A Perfect CV

This is my dad, Charlie. He looks a serious fellow here, doesn't he? This was a works shot taken during his time at Burroughs in the 1950s and 60s. My father came from humble beginnings but was always proud of the way he had kept on studying as an adult and subsequently developed his career from manual worker to a senior managerial role.

I recently came across his old curriculum vitae, taking his career up to the 1960s. It had all kind of details on it and filled in several gaps I had in his movements during the second world war and the 1950s. I never really thought of a cv as a worthwhile document in my family history research but I was wrong. Here's what I discovered:

1936 - 1939: worked as a Message Boy and Apprentice Turner at Babcock and Wilcox (Valve Manufacturers), Dumbarton. 

My dad had mentioned various jobs he'd done as a teenager - paper boy, giving out leaflets on the steamer on Loch Lomond - but I didn't know the details of this one until now. I've even tracked down photographs of the Babcock and Wilcox plant so I can see the kind of environment he worked in. This is also where he must have sustained the injury that led to his hospitalisation for a number of years.

1939 - 1943: period of illness due to hip injury.


I knew that he'd been hospitalised on an island off the west coast of Scotland for the majority of this period but his CV lists the hospital as 'St Andrew's Home, Millport, Isle of Cumbrae'. It appears to have been closed down now but I'm still trying to find any history of the hospital.

1943 - 1952: Capstan & Milling Machine Operator/Setter - various firms in Worcester, London and Manchester


I knew that he'd lived in these three areas but I had no idea what his work was. I wish I knew which companies he'd worked for though.

The rest of the cv covers his career in Scotland and shows him moving up from the manual work to clerical work and thereon to supervisory and managerial roles which I already knew about.

Did your twentieth century ancestors leave cv's behind? If so, have a delve. You may be surprised what you discover.

Important Dates: 19th - 26th May

19th May

There are two entries for this date - Mary Alice Lockwood and Mary Laverack.

According to Ancestry.co.uk, Mary Alice Lockwood is my first cousin two times removed on my mother's side of the family. She was born in 1873 in Fenay Bridge, Almondbury, Yorkshire. Her parents were Joe Sykes Lockwood and Alice Jessop. She was to marry John Sutcliffe in 1901 when she was 28 years old (see photograph left). They would have four children - Nora, Stanley, Elsie and Nellie.

I don't know a lot about Mary but she and John look very grand in their wedding photograph. I assume it 'is' their wedding photograph. The alternative would be a professional portrait. John certainly looks very happy.

I can find no Laveracks in our family tree so I assume that this Mary Laverack was a friend of the family.

20th May

The burial of King Edward is recorded here. See my previous entry for more information.

22nd May

The entry for this date is John Kenneth Lodge. This is my uncle, my mother's brother. I always knew him as Uncle Ken. I don't know why he dropped his first name or when it happened. Ken was the middle child. My mother was younger than him and their sister Betty was the eldest. Ken was born in 1924 in Leeds. The census records are obviously of no help to gathering information on him but I do know that during the second world war he was a pilot and after he married his first wife, Janice, he settled in a small town in Scotland called Cromarty where he ran a carpentry artisan business producing spinning wheels, beautiful carved artwork and many other wooden gift items.

Ken always seemed a very glamorous figure to me. My mother adored him and he was a good friend to my father too. My favourite memories of him are when my parents and I used to visit Ken and his family in Cromarty. There was a beach across the road from his house and I can distinctly remember live crabs roaming around the floor of the kitchen before they were boiled. That all changed when he divorced, re-married and moved down to England, but looking back to those early days still makes me smile.

25th May

Mrs Sale and Mrs Smith are the names recorded on this date. We have no Sales in our family tree so I assume this is a family friend. There are Smiths smattered all over our family tree but few that have links to Yorkshire. This entry amuses me in that it creates a picture in my head of two elderly, respectable widows, Mrs Sale and Mrs Smith whom nobody dared refer to by their first names.

26th May


There are two entries for this date. The first reads, 'Queen Mary, 1931, 64 years'.
This is Queen Mary, Mary of Teck, grandmother to Queen Elizabeth II. She was the wife of King-Emperor George V. Her birthday matches up. She was born in 1867. She didn't died until 1953 but she would have been 64 years old in 1931.

The second entry reads, 'Mary Laverack, died 1910'. On Ancestry.co.uk, I can find a Mary Laverack whose death was registered in October 1910 in North Bierley which is near Bradford, Yorkshire. I wonder if this was our Mary Laverack.

International Women's Day 2011

Today is the one hundredth anniversary of the start of International Women's Day. That's one hundred years of celebrating the achievements of women, past, present and future in all areas of life, be that social, political or economic. I've posted a more in depth discussion about the event on the Fi's Magical Writing Haven blog. There's also an Open University group for this event.

It got me thinking about the women in my own family and specifically the women alive in 1911 when International Women's Day began. Back then, to use a cliched phrase, my parents were not even twinklings in their parents' eyes.

This is Lydia Jane Whittaker, my father's mother. In 1911, she was 25.  She hadn't met Charlie Roberton who was to be her husband and wouldn't for another ten years. She lived at 16 Crescent, Alexandria, Dunbartonshire, Scotland with her parents, Robert and Jane. It seems that her four half-siblings had all moved on by then. Her occupation was a printfield worker. She and her father were very religious and part of the congregation who raised money for their church, St Mungo's to be built. She was heavily involved with her church, not only as a part of the congregation but also decorating the church with flowers and working at the Sunday school.

This is Maud Annie Lockwood, my mother's mother. In 1911, she would have been a similar age to Lydia, at 26 years old. She was also single and wouldn't marry Alfred Lodge until 1915. She was living at 29 Albert Terrace, Headingley cum Burley (later to be Kirkstall), Leeds, England with her parents, Alfred and Eliza. She qualified as a teacher in 1906 and in 1911 was working as an English teacher. I always got the impression that she came from a much more comfortable background than Lydia but that could have just been my mother wanting to make it sound like that.


What is undeniable is that both women were extremely strong and hardworking. Like their mothers before them, they were the backbones of their families. I'm very proud to name them among my ancestors. I wonder what they would think of the world in 2011.

The Cottage

This is the second piece of writing by my father.

"Further up the hill, the road took a turning to the left and round the corner the hill flatted out 'til after about a quarter of a mile it came to a staggered junction. On the left, the wood continued as far as the junction, while on the right there was a high hedge, behind which was a field. The field ended to be replaced by a small wood, the sight of which gave me a feeling of anticipation.

I expected to see two old cottages surrounded on three sides by the wood and with neat little gardens between the cottages and the road, and behind the houses the sight of gardens with neat rows of vegetables, clumps of soft fruit bushes and piles of branches of trees ready to be sawn into logs for the fires.

The furthest of these cottages had been my home from the age of four, where I spent a happy childhood. The building that did come into view was not what I had expected. Where there once had been two cottages, there was now a very modern looking residence. The front of the cottages had been given a face lift with modern windows and doors, a new roof and pebble dashed walls. But it was at the back where there had been the biggest change. An extension had been built at right angles to create a T-shaped construction. The separate gardens had been replaced by one area of lawns and flower beds. The enveloping hedges had been removed and now the flower beds and lawns seemed to gradually blend into the surrounding wood. To complete the picture, an Afghan hound reclined arrogantly on the lawn.

I stopped the car on the opposite side of the road and in a somewhat dazed condition crossed over to have a closer look. Although there was very little of the old building I could recognise, at least from the outside, I gradually began to notice a tree here and a bush here in the wood that jogged memories of long past childhood games and tree climbing escapades. Apart from the dog, there did not appear to be any sign of life so I was not able to investigate further, although I would dearly loved to have done so. It was a strange feeling; one part of me felt that I had the right to jump over the wall and go into the wood as I had done so many times in my past; another part of me told me it would be trespassing to do so. Even the Afghan hound did not seem very interested or impressed by my presence so I rejoined my family and continued with our holiday.

Although we covered quite a large part of Scotland that holiday, the view and the cottage kept returning to my thoughts. They triggered off many memories of incidents long forgotten. Names of people I had not thought about for years kept coming back to me. At dinner each night, I must have bored my wife and daughter with my tales."          

The View

I recently found two pieces of writing by my late father. These were to be the first two sections of the book he was going to write about his family history.

"I had stopped the car halfway up the hill beside a gate into one of the fields and was now surveying the scene below. It appeared new and at the same time familiar to me. The contours of the fields, the hedges surrounding them, together with the wood to the right were as I remembered but where was the farm that used to nestle at the foot of the hill? Now all that could be seen were the central farm buildings. The fields immediately surrounding were now occupied by a modern housing estate. Even the stack yard, where they used to bring the newly cut wheat to be placed in neat stacks until the travelling threshing machine came to do its work, was now the site of someone's proud residence. In the distance I could see some of the familiar landmarks of the town I used to know, although here also there seemed to be differences but for the moment I could not take in what they were. Even on the lower slopes of the hills on the other side of the vale, housing estates were now beginning to spread their way up the hills where once only the occasional farm or lonely cottage would have been seen.

The scene triggered off recollections of days long past and forgotten stories of over sixty years ago. Did I really remember them or were they just my memories of family tales told by the fireside in the days before conversation and story telling were replaced by the 'telly'?

When I was about four years old, my family moved from the town to a cottage further up the hill from where I was standing. In those days, a 'flitting' was a major event, no removal firms expertly to do the work for you. Instead a horse and cart was hired and all the friends and relations 'mucked in' to do their bit. In the pandemonium that ensued there was no place for a four year old boy. It would have been too much of a temptation for his capacity for mischief. So I was put in the care of my Uncle John, a rather strange man to a four year old. He seemed to be continually sucking a pipe which gave off thick clouds of foul smelling smoke and his conversation was in the main limited to grunts interspersed with the odd 'aye' or 'naw'. I remember standing at the same gate with my uncle when there was a loud bang further down the hill from where the horse and cart were bringing the family goods.

"What's that," I asked.

"I suppose it's the piano falling off the cart," replied my uncle.

And I could almost hear a little voice saying, "But we haven't got a piano, Uncle John."

The privacy of my journey into the past was broken by a voice from the car. It was my daughter asking if I was going to stay here all day. A reasonable enough question, I suppose, since I had brought my wife and daughter on a touring holiday and the view held no special significance for them. We continued up the hill."

Scotland's People

For family history researchers with links to Scotland like myself, the Scotland's People website can be a tremendously useful resource. Although you do have to pay to access most of the information on there, it's newly updated website offers a free surname search, free access to Wills and Testaments, and Coats of Arms, and a section to discover whether you're related to famous Scots such as Billy Connolly, John Logie Baird and Robert Louis Stevenson.

Well worth a visit.

Another Thomas Roberton

Today I managed to extend the Roberton branch another generation. Using IGI records, I found that the earliest Thomas Roberton I had was born on 7th February 1776 in Linton, Roxburghshire, Scotland, and that his parents are yet another Thomas Roberton and Katherine Hogg.

That still keeps us in the eighteenth century but it's a different part of Scotland. I wonder if I can fill out any more details about his life.

Which William?

Although my main focuses of research are the four branches leading from my grandparents, occasionally it is interesting to look at the other branches too.

Thomas Roberton (1841 - 1898) married Helen McIntosh in 1874. Helen's parents were Lauchlan McIntosh and Henrietta Hardie. This was proven by details from Helen and Thomas' marriage certificate. From further documentation, my father discovered that Henrietta's father was a William Hardie. My father took this information from the 1841 census which states William's birth year as 1801. Further investigation provided his parents, George Hardie and Henrietta Burnett.

Extensive research by David Peters (a descendant of Henrietta B) has proven that Henrietta Burnett's father was a black slave called Ong Tong who was christened by his owner and hence given the surname, Burnett. He married three times and Henrietta was one of several children.

When I contacted David, we found that we had discrepancies when it came to William Hardie's descendants. We both had the same William Hardie. That was definite. I decided to look back at my father's research.

When my father first found William Hardie, he took his date of birth from the 1841 census, 1801. My own investigations have further found 1851 and 1861 census which stated his birth year as 1798. Using these census, a map of the Angus and Perth area in Scotland, and IGI records, I discovered that my father had linked Henrietta Hardie to the wrong William. I also found her mother to be Elisabeth Walker.

Tracing my family back to Ong Tong would have been an interesting find but it appears that as far as I can trace so far, my ancestors were white and from Scotland, Yorkshire and Lancashire.

It just goes to show that the more information you have, the easier it is to patch together the past, and that it is imperative to double check everything.

John Paterson

Jane Paterson's father was a character who fascinated my father. It started with a family bible that had obviously been passed down through John to Jane to Lydia and then my father. This is what my father wrote about John.


When I started my research the only information I had regarding this ancestor was taken from my grandmother's marriage certificates and from a list of births registered in the family bible. I now know that he was born on 28th December 1798 in Dunscore, Dumfriesshire and that his parents were John Paterson, a farmer and Margaret Paterson, ms Dunn. I have been unable to substantiate his date of birth from the Old Parochial Records as registration for the Parish of Dunscore up to the early nineteenth century was very sparse, in fact for some years there are no entries at all on the OPRS.

He was the eldest of nine children, six boys and three girls, born between 1798 and 1814.

The date of birth is taken from an entry in the family bible and the place of birth is taken from two sources:-
(1) On the birth certificate of one of his sons the birthplace of the father is given as Dunscore,
(2) In the 1861 census for the parish of Kells, Dunscore appears in the "where born" column.

John Paterson was born in 1798 in the South West of Scotland. If we consider that Robert Burns was born in 1759 in Alloway in nearby Ayrshire and spent part of his life as an Exciseman in Dumfries then it is not unreasonable to assume that the Scotland that John Paterson was born into was not unlike that depicted by Burns in his poems. But was he a boozey Tam o Shanter type as illustrated in the poem of that name or a pious Cottar wending his weary way home to his loving family after a hard days toil?

I have no record of him until 1831 but one strange fact to emerge is a copy I have of Samuel Johnson's Dictionary, printed in 1820, with the inscription of "John Paterson, Bradford, Yorkshire, 1828". To my untrained eye the handwriting is similar to that in the family bible.

From the IGI at Huddersfield I obtained the fact that a John Paterson married a Mary McKean on 4th October 1831 at Crossmichael, Kirkcudbrightshire.

The marriage is confirmed by the following extract from the OPRs for the Parish of Crossmichael, "4 Oct 1831 At Plain John Paterson, Castle Douglas to Margaret McKean in Plain". The place name was not very clear and my interpretation may not be accurate.

The following is taken from the handwritten entries in the family bible:-
Margret born 6 September 1832
John and Elizabeth born 20 August 1834
Their mother died 20 August 1835
Margret died 1 October 1850
John died on the Isle of Ceylon 1 July 1858.

The births of the twins were confirmed by the following extract from the OPRs for Crossmichael:-
     20 August 1834
     John lawful son of John Paterson, Stone Dyker and Margaret McKean at Burnside of Crossmichael.
     Elizabeth lawful daughter of John Paterson, Stone Dyker and Margaret McKean at Burnside of Crossmichael.

The local publican identified Burnside as the first cottage past the war memorial on the left hand side of the road from Crossmichael to Castle Douglas. It is not a two storey building but the top story has been added this century.

The death of Mary McKean is substantiated by a record I found in the Ewart Library, Dumfries listing of Memorials Records for Crossmichael which read "In sacred memory of Mary McKlan spouse of John Paterson who died on 20th August 1835 aged 27 years". Having subsequently viewed the actual gravestone I can understand how McKean could be read as McKlan.

On my grandmother's first marriage certificate her father is registered as a Stone Dyker, ie a person who builds stonewalls, but on her second marriage certificate this is changed to a Builder and Contractor. Did he become a businessman in later life or was this just a case of poetic licence on my grandmother's part. As I get deeper into my research some of the facts I unearth jog my memory about things I heard in my childhood. I can now clearly remember my mother telling me of a relation who built stonewalls.

John Paterson remarried in 1838. This time he married Lydia Hall and the wedding took place at Parton. I have no record of this marriage other than a reference to it on the birth certificate of their ninth child. There were eleven children by this marriage, the last twin in 1858 when John Paterson was sixty years old.

In the census for 1841 for the Parish of Irongray I found the following entry:-
37 Larbreck
                                                                    
John     Paterson  - 35 years old, Ag Lab
Lydia         "         - 25
Margeret    "         -   8
William       "         -   2
Robert       "          -   4 months

As in many instances in census returns some of the ages can not be depended upon. If John Paterson was born in December 1798 then he should have been 42 in April 1841. However the age entered for his wife Lydia agrees with the age of 56 given in her death certificate in 1872 and the children's ages agree with corresponding entries in the family bible.

 Margeret is obviously the daughter born to his first wife on 6th September 1832. As far as the twins born to his first wife, Elizabeth was living, at the time of the census, at Lochroan, Crossmichael with a Barnabus and Elizabeth McKean who I take to be her grandparents. I found no record for the other twin, John.
William's age of 8 agrees with the date of birth in the bible of 21st August 1839 and similarly the age of 4 months entered for Robert agrees with the bibledate of 25th January 1841.

In the 1851 census for the Parish of Irongray I found the family living at 4 Brochmore Cottages. Included in the census was John the son from his first marriage and seven children from the second. The eldest daughter, Margaret, from his first marriage had died in 1850 according to a bible entry. Again John Paterson's age is inaccurate although the ages given for his children agree with the dates of birth entered in the bible.

The birth certificate of his ninth child Joseph Kirkpatrick Paterson gives the place of birth as Morningside, New Galloway so it is possible that the family may have moved to a new address by 1855.

In the 1861 census for the parish of Kells, Kirkcudbrightshire I found an entry for John Paterson and his family. The address was not very clear but appeared to read "7 Marchiehall". However an extract from the Wigton Free Press of 9 September 1858 under deaths which read "At Colombo, Isle of Ceylonon 1st July, John Paterson son of John Paterson, Marchwell, New Galloway". This extract not only clarifies the address on the census but confirms the bible entry related to the death of John Paterson's son John by his first marriage.

The census included John Paterson, his wife Lydia and seven children. Two of the missing children were John Ann and Margret Lydia who died in 1859 and 1860 respectively. Also missing were the eldest son, William, and the eldest daughter, Jane Watson, who I assume had left home by that date. The names of all the other children agree with the names on the bible list although in some instances the ages do not entirely agree. John Paterson's occupation was registered as Stone Dyker as was that of his sons Robert and Thomas B.
The only Marchwell in New Galloway today is a house outside the village on the road to Ayr.

In checking the Valuation Rolls for Kirkcudbrightshire at the Hornall Museum in Kirkcudbright I found the following entry:-
     "New Galloway 1865
      House and garden, Back Street
      Proprietor, Robert Crosbie, Tea Dealer, 32 Duke Street, Whitehaven
      Occupier John Paterson, Dyker
      rent 5 Guineas"

There he was still living in New Galloway in 1865 but the address was different from the one on the census in 1861.

I could not find Back Street in the street map of New Galloway but a kind lady in one of the shops in the village told me that Back Street was in fact what is now an alleyway behind the Kenmure Arms Hotel which was just across the road from the shop.

John Paterson died on 3 July 1873 of chronic bronchitis at Old Kilpatrick, Dunbartonshire. His wife Lydia Hall died the previous year of the same complaint.

Why he moved from Galloway to the other side of the Clyde some time between 1865 and 1873 is a mystery, unless it was to find work. Assuming that some of his younger children were still living with him in Old Kilpatrick then it must have been quite a journey to move the family together with all the family goods  at least one hundred and fifty miles possibly with only the assistance of a handcart.

Since my grandmother also moved to Old Kilpatrick some time between 1871 and 1872 the question can be posed, did she follow her parents or vice versa?

Documents

1. Census Kells 1861
2. Death Certificate Lydia Hall Paterson 1872 Old Kilpatrick
3. Death Certificate John Paterson 1873 Old Kilpatrick
4. Census Irongray 1851

Birth Certificate

Extract No 19, Parish Minigaff
Name - John Patterson Gordon
When and Where Born - 12 July 1870, Creebridge, Minnigaff
 Sex - male
Name of Parents and Date and Place of Marriage - James Gordon, Ploughman
                                                                      Jane Gordon, ms Patterson
Married June, 1870, Crossmichael
Name of Informant - Lydia Patterson, Grandmother

Thomas Whittaker and Susannah Simpson

These were Robert's parents. Thomas was born in 1815 in Clayton le Dale or Enfield, Lancashire.

In the 1841 census, he is resident in Blackburn, Lancashire. By the 1851 census, he has moved to Chorley, Lancashire and remained there until his death in 1872.

He married Susannah Simpson and had six children.

He worked as a calico printer and., cloth picker at printworks. In the 1871 census, he was recorded as unemployed.

Calico is a type of cloth, heavier than linen and made of cotton. A calico printer drew a pattern on paper, as wide as the cloth. The pattern was divided into squares about 8 inches by 12 inches and cut into wooden blocks. The cloth was laid on a table and the blocks covered with dye and placed on the calico to make the print.

If he worked in the print industry then it may be that Robert did too and had this skill to take to the printing factories in Scotland.

Susannah was born in 1817 in Enfield, Lancashire. I have her resident in Chorley in the 1851, 1861 and 1871 census. I can't trace her parentage.

Jane Watson Paterson

Jane was my great grandmother. She was born in 1841 in Irongray, Kircudbrightshire, Scotland. Her first marriage was to James Gordon with whom she had four children. After James' death in 1875, she married again, to Robert Whittaker, having one more child, my grandmother, Lydia.

My father wrote this about her:

According to the family bible, my grandmother was born on 29 October 1842 and on the 1891 census her place of birth is quoted as being Irongray, Kirkcudbrightshire.

Her parents were John and Lydia Paterson and he was the third of a family of eleven.

In the 1841 census for the Parish of Irongray, her parents were living at 37 Larbreck with four children, one from John Paterson's first marriage. In the 1851 census forthe same parish, the family had moved to 4 Brochmore Cottage and my grandmother, aged 8 years, was included in the census.

In the 1861 census for the Parish of Kells, Kirkcudbrightshire, the family was living at 7 Marchwell, New Galloway, Kirkcudbrightshire. As she was not included in the census for that address it can be assumed that she had left home by that date, probably to take up service somewhere.

On 23 December 1867, she gave birth to a daughter, Catherine at High Street, Dalbeatie. There was no father quoted on the birth certificate so it can be assumed that the child was illegitimate. Catherine was in fact my Auntie Katie. The surname Gordon was later added to Catherine's name and on 23rd May 1890 she married David Boyd at 183 Main Street, Bonhill and subsequently had six children, the eldest of which was Jane, better known as Jean who married William Bennie on 26 October 1918.

My grandmother married James Gordon, a ploughman, on 24 June 1870 at Midpark, Crossmichael, Kirkcudbrightshire, when she was 27 years of age. The marriage certificate states "After banns according to the form of the Church of Scotland".

I had difficulty when I visited Crossmichael in locating Midpark but an old resident advised me that it was a small settlement of houses near where the road to Lauriston crosses the Crossmichael to Castle Douglas road.

Her second child, John Patterson Gordon was born on 12 July 1870 at Creebridge, Minnigaff, Kirkcudbrightshire. I have a photograph of a man and woman on the back of which is written "John and Maggie". Is this John Patterson Gordon?

My grandmother had two further children who were born in Old Kilpatrick, Dunbartonshire, and who both died in infancy.

     James Hall Gordon born 14 December 1872 died 8 February 187?

     Margret Hall Gordon born 22 May 1875 died 17 March 1879

    (Also referred to as Margret Lydia in the bible.)

My grandmother's mother and father died at Old Kilpatrick, Dunbartonshire, in 1872 and 1873 respectively although why the family moved to that part of Scotland is a mystery.

Her husband, James Gordon died on 26th May 1875 according to the family bible but I have yet to find where he died. His death followed four days after the birth of their last child, so it must have been a traumatic time for my grandmother. 

In the 1881 census for the parish of Bonhill, Dunbartonshire I find the following entry for 27 Burns Street:

     Jane Gordon               Head          38     Printfield Worker

     Catherine Gordon        Daughter     12           "         "

     John Gordon               Son            10     Part time Printfield Worker

The age of 12 given for Catherine Gordon in the census does not agree with the date on her birth certificate of 23 December 1867.

Presumably my grandmother moved to Bonhill from Old Kilpatrick to obtain work in one of the many printworks that existed in the Vale of Leven area at that time, possibly the very factory in which she met the Englishman who was to become her second husband and my grandfather.

In the 1891 census for the Parish of Bonhill, Dunbartonshire my grandmother and her second husband, my grandfather, were living at 183 Main Street, Bonhill with the two remaining children from her first marriage and the daughter from her second marriage, Lydia Jane Whittaker, my mother.

What is known as the Vale of Leven is made up of Alexandria, Balloch, Bonhill, Jamestown and Renton. The main industry was bleaching introduced in 1768, to be replaced later by Turkey-red Dyeing of which the area had almost a world monopoly. However after the first world war it was hit with the general slump and many of the factories closed and my memory of them is of empty shells.

Documents

1. Marriage Certificate 1     James Gordon     24/6/1870

2. Marriage Certificate 2     See Robert Whittaker

3. Marriage Certificate        Catherine Patterson/David Boyd

4. Marriage Certificate        Jane Boyd/William Bennie

5. Birth Certificate             Catherine Patterson

6. Birth Certificate             John Patterson Gordon

Robert Whittaker

Robert was my grandmother's father. He was English, born in 1853 in Chorley, Lancashire. He married a widower, Jane Watson Paterson in 1885 in Bonhill, Dunbartonshire, Scotland.

I can trace his residence from census and other documents:

1853 - Chorley, Lancashire
1861 - Chorley, Lancashire
1871 - Chorley, Lancashire
1885 - Bonhill, Dunbartonshire
1885 - Alexandria, Dunbartonshire
1891 - Bonhill, Dunbartonshire
1901 - Bonhill, Dunbartonshire
1906 - Bonhill, Dunbartonshire
1918 - died in Bonhill, Dunbartonshire.

He worked in the print industry as back tinter for calico printer, print field hand, printfield engine keeper and printfield worker.

I assume that he moved to Scotland for work as there was increasing industry and jobs in Jamestown (where Bonhill is located) at the time.

I know that he and my grandmother, Lydia were involved in St Mungo's Episcopal Church in Alexandria and were both very religious people.

Thomas Roberton and Euphemia Hall

This is as far back as my father managed to get for the Robertons and I've had no success in tracing back further either.

We have no birth or death dates for Thomas or Euphemia. What we do know is that they married in 1799 in Eastwood, Renfrewshire, Scotland. They had four sons - James, John, Archibold and Thomas. I can surmise that Euphemia's father was called Hall but have no proof. I cannot trace Thomas's parentage.

These are my great great great grandparents.

Janet Taylor

My great, great grandmother, I have few details about Janet. She was born in 1811 somewhere in Scotland. I have no details of her parents. She married Thomas in 1825 in the parish of Eastwood, Scotland.

In the 1841 census, she was living at Greenhead, Eastwood, Renfrewshire, Scotland with her husband and their four children, Margaret, Euphemia, Charles and Thomas (all names which crop up time and time again in the Roberton family).

She died somewhere between 1841 and 1870 in Scotland.

The next Thomas Roberton, my great great grandfather

Thomas seemed to be a popular name in the Roberton family. This Thomas, my great great grandfather was born in 1804 in Eastwood, Renfrewshire, Scotland. My father wrote this about him.

The record of my grandfather's birth shows that his parents were Thomas and Janet Roberton but I have been unable to obtain any further information at this time.

The IGI shows a Thomas Roberton/Janet Taylor were married 6 December 1825 at the parish of Eastwood.

They were both stated to be deceased on the certificate of their son's second marriage on 5 June 1874 but on the certificate for his first marriage only Janet Roberton is stated to be deceased. This means that Thomas Roberton my great grandfather died between 19th July 1870 and 5th June 1874.

In a 1851 census for the Parish of Eastwood, the head of the house is shown as Thomas Roberton, a widower aged 45, with two sons and 2 daughters. The youngest son is a Thomas aged 10 and this age makes it possible that the son was my grandfather who was born in 1841. If this is true it would mean that the head of the house was my great grandfather and that my great grandmother, Janet Taylor, was dead at that time.

The names of the children (Margaret, Euphemia, Charles, Thomas) seemed to connect with the future members of my family.

The IGI at Huddersfield included the following entries for the parish of Eastwood:

30 May	1799	Roberton Thomas	Euphemia Hall	HM
13 October	1799	Roberton James	Thomas Roberton/ Euphemia Hall	MB
15 March	1801	Roberton John	Thomas Roberton/ Euphemia Hall	MB
26 September	1802	Roberton Archibold	Thomas Roberton/ Euphemia Hall	MB
1 December	1804	Roberton Thomas	Thomas Roberton/ Euphemia Hall	MB

The date of birth of the youngest son relates closely with the 45 quoted as the age of the house in the 1851 census. In which case the Thomas Roberton and Euphemia Hall married on 30th May 1799 would have been my great great grandparents.

Helen McIntosh

Helen was Thomas' wife. Again, I have no photographs of her. I know she was born in 1849 in New Tyle, Forfarshire Scotland, and died in 1927.

From census and other records, I can trace her residence:

1849 - New Tyle
1851 - New Tyle
1861 - Alyth, Perthshire
1874 - Meigle
1881 - Bonhill, Dunbartonshire
1891 - Bonhill, Dunbartonshire
1901 - Bonhill, Dunbartonshire

Her parents were Lauchlan McIntosh (1825 - 1905) and Henrietta Hardie (1826 - 1905). Helen was the eldest of nine children.

Thomas Roberton

Thomas was my great grandfather. I have no photographs of him. He was born in 1841 in Pollockshaws, Glasgow, Scotland. My father's notes included the following entry about Thomas.

I started with no knowledge whatsoever of my grandfather. I do not remember my father talking about him nor have I any photos of him.

The only source of information originally available to me was my father's birth certificate. This provided several items of interest:-

- my grandfather's name was Thomas Roberton and he was a blacksmith.

- my grandparents were married on 5 June 1874 in the parish of Meigle.

Their marriage certificate provided the following information:-

- Thomas Roberton's parents were,

       Thomas Roberton, clerk, deceased

       Janet Roberton, ms Taylor, deceased

- Thomas Roberton was a widower at the time of his marriage to Helen McIntosh. (Subsequently I obtained the certificate for his first marriage which was on 19th July to Agnes Abercrombie).

- The witnesses were James McIntosh and Annie McIntosh. Anne McIntosh appears in the 1881 census as sister in law to Thomas Roberton but this is the first time James McIntosh appears. Is he a brother in law?

- Thomas Roberton was a blacksmith and Helen McIntosh was a domestic servant.

- Thomas Roberton's usual address was recorded as 17 Levenbank Terrace, Jamestown.

From the IGI at Huddersfield I obtained the information that Thomas Roberton was born on 4 March 1841 at Renfrew/Eastwood and that his parents were Thomas and Janet (ms Taylor) Roberton.

This date of birth is in conflict with the age quoted in his two marriage certificates.

- In the certificate of his first marriage on 19th July 1870 his age is given as 25, but if he was born in 1841 he would have been 29 by this date.

- In the certificate for his second marriage on 5th June 1874 his age is given as 30 but if he was born in 1841 he would have been 33.

The 1881 census showed his living at 55 Levenbank Terrace, Jamestown in the parish of Bonhill, Dunbartonshire. His birthplacewas recorded as Renfrewshire, Pollockshaws. His age was quoted as 38 years but again if he was born in 1941 he would have been 40 at the time of the census. Also quoted in the census as living at the same address were:-

- Helen Roberton, wife, age 30, born Forfarshire, New Tyle

- Thomas, son, 5

- Henrietta, daughter, 4

- James L, son                  1

- Charles, son, x days (my father)

- Anne McIntosh,  sister-in-law

Levenbank Terrace was one of three terraces built by the owners of the textile mills as homes for their workers. When I was at primary school in Jamestown the three terraces had become almost representative of three different levels of class. Milton Terrace was at the lower level followed by Napierston Terrace while the 'better people' lived in Levenbank Terrace.

In the Alexandria cemetery the gravestone for the familly plot carries the following inscription:-

                 "In Memory of

                  Thomas Roberton

                  Died 31st July 1898 aged 57 years

                  His Wife

                  Helen McIntosh

                  Died 30th April 1927 aged 77 years

                  Their Daughter

                  Henrietta 

                  Wife of Hugh Paton

                  Died 12th February 1904 aged 27 years

                  Janet

                  2nd daughter of above

                  Thomas and Helen Roberton

                  Died 19th February 1966 aged 82 years

                  John Roberton

                  Died 4th June 1968 aged 81 years"

In a search of the 1851 census for the parish of Eastwood I found an entry for a Roberton with the head of the house a Thomas Roberton, a widower aged 45, with 2 sons and 2 daughters. The youngest son was a Thomas aged 10. This ties up with the age my grandfather would have been in 1851.

My grandfather had eight children (four sons and four daughters) and died on 31 July 1898 at the age of 57 years. He is buried in Alexandria cemetary.

His wife, Helen (nee McIntosh) lived a further 29 years after his death.

My paternal grandfather, Charles Roberton

My grandparents all died before I was born so any impression I have of them has always been based on the stories my parents told me.

This is my father's father, Charles Roberton. He was born in Jamestown, Dunbartonshire, Scotland in 1881. This is what my father wrote about him.

My father was  born on 25th March 1881 in Jamestown in the parish of Bonhill, Dunbartonshire. His parents were Thomas and Helen Roberton and he was the fourth child and third son of a family of eight.

He was educated at Jamestown school and I can remember him telling me that when he was about eleven or twelve years old he worked what was called 'half and half'. That is, he worked part of the day and went to school for the remainder of the time.

About 1907/08 he emigrated to America and stayed there for fourteen years mainly around the Detroit area, although I believe he also had a spell working as a fireman on the Trans Canadian railway.

A search of the Detroit City Directories showed the following entries for a Roberton, Chas:-

1911                                                             Boards                       875 Congress

1914             Watchman                                      "                           37 Hamtramck

1915              Machinist          Pd & Co                  "                           241 Concord

1916                   "                    "                                                   251 Meldrum

1918             Autoworker                                 Resides                      91 Avalon,
                                                                                                      Highland Park

I have a small document holder of my fathers which contains two documents (a) an Employee Pass dated 1918 for the Ford Motor Company with his photograph attached to it and (b) a Registration Certificate in my father's name with the address 94 Avalon and the date 12 Sept 1918 on it. These two documents tied my father to the directory entry for 1918 ayt 94 Avalon.

His eldest brother, Thomas also emigrated and did in fact remain permanently in America. The fact that Thomas was in Detroit at the same time as my father is confirmned by an entry from the Detroit City Directories for 1914 which records a Thomas J Roberton, a plumber, with a house at 37 Hamtramck. This is the same address as a Chas Roberton was boarding at in 1914.

My father became a naturalised American citizen on 25th September 1917. He returned to Scotland for what was to be a visit, my my mother, got married and never returned to his adopted country. His American citizenship did in fact cause a minor problem during the second world war as he had to technically register as a foreign citizen.

He did not pass an apprenticeship as all his brothers had, but obtained a position in 1922 as a labourer in what had been a large estate on the banks of Loch Lomond at Balloch. The estate had been owned by 'the Browns of Balloch' but was later taken over by the Glasgow Corporation and run as a public park. During the thirty odd years he worked there he became an excellent gardener and our own garden was ever the envy of all our neighbours.

He was not a talkative man except when discussing his garden. Our cottage was situated at a crossroads near to the back entrance of the park and the road continued up the hill to a succession of farms. On a summer evening, my father would walk up the hill to a gate about half a mile away. There he would fill his clay pipe with a strong tobacco called Thick Black, light up, and leaning on the gate spend a contemplative half hour staring down to the vale below until it was nearly dark,then he would slowly saunter back home.

Childhood

Another piece written by my father.

The cottage and the surrounding countryside was to be the scene of my formative years and it was here that I spent a very happy childhood. When I was five years old I started at Jamestown Primary School, the same school as my father had attended as a boy. The school was about a mile from my home and the only method of transport was by 'Shanks pony'. This was in 1927 and there were a few motor cars about at that time. In fact, they were greatly outnumbered by the horsedrawn carts. The road down to Balloch was not tarmaced, in fact it was only a track marked by two wheel grooves with grass growing in between. In the winter you could walk along these wheel grooves with a foot of snow on either side of you. There seemed to be some doubt as to the name of the road, to some people it was known as Boturich Road after the estate it eventually led to. To others it was Mollanbowie Road after the farm it passed through.

I have many happy memories of time spent in the woods and farmland surrounding my home. In particular, I spent a lot of time on Mollanbowie Farm which was situated between our house and Balloch. The farm was owned by two cousins, Jock and Aggie McNeil. She was a bossy woman while he was the quiet type except when he got drunk on Market Day or on the day of the local agriculture show. There were three other workers on the farm: the ploughman, the byreman and the maid. The latter two were engaged by the old practice of 'feeing'. This meant that the farmer went along to the Michaelmas or Martinmas fairs and engaged workers who were then tied to the farm for the next six months. The maid had a room somewhere in the main house while the byreman lived in the 'bothy'. This was a stonefloored room with merely a table and a couple of chairs and an iron bed with a straw mattress and rough blankets made of sacks. There was also a fireplace which burnt logs. The byreman looked after the cattle: fed them, mucked them out and took them to pasture in the summer. The cattle were milked by hand and I can still remember the sound of milk hitting pail as the milker squeezed the teats. Everyone helped with the milking except for the ploughman.

 Most of the cottages around got their milk directly from the farmand around milking time, late afternoon, you could see the ladies arrive with their tin jugs to collect their milk for the day. This daily journey gave them a good opportunity for a 'blether', the Scottish term for a good, old gossip.

The ploughman looked after the horses and the crops and was, in fact, the farm foreman. The ploughman at Mollanbowie was Jimmy Hobson whoh was a close family friend of ours. He did not live at the farm but instead lived with his mother who was a lovely, gentle old lady withg a soft Highland accent. His father had worked in the public park with my own father but had died when I was only about six or seven years old.