Holy Communion pictures - Glebe School, Sion Mills

Argyll Motor Works, Alexandria

The Argyll Motor Works opened in Alexandria, Dunbartonshire in 1906 and functioned as a car factory until the company went bankrupt in 1914.

The works were then taken over by the Admiralty as a munitions factory and the building is still known locally as the Torpedo Factory.

My grandfather, Lachlan Cameron worked there during the First World War and was recorded as a Munitions Worker when he married in 1918.

The Argyll 15/30hp was produced in the factory and could achieve a maximum speed of 40mph

Those who couldn’t afford their own Argyll 15 could build their own, as demonstrated by this group of worthies at Ballagan. The garb in this (and other) photos suggests that these were taken just after the war

Cameron family, Ballagan Farm 1920s

  Some more pictures of the Cameron clan at Ballagan Farm, near Balloch – 1920s

Drumquin arms raid, 26 August 1920

Fascinating article by Liam O Duibhir on the first daylight arms raid in the War of Independence - in Drumquin, 99 years ago today

http://www.theirishstory.com/2010/08/26/drumquin-the-first-daylight-arms-raid-in-the-irish-war-of-independence/#.XWPwCPZFyDt

The Glebe National School, Sion Mills

Mary Agnes Kirk (1900-1989) qualified as an assistant teacher in 1918 and taught all of her working life at the Glebe National School, just outside Sion Mills.

I remember at least one visit to the school with Mary but I must have been very young because she retired in 1965 / 1966.

Two school photos – it would be great to put some names to these children.

The Glebe National School today…

Newtownstewart postman walks 138,000 miles

According to the records in PRONI, Hugh Kirk (1875-1937) joined the Post Office on 30^th January 1899.

Here’s Hugh outside the Post Office on Main Street, with the National School in the background. A nice sunny day and Hugh looks like a cheerful chap, cap at a jaunty angle in both pictures.

Christmas 1974

I have a few photos of my dad's shop from the outside but these are the only ones I can find of the inside. Camera work is a bit shaky. Coming up to Christmas - 1974, I think. I remember the gingerbread house that's just behind me in the last photo

Frank & Annie's wedding 1960

My parents - Frank Kirk and Annie Cameron - got married in St Kessog's RC Church, Balloch on 16 April 1960. The wedding reception was in the Balloch Hotel, next door.

Any help in identifying any of the guests would be very welcome!

Hard border – a lesson from history!

Reading Diarmaid Ferriter’s The Border – the legacy of a century of Anglo-Irish politics (Profile Books, 2019) and the following passage made me think of something close to home

‘…it has been maintained that the “general web of smuggling” was indulged in to a greater or lesser degree by the majority of the population in the border counties for the simple reason of the border line’s “invisibility” …

My mother (who was two months pregnant at the time of my dad’s court appearance) continued to be mortified by the memory of the occasion for the rest of her life. My father maybe less so – I can remember many occasions sitting on books and toys as we were waved past the customs at Lifford as he stocked up for the Christmas rush!

Customs Post, Killea, County Derry

Henry McErlane - Rochester 1937

Henry McErlane (1889-1956) was my grandmother’s elder brother – my great-uncle. When his mother died the children were split up – my granny to be brought up by her paternal grandparents in Ireland, her two sisters to an orphanage in Rothesay. Henry stayed with his father and spent all of his working life in the Merchant Navy.

By the late ‘30s Henry was living in Rochester, close to Chatham Docks. He married Elizabeth Lacey in Medway Registry Office on 25^th September 1937, at the grand old age of 48. According to his marriage certificate his father, John, was still alive at that time – aged 75.

The couple’s home address was 8 Davis Square, Corporation Street, Rochester.

Like most locations associated with the McErlane family (!) Davis Square is no longer there. The flats of St Clement’s House (the ‘L’ shaped building in the picture above, enclosed by Corporation Street, Blue Boar Lane & the railway line) stand where Davis Square used to be.

Henry & Elizabeth lived five minutes’ walk from Rochester Station (both the new & old ones) and the Registry Office that they got married in. I pass by most days, unaware until recently of my only family English connection

Lyon's Lane, Port Glasgow

Henry and Sarah Clyde McErlane were both born in 18 Lyon’s Lane, Port Glasgow in 1889 and 1890 respectively. Their father John worked as a Shipyard Labourer; the family – mother Elizabeth & older sisters Jane and Margaret moved to the Port in 1888/89 and were still there by the time of the 1891 census.

Lyon’s Lane was described in the 1856 Ordinance Survey Name Book as ‘a narrow lane or alley leading from King Street and terminating at Fore Street. It is wholly paved and lighted up with gas’.

In the 1896 Ordinance Survey Map the street is unnamed – it’s the lane running parallel to and directly to the right of Church Street, just above King Street in the extract above.

MacDonald’s Scottish Directory & Gazetteer 1893-4

Only two businesses listed in the lane in this gazetteer…

Blacksmiths – Lambie, W., & Sons, Lyon’s Lane

Coal Merchants – Kelly, Neil, sen., & Co., Lyon’s Lane; best qualities of household, steam and smithy coals always in stock; also metal ballast for ships

Dockhead Close

A couple of streets away…

All but the main streets in central Port Glasgow have been knocked down. Next time I’m up there I’ll have a look to see if there’s any trace of Lyon’s Lane!

Hugh & James O'Connor - Newtownstewart 1852

The 1852 ‘Baird’ map of Newtownstewart has two O’Connors in the village itself, both on Main Street.

(115) Hugh O’Connor and (283 / 284) James O’Connor.
Earliest image I have seen of NTS (so far) is from 1871 (in ‘Newtownstewart Remembered’ by Billy Dunbar) but I thought I would try to figure out where Hugh and James and their families lived and get some idea on how old the houses currently standing on those sites are
In 1852 Hugh O’Connor (my g-g grandfather, father of Arthur) would have been 23 – I wonder if I’m correct in assuming that the Hugh at #115 is the same person?
Another map in the Baird book names T. Connor and J. Connor Sen. as tenants of land just outside the town
My current guess is that T. Connor was Hugh’s father and James Senior was his grandfather. Don’t ask me why I think that…

Hugh O'Connor

1890-1896 (Dunbar p127) Hugh's house is the last one on the right in all of the next three photos..

Moving right to left, first named shop is John Sweeney, Grocer & Fishmonger. Next door is Publican Joseph Duncan, then Andrew Walker, Publican, Grocer & Provision Dealer. Further up the street is a pavement billboard with the name DP Smith, Haberdasher / ladies fashions

1910 (Dunbar p104) last house on the right

Left to right: Church of Ireland; entrance to Model School; Miss Smith Dressmaker; Cresswell’s Home Bakery & Confectionary; Post Office. Close; McHugh’s General Draper; Bobby Patterson (manager of Co-op Creamery; George Tait Saddlery. Mrs Smyth’s millinery & mantle warehouse; Maggie Kane’s sweet shop; W Gallagher & J Lynch poultry & egg merchants. Close; Temperance Hotel; P Devine Publican; James Gallagher public house, name also on the next building (HOC’s old house)

Google image - 2017?

James O'Connor

1904 (Dunbar p102)

Directly opposite Hugh O’Connor’s house.

It’s a bit harder to make out where these buildings would have been. My guess is they are the two houses on the right-hand side of the picture. Looking left to right, Lyttle’s London House, a close, large house – JO’C properties are the next two buildings.

Buildings now occupied by Hood & Co? The view is a bit different because a building (buildings?) at the end of the street were knocked down to change the road lay-out from Omagh

John James Kirk (1903-1955)

John James was the youngest child of Hugh & Isabella Kirk – brother of Mary Agnes and Patrick.

He inherited the shop in Main Street from his aunt, Lizzie McGlinchey in 1928. John James never married, none of the three siblings did.

I’m assuming from his Driving License that, by 1929, John James had moved out of the family home in Dublin Street, all the way to Main Street. There was a flat above the shop. Both John James and Mary could drive (not sure about Paddy). Neither will have gone through a driving test – these didn’t start until 1935
John James died on March 1st 1955

The death notice has a couple of minor mistakes – it’s Dublin Street and Glenock.

In his will John James left everything to my dad (who had worked in the shop since childhood) and to his sister Mary. Paddy was long gone, he died in 1931.

One item of interest (to me) in his will – he was receiving £10 per annum in rent from “Stewarts’ property in Main Street Newtownstewart”. I think that might be the house next door – the house I always thought my dad had bought before he got married and my childhood home. £10 in 1955 equates to just under £270 in 2019…

Executors of the will were Francis Kirk, Newsagent and Patrick McGonagle, Merchant (from Ballymagorry)

Owen McCrossan (1861-1905) will

Getting sight of this will was the first indication I had that the reason I was struggling to find my father's grandparents in Ireland was because they had emigrated to the USA, to Philadelphia...

I Owen McCrossan of Glassmullagh in the County of Tyrone hereby revoke all former wills made by me and declare this to be my last will and testament.

I bequeath the Licensed House and premises in Dublin Street, Newtownstewart, at present occupied by my brother Robert McCrossan as a yearly tenant, to my sister Catherine McCrossan of Glassmullagh.

I bequeath my three houses in Dublin Street, Newtownstewart, one of which is at present occupied by William Barton, another by a woman named Mubrine and one is at present vacant, to Catherine O’Connor, at present residing with me in Glassmullagh.

I give, devise and bequeath my farm in Dunteague, known as McNally’s farm, to my sister Catherine McCrossan. 

I give, devise and bequeath my farm in Dunteague known as McTaggart’s farm or the Upper Farm, to my brother Robert McCrossan of Newtownstewart.

I have my life insured in the Colonial Mutual Life Assurance Society Limited for the sum of Two Hundred and Fifty Pounds and out of this sum I bequeath

      ·    Fifty pounds to my sister Jane Magee, wife of Hugh Magee of Dunteague

·       Ten pounds to the Rev C McFaul CC Invaugh, said sum of Ten pounds to be applied by him in purchasing a statue or statues for the altar at Dregish Roman Catholic Chapel.

·       Five pounds to the Rev C McFaul CC for masses to be celebrated in public and in Ireland for the repose of the suffering souls in Purgatory (3/6 each mass).

·       Five pounds to the Rev C. O’Brien of Gortnacrea for masses to be celebrated in public and in Ireland for the repose of my soul and those of my relations (3/6 each mass).

·       Seventy five pounds to my sister Catherine McCrossan.

·       Fifty pounds to my brother Robert McCrossan.

·       Fifty pounds to my sister Anne O’Connor, wife of Arthur O’Connor, at present residing in Philadelphia.

I direct my brother Robert and my sister Catherine to defray the costs of taking out Probate to this my will and also my funeral and testamentary expenses in equal shares. I appoint William Porter of Gortnacrea and Patrick McCrossan of Glassmullagh to be executors of this my will. In witness whereof I have hereinto subscribed my name this 27^th day of April 1905.

Signed: Owen McCrossan

Witnesses present: Robert Quinn, James Roche

Grace Street?

For what it’s worth, I’m pretty sure this is where Grace Street once stood…

Grace Street, Partick, Glasgow

The McErlane family

John McErlane (1862-??) was born in Ballynease, County Derry but spent most of his adult life in Scotland. John married Elizabeth Clyde (1864-1895) in Dumbarton in 1885; Elizabeth was born in Scotland (Old Monklands) to Irish parents, William & Sarah from Aghaderg, County Down.

The couple had five children and their birthplaces bear testament to the itinerant life of the Irish navvy in the late nineteenth century. Jane, born 1886 Queensferry (Forth Rail Bridge); Margaret, born 1888 Clydebank; Henry born 1889 Port Glasgow: Sarah born 1890 Port Glasgow; John born 1895, Partick.

Partick, Glasgow

In the late 18^th century into early 20^th century Partick was transformed from a village to a busy, industrial part of the city, with an influx of ‘migrant’ workers – mainly Irish emigrants and Scots who had made their way south from the Highlands. In 1851 the population of Partick was 17,000; by 1901 it had reached 54,000.

Tenement housing was built to cope with the population growth but the tenements became (famously) overcrowded themselves. Partick / the West End was (and is) an area where some of the richest Glaswegians lived but Dumbarton Road marked the class divide – the poorest classes lived to the south, closest to the River Clyde.

Grace Street

At some point between 1891 (when the census recorded the family as living in Port Glasgow) and 1895 John, Elizabeth and family moved to Grace Street in Partick, where John worked as a Shipyard Labourer.

Grace Street is no longer there but was just south of Partick Cross. You can clearly see the street pattern from the ordinance survey map of 1894 preserved in the modern street layout (Google Maps).

1894 Douglas Street = Purdon Street; 1894 Kelvin Street = Keith Street.

Grace Street has gone but it’s easy to figure out where it was…the tree just at the end of Walker Court marks the line where Grace Street ran along.

Grace Street houses

I can’t find a photo of Grace Street (yet) but this is an old postcard (1901) of Kelvin (or Keith) Street, just a few steps away. These particular houses were demolished in the 1930s – no doubt Grace Street met the same fate at the same time.

Elizabeth Clyde McErlane

Elizabeth died at 9 Grace Street, Partick on 4^th October 1895, just a month after her child John was born. She died of gastro-enteritis and cardiac failure, aged 31.