Never Stop Looking

 

Argus, Melbourne, 19 Jul 1950

Last week I posted a bit about my grandfather and the kind of fellow he turned out to be.  This week, after a 45-year wait I bring you news of his brother Duncan.  Previously all that had been known about him after departing Glasgow was that he had emigrated to Australia.  No further word about him reached my mother’s family.

Yesterday, an e-mail alert from MyHeritage which had been languishing unread in my inbox for several weeks revealed some suggestions for records about various men named Duncan Paul. Most of them seemed to be from American city directories, and I was about to delete the e-mail when the birth date of my great-uncle jumped off the screen.  Sure enough, he had ended up in Australia, and one of his relatives there had posted his information on the website.  From it I gleaned a fair bit of interesting detail, which makes up much of the following story.

Duncan, my mum’s uncle, was born in 1914 in Glasgow, and married Elizabeth there just after the outbreak of World War 2.  He was involved in military service and seems to have been posted to the south coast of England because it was in Southampton, about 1946, that he met a lady called Ivy.

Ivy was a recently-widowed mother of five.  Her husband Charles had been a steward in the merchant navy but died in September 1945 and is commemorated in a war grave.  Ivy and Duncan had a child together, and then in 1949 she left with the children for Australia.

Cameronia
(Marxchivist from USA on Flickr, CC BY 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons)

Duncan also applied to emigrate, and in 1950 had been accepted when, during a spell working on Southampton dock, he got itchy feet.  The ship Cameronia berthed and he learned that it was bound for Australia, so on the night before it sailed he packed three suitcases and brazenly marched aboard, his confidence fooling crew and passengers alike.  However, after five days without food he surrendered himself to the captain, who appears to have taken pity on the stowaway and allowed him to work the remainder of his passage.

When the ship docked at Colombo in present-day Sri Lanka, Duncan sent a telegram to Ivy to let her know he was on his way.  She was his sponsor for the purposes of emigration and when the Cameronia arrived in Melbourne she was there on the quay to greet him.  Australian newspapers carried the story of the “Scottish stowaway” and printed the photograph at the beginning of this post, along with a physical description of Duncan as being freckle-faced, red haired and slightly built.

But what of his wife Elizabeth back in Glasgow? This is where the Australian newspaper account is silent, but records show that it was not until 1952 that she obtained a divorce from Duncan.  His address on the legal documents was "unknown", so as yet it's not clear if Duncan ever knew he was divorced, nor if he married Ivy.  

But really, never give up on a search for a relative, no matter how long you've been looking!

Putting the Pieces of the Puzzle Together

 

Mitchell Library, Glasgow
(PC: Stinglehammer, CC BY-SA 4.0 via Wikimedia Commons)

One of the most useful record sets in Scotland are poor law application forms. Glasgow’s collections of these are the most extensive (over a million records) and are name-indexed on a computer database held in Glasgow City Archives at the Mitchell Library.

I’ve been using these fantastic records for many years now, and I tend to forget that more are being added each year, as they're released from the closure period (75 years for adults, 100 for children).  So I was surprised to find a record of my grandparents applying for help from the parish in 1924 – not that their circumstances were unexpected, just that I hadn’t realised enough time had elapsed for their records to be available!

This was the same grandfather who I last year came across in the British Newspaper Archives’ collection – completely by accident, as his combination of names runs through several generations of the family – and was stunned to learn that he had been caught red-handed with the proceeds of a burglary, taken to court, and ended up in prison.  The newspaper accounts gave enough detail for me to know that he was working away from home at the “berry picking” on a farm in Perthshire, and had been trying to pawn one of the “hot” stolen items in Stirling.  Police followed his trail to the farm and arrested him, and he was tried at Perth Sheriff Court and sentenced to fourteen days in jail.

Strangely enough (!), he does not mention any of this in the poor law application on my grandmother’s behalf, made just a few months later.  He surely knew that if he confessed to any of the above, the inspector assessing his case would be much less likely to look favourably upon his application for parish support.  Already noted as being against him were the fact that he hadn’t served in the army, and was currently “idle” i.e. out of work and claiming unemployment benefit.

The reason for the application was that my grandmother was in labour with her second child and they couldn’t afford the medical fees, this being in the days before the National Health Service.  Granddad made his request for assistance at 5.40am on the morning of November 18th, 1924, and the documents confirm that the baby was born later that day in Oakbank Hospital in the north of the city.  A note at the foot of the page below shows that he was expected to pay £1 for the medical treatment, in weekly instalments of five shillings.

Photo courtesy of Glasgow City Archives

This “Particulars of Settlement” document was a standard part of the poor law paperwork, and it listed the couple’s past addresses - this was to prove they were entitled to receive support from the parish granddad was applying to.  It also conveniently gives the reference number of his own parents’ previous application documents.

Interestingly, among the list of previous addresses – and as this was an application on behalf of my grandmother, she at least would have been living there – was a farm in Auchterarder, in Perthshire.  It isn’t named in the newspaper reports, but I suspect this was the place where the law caught up with granddad – and what on earth was he playing at, dragging my heavily-pregnant grandmother around the country, earning money by picking fruit?!  The schoolhouse he burgled was in the same area, too.  I had a mental image of granny working in the fields while he wore a mask and striped jersey to break in and steal a lady’s gold watch, a rare Indian scarf pin, binoculars, and clothing (according to the Sunday Post).

It’s extremely satisfying when two totally unrelated sources corroborate each other like this.  It also paints a sad picture of life on the poverty line in 1920s Glasgow, although not to excuse granddad’s behaviour, it was a definite red flag. He eventually abandoned his wife and three children (now including my own mother) and left them to look after themselves – which my granny did, and a good job she made of it too.  He played no further part in my family’s life.

There’s another story attached to that aspect of this, but that’s for some other time!

Who Do You Think You Are? Returns

 

Tonight (9pm UK time) the latest series of the genealogy programme Who Do You Think You Are? begins.  A new tranche of celebrities will share their family trees, and hopefully demonstrate some techniques and record sources that will be of interest to family historians.  Having seen the USA’s version of this show, I think it’s fair to say that viewers from either side of the pond don't always recognise celebs from across the water, who may be less well-known to a transatlantic audience.  I confess to not knowing who some of the US series' subjects were, although they were clearly popular over there!

While I’m pretty sure that most international fans of the programme would recognise Dame Judi Dench in the new UK series, those not familiar with British politics (or Strictly) might struggle to identify Ed Balls.  However, and this is especially useful for those who don’t have access to BBC TV services on its iPlayer platform, there is a large back catalogue of the previous WDYTYA? series available on YouTube.  Here, there are some slightly more high-profile subjects: J.K. Rowling, John Hurt, Kate Winslet, Daniel Radcliffe, Courteney Cox, and Boris Johnson, to name just a few. 

Some of their ancestors' stories are tragic, others inspiring – for instance, J.K. Rowling discovers a French military hero in her family.  For me, one of the most memorable instalments was about actor Alan Cumming’s father. I won’t spoil it for you but it does have a very different outcome.

Another unrelated, but no less fascinating family history BBC show that aired recently was a standalone documentary about a young woman seeking to discover her birth parents’ identities.  Having been abandoned as a baby and with the support of her adoptive family, she used DNA to try and trace blood relatives.  Shown as part of the Our Lives collection of programmes, it’s called Finding My Family and can be viewed on iPlayer.

Hopefully some of the family stories told in these productions will encourage you to keep researching when you feel like giving up, or to develop a better appreciation for those who have gone before us.

Genealogy Extras: Free Course & Free Conference!

 

More great learning opportunities are being offered all over the genealogy community - here are just two to keep you occupied!

The free online 6-week course run by the University of Strathclyde, “Genealogy: Researching Your Family Tree” is starting on 18th October.  Register soon as places go fast on this course, even though it runs more than once a year. 

Centred around a real-life case study, the course allows you to work through the materials at your own pace, and discuss related questions and issues with other participants from across the world.  As well as explaining key record types, you will discover how DNA fits in to modern family history research, and learn about different ways to record, organise and share your genealogy.

Also worth checking out is the recent conference of the Register of Qualified Genealogists.  Many of the presentations from this excellent event were recorded and can be viewed until 31st October.  Just a few of the talks on the programme are

• Jilted! Or the insights offered in a breach of contract of marriage cases
• Hidden History: Tales of everyday life in Newspaper Advertisements
• Life of the Early Victorian Deaf & Dumb
• Dusting & Digging: The Work of Women
• Lying Bastards: the impact of illegitimacy on family history research

I thoroughly enjoyed all these presentations, which were highly entertaining as well as informative, and came away with plenty of ideas to further my research.