This month we asked our readers if they would like help with their ancestry and we had a few replies. We were contacted by Ann Cassidy who was looking for information on her father’s family who lived in Hamilton and Ann wrote to us and said:
“Hi Garry, I have recently found out that my Grandmother is buried in the Wellhall Road cemetery. I would really like to find out more about my father’s side of the family, who lived in Burnbank and Hamilton. My Grandmother’s name was Mary Gallagher, I think she was born in 1895…She married William Carr. My Grandmother was only 38 when she died in 1933. My Grandmother’s parents were Mary Ann Gallagher and Francis Gallagher.”
Ann, here is what I found.
Your grandparents were indeed called William Car & Mary Gallagher. They married on the 8th of November 1913 at what was called the Roman Catholic Chapel, I would suspect that this was St. Cuthbert’s.
William was twenty years old and Mary was eighteen and the witnesses were Dominik & Mary Gallagher.
At the time of the wedding your grandfather was living at 145 Glasgow Road in Burnbank and your grandmother living at 1 Grammar School Square and both grandparents were working.
Your grandfather, like many Hamilton men in this decade, he was a coal miner and your grandmother was working as a colliery brass picker, the role of a brass picker was working at the pithead above ground removing the coal from dirt and rocks. Sometimes this job could be just as dangerous as working underground as the conveyor belts did not have any safety rails and often women were dragged to their deaths and caught in the machinery. So, as they both worked at a colliery, it is possible that they met at work.
After they were married your grandparents got their first house together at 126 Glasgow Road, so, another possibility is that they both worked at Greenfield Colliery as this was just a short walk away from the house at Glasgow Road. They continued to live on the same street up to 1925 where they then moved to number 141.
As you know, your father Michael was born around 1930 and your grandparents later moved to a new house at 3 George Street in Burnbank Your grandmother had taken ill with pneumonia and she was so sick that she was taken to the infectious diseases hospital at Udston (Udston House) and on the 5th of July 1933 the illness killed her.
Your grandfather continued to live at 3 George Street and on the 1st of March 1938, he re-married to a lady called Elizabeth Bradshaw, who was a 35-year-old widower. For now, this is as much as I can tell you about your grandfather, so perhaps you could fill in the gaps with what happened to him later in life.
Before I move on to your fathers’ side of the family, I will tell you who your great-grandparents were on your Gran’s side of the family. Your grandmother Mary Gallagher was born at 110 Muir Street on the 11th of September 1895 and her parents were called Francis Gallagher & Mary Ann McGuire.
Your great Grandfather Francis was a Plasterers labourer and both he and your great-grandmother were originally from Newton Stewart. They married there on the 1st of August 1886.
So, as you asked about your father’s side of the family. Your grandfather William Carr was born at 11 Farm Road, Greenfield. He was born on the 11th of June 1893 and he was the fifth child in the family, his siblings were Patrick, John, Margaret & Michael. Your great-grandmother signed William’s birth certificate with an X, so she was illiterate, and this was not an uncommon thing back in 1893.
Your Great Grandparents were called Michael Carr and Mary Tomaney. When William was born your great grandfather was living at Greenfield and as your great-grandfather was a coal miner is likely that he worked at Greenfield Colliery.
Your great-grandparents seemed to go back and forth between Hamilton and Springburn and I would take a guess that this had something to do with Michael’s employment and as of now, I can’t give you an answer to why he moved back and forth so many times. There is also some confusion as to where your great-grandfather Michael was born. I can’t actually find his birth certificate, however on the 1861, 1871 & 1891 census they all state he was born in Hamilton.
Michael was born to parents who were called Patrick Carr & Mary Bryce, this was your 2 x great grandparents and they originally came from Ireland. They moved to Hamilton before 1858 and again the Springburn connection is here, as they moved between Springburn & Hamilton. Your 2 x Great Granddad died at 14 Low Waters Road on the 6th of August 1886 and unfortunately the man who was the informant of the death did not know the name of Patrick’s parents, so the Carr trail stops here.
I did manage to find out where Mary Bryce died. She died on the 15th of August 1886 at the City Poorhouse at St. Rollox in Glasgow and from this document I found that your 3 X great grandparents were called John Bryce who was a fisherman & Nelly Garragh.
Your 2 x great-grandparents, Michael & Mary Married on the 8th of January 1886 and when they married Michael was living at 54 Windsor Street and Mary was living at 112 Watson Street. The family later moved to 9 Albert Buildings at Earnock Colliery and this is where Michael died.
He died on the 15th of January 1899 the cause of death was Cardiovascular disease. His brother in law William Tomaney was the informant of his death.
Your great-grandmother remarried a man named Charles Cairney in 1902 and together they had a son named Charles. They lived at 61 Windsor Street after the marriage.
Staying with your great-grandmother, she was born in Bellshill c1868 and her parents, your two x great grandparents were called James Tomaney Margaret Mullen.
This is as much as I can tell you about your family Ancestry and I hope that it has shed some light on your family. Your family mainly had a strong connection to Burnbank and like many families in Hamilton, we can all trace our family tree going back to Ireland.
