







Elaine McKay Millar sent us this picture of her granddad. Elaine told us:
“My granddad James (Jimmy) McKay was born in 1900 at 130 Glasgow Rd. Hamilton. At various times, his family also lived at No’s. 170 & 162. His parents both died at 68 Kenilworth Crescent.
I never knew him because he died in 1958 at age 57. He was the eldest of 5 boys and all his brothers also died young. As they were R.C. can anyone tell me which school they would have attended? Also, where could I find an image of Glasgow Rd in the early 1900’s? Thank you”.
Elaine, I am unsure how much of your family history that you know but your grandfather was born on the 28th of August 1900. Jimmy was the son of John McKay & Bridget McCay, who were both from Letterkenny, Donegal in Ireland.
Your great grandparents came to Scotland between November 1899 & August 1900. When your great grandfather John moved to Hamilton he was working as a Railway Platelayer.
I am unsure what school your grandfather would have attended; however, the closest schools were Glenlee primary & Greenfield secondary school. Even though he was a Roman Catholic, he may have attended these schools but i cant confirm this.
The chapel that the family would most likely have attended would have been St. Cuthbert’s as this was the closest one in the area.
I do not have an exact picture of 130 Glasgow Road but do have one that was taken in 1900 a wee bit further down the street. The picture below was taken at the tenements of 90-98 Glasgow Road, which would have been a familiar site to your grandfather. These tenements are still standing to this day.
I did also see that someone has researched your family and found a picture of your granddad in his younger years when he was in the army.
I hope that this sheds some light on to your question.
Garry,
On the morning of Tuesday, the 30th may 1870, about half-past six o’clock, William Hamilton, a labourer, residing in Almada Street, was suffocated in a well, which he was engaged in sinking, at the new Lunatic Asylum in process of erection at Bothwell.
By Saturday evening the shaft had been sunk to a depth of 57 feet, and it was then covered till following Monday. In the early morning the deceased man was being lowered by a windlass into the well, when, before reaching the bottom, he shouted to the men to stop.
They did so and asked him what he wanted. Receiving no answer, they immediately reversed the windlass and drew him up. They then found that William Hamilton, who, in descending, had been clinging to the ropes with his foot in a kind of stirrup, was now hanging with his head downwards and was found to be quite dead.
Drs. Fairless and Stuart were immediately brought to the spot, but their services were quite unavailing. It is supposed that death resulted from suffocation by the foul air accumulated in the well.
Back in 1870 the health and safety of workers wasn’t put before profit and deaths happened all too often. The story of William’s death is lost in the mists of time and to keep his memory alive, I wanted to find out who he was.
He was born on the 24th of March 1816 at Hamilton and baptised on the 6th of July in the same year. His father was called William Hamilton, who was a local Grocer and his mum was called Sarah Torrance.
He married another Hamilton lady who was called Mary Steven on the 1st of May 1836. William was a gardener who employed 3 men and 1 boy. I last found trace of William on the 1861 census, where he was living at 1 Almada Street, where he was living with his wife and his mother in law.
During my research I also found no evidence of William & Mary to have had any children. His wife Mary lived to the age of 76.
Linda McFarlane sent us one of her family pictures. Linda told us:
“Ma wee story behind this photo!
A few months ago my cousin was back over here on holiday from Australia so we went to visit our auntie and a few of our cousins so naturally the old photos came out and I was so thrilled when this one appeared as I myself am now in my sixties and this was the very FIRST photo I have ever seen of my dad as a child
Left to right My Auntie Ann Martin,
My Granny Mary Kerr Martin,
& My Dad Malcolm Kerr Martin from Fairhill.”
Thank you Linda, your picture is now in our Hamilton Folk album.
Do you have a family photo that you would like to share? Please feel free to send them to us at Historic Hamilton.
Garry,
I am always looking to add pictures of people from Hamilton to this folder and I thought it was about time that I added a picture of myself & my wife Emma.
For those of you that don’t know me, my name is Garry McCallum and I am originally from Burbank, I run Historic Hamilton and am responsible for all the stories that you hopefully enjoy reading.
As Historic Hamilton is nearly two years old I thought it would be good to put a face to the name that you see and read about.
If you would like to add someone to the “Hamilton Folk” album, then please feel free to send us your pictures and we will share with everyone in the group.
Garry