January 4th

Another busy day on the family tree!  On January 4th we have a couple of marriages and a birth.

Way back - 196 years ago to be exact - John Campbell married Mary Walker.  John Campbell is your 4th great uncle.  Remember Alan Campbell - the letter carrier - who died on his route beside Loch Lomond? - he's your 3xgreat grandfather.  Well, this John is his brother.

John and Mary were married in the parish of Arrochar in 1823.  They were both about 21.  Back then the recording of dates of birth was a bit haphazard.  But they had a good long life together - about 60 years - and they had two sons and two daughters.


A few decades later your first cousin 3X removed was born.  Jane Ironside came into this world on January 4th 1862 in Monquhitter, Aberdeenshire.  You are related because her grandparents, George Donald and Ann Matthew, are your 3xgreat grandparents.

But what makes Jane particularly interesting is that she came to Canada!  In 1883, at age 21, she sailed on this boat, the Buenos Ayrean, to work as a domestic servant.  She lived, married and died in Toronto.

There were a few of the Aberdeenshire family who came to Canada and I really ought to spend a little time documenting them - and maybe even finding living relatives fairly close to home!

And finally we celebrate another marriage:  that of Mary McFarlane Fisken to William Alfred Morgan.  You may remember from yesterday that I surmised that Uncle Campbell met Vera in Bristol when he was visiting his Aunt Mary?  Well this is Aunt Mary.  She is to you a 2nd great aunt.  Her father is your 2nd great grandfather.

Mary is of the Fiskens of Dunbartonshire, Scotland - of Dumbarton the city actually.  Mary was the oldest child of the family.  While her widowed father and her siblings moved down to Newcastle in the north-east of England after the marriage of her younger sister (your great grandmother) to a Newcastle lad (William Fisken Glover), Mary took off for points much further south.

It was probably her work as a domestic servant which took her away from Scotland and she met William Morgan and they were married in the Parish Church at Highworth in Wiltshire on January 4th 1908.  She was 38 years old and he was 43.  (So another pair of "oldies"!).

William was a seaman and as such I am able to know a little of what he looked like from some Royal Navy documents.  He was 5'2½" with dark brown hair, brown eyes.  His complexion was dark and he had a small scar on his left arm.

But as for Mary - I have a photo of her!!  Here she is in about 1936 - she is the one sitting.  The other woman is her sister, Lil.

Despite their advanced years Mary and William had a child together - Lily Florence Lucy Morgan - in 1909.