piece and name by name!
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