My Great Great Grandfather James McLaughlan was born around 1849 to 1851 in Tyrone Omagh. Omagh is a county town of Co Tyrone in Northern Ireland. He was the son of John McLaughlan and Mary McIver. His father had been a farmer. He was one of the many who left Ireland for Glasgow. Although he came from Northern Ireland he is of Roman Catholic roots marrying twice in the Roman Catholic Church and this religion has passed down through his descendants.
He seems to have arrived in Scotland a little before 1871. I’ve tentatively placed him as a boarder with his older brothers’ family at 74 Muse St Glasgow. He was an iron foundry worker which is consistent with other documents. His tentative brother is John McLaughlan married to Margaret Grainey or Graney from Lissen Co Derry.
Transcript of McLaughlan Family 1871 census (TBC)
I’m presuming that as he
was boarding with his brother in 1871,
that his parents were possibly deceased or had stayed behind in Ireland
(they were definitely deceased by 1886).
In the years after the famine people continued to leave Ireland often sending back the fare for other members to join them in their new destination. Most of the immigrants were illiterate with little, or no skills and education. Usually they took the lowest paid jobs, not in agriculture, but in industrial work such as labouring jobs in cotton mills, docks, railways and canal building.
Their new life in Glasgow was harsh with Irish migrants living in their own close-knit communities characterised by cheap housing, overcrowding and unsanitary conditions. Naturally this meant high incidence of disease and high mortality. There was resentment by the local Scottish workers who thought the Irish men offered unfair competition for their jobs and lowered wages.
A little while later, James married Catherine Hall in 1872 in a Roman Catholic ceremony. Catherine was a fellow Irish immigrant, and the daughter of Richard Hall and Mary Milligan. James signed the certificate with his mark X, and that is consistent with many of the other documents which he signed.
James and Catherine's marriage 1972
After his marriage to Catherine a daughter Mary McLaughlan was born in 1875. This Mary was my great grandmother. Catherine and James had five children:
Harriet born in 1877 dying in infancy in 1880.
Margaret was born in 1880 and died the same year.
Jane was born on 6 December 1880 and didn’t see the New Year.
Previously they had lived at 74 Muse Lane in Milton nearby to where his brother and family lived. By the time Jane was born they had moved to 62 Stewart Street in Milton. Despite all the tragedy Mary continued to thrive. In the 1881 Census, James, Catherine (Kate) and Mary are still at Stewart Street with two lodgers, who were fellow foundry workers.
By the years end the situation would look quite different. Kate was pregnant again with James, who was to be born in December 1881. Constant pregnancy, the loss of babies and the wasting disease of TB prevalent in these overcrowded dwellings may have contributed to Kate’s premature death after the birth of James McLaughlan on 22 December 1881. He too, didn’t see the year out. Kate’s cause of death was described as Phthisis Pulmonalis or TB, coupled with a lung infection and pelvic peritonitis.
Catherine's death after childbirth 1881
So hard times for these people who have suffered so much in their lifetimes. Our James begins, 1882, as a widower, and with a five-year-old daughter, Mary, and none of his other children or wife, surviving.
There’s a short gap and James meets a new lady who he married on 31 December 1886 in a Catholic Ceremony. Sarah McAllister was a fellow immigrant from Northern Ireland.
James marries Sarah McAllister
Despite being 30 plus years since the Great Famine Ireland remained a poor country. Lots of people, in fact, around 5 million, left Ireland. Mostly this consisted of young able-bodied people who were disillusioned by British misrule. The poverty was a ‘push’ factor, and the prospect of economic growth and opportunities elsewhere, were a ‘pull’ factor. Those who had been in subsistence farming and agriculture suffered most as did others who saw the decline in the woollen and linen industries.
Glasgow was the desired destination from Belfast. Irish people from the Derry and Newry areas, travelled the 10-to-12-hour journey by ship from Belfast to Glasgow paying
21/- for a cabin, 10p for steerage or 5p for deck class.
Sarah McAllister‘s family had recently immigrated from Northern Ireland. They came from Moneymore, which is a village in Derry. It is an ex-Plantation village and the McAllisters also were a Roman Catholic family. The records show they came from Carncose Road.
Elizabeth or Lizzie McAllister was the last born in 1883 in Magherafelt Londonderry. The McAllisters had had approximately 10 children born between 1867 and 1883. When James McLaughlan had married 26-year-old Sarah McAllister she was the oldest daughter of John McAllister and Margaret McGill, who had who resided at Moss Park, Farm, Paisley.
This provided a stepmother for his daughter Mary. Together they had John born 1887, died 1890, Margaret born 1889, and Annie born in 1894. Sarah’s sister, Elizabeth or Lizzie McAllister was in attendance for the birth of John.
The 1901 Census shows Sarah and James living at Bright Street with their daughters, Margaret and Annie. By then Mary, had given birth to Lavinia, and was living elsewhere in Milton. James and Sarah had 17 years together. Sarah died in 1903 at Bright Street, Glasgow, aged 43 of a Gastric Ulcer.
James McLaughlan and family 1901 census
James can’t be found amongst the plethora of James McLaughlans in the 1911 census. However in the newly released 1921 census, James McLaughlin, widower, was living at the same address, 34 Bright Street. Notations on the document shows it as a two-room premises, housing five people.
With his age noted as 72 and nine months he was recorded as a retired labourer. For the first time we get a better clue as to his Irish origins, with his Place of Birth listed as Tyrone Omagh. Only a few years earlier he was listed as a Causeway labourer in daughter Margaret’s marriage certificate. Also residing in the premises is his daughter Annie, still single and aged 28. She is a shirt machinist working for Walter Herburn Shirt Factory. This is the last we see of Annie as she died of influenza and bronchitis in 1924 not long after this Census was taken.
Also, living with him in the 1921 Census is his daughter Margaret’s family, comprising of Margaret, her husband, Charles McGonigle aged 31 who had been away at war serving as a Private in the 4th Battalion of Royal Scots, and was now working as a coal miner at Mount Vernon Coal Coy. He had married Margaret in September 1918. Son John age 7 is listed as McLaughlan. He had been born in December 1913, but subsequent attachment to his birth certificate registration dated 1929 shows that his birth was legitimised after the marriage of his parents in September 1918, Margaret had been a munitions worker during the war period but was now performing domestic duties.
James McLaughlin and family 1921 Census
James was still living at 34 Bright Street upon his death on 23rd of December 1932 having died of bronchitis and cardiac failure. His daughter Margaret was present as a witness. He made it to a good age of 83 years! On his death certificate James McLaughlan‘s parents were listed as Mary McLaughlan maiden name, MacGyver[sic] (McIver) and John McLaughlan- farm labourer. This is been cross-referenced and verified with his marriage certificate. Nothing can be found of them at this stage, but at least I’m two generations further ahead with this story than I was in 2022.
James McLaughlan death 1932
What became of his children?
Mary had Lavinia Strelley in 1898 and married John Bannan in 1914. She lived a couple of years longer than her father dying in 1934 and Lavinia lead the diaspora further to Australia in the late 20s when she married my Grandfather James Kerr.
Annie died in 1924.
Daughter Annie McLaughlan's death
Margaret married Charles McGonigle at the end of the war. and lived until 1965, having outlived Charles by 14 years, when he died in 1951. Her son, John was a Collery haulage motor man who was single when he succumbed to the dreaded white disease, pulmonary phthisis and cardiac failure at just 18 years.
Margaret McLaughlan married Charles McGonigle 1918
Onwards and Onwards……Looking for McLaughlin, McIver, Hall and Milligan.
And so after years of not having any clues on Mary McLaughlan or her parents much has been achieved in the past 10 months with bonus Irish Great Great Great Grandparents. I think I’ve had another brick wall shattered. It’s really hard to scramble over the rubble to dig down to the Londonderry or Derry records to find the McLaughlans, McIvers, the Halls and the Milligans. but when did that ever stop me?
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