Lavinia Strelley 1886-1960 and Mary McLaughlan 1875-1934 -solving the mystery

See previous story about my Grandmother Lavinia and my mystery great grandmother 

https://robynandthegenies.blogspot.com/2017/09/lavinias-mystery-lavinia-kerr-nee.html

One of my biggest mysteries has been my Nanny’s life before she came to Australia. There’s times where we can’t find her and other anomalies. I feel that some of her mystery stemmed back to the circumstances of hers and her life with her single mother Mary in late 19th century Glasgow.

Finding information about “Mary McLaughlan” and “Lavinia Strelley” was typically unavailable to us initially. The only information we had for her and her mother was a birth transcript which left off the critical word “illegitimate”. A hunt for 1901 and 1911 census were missing and the 1921 census was long awaited. Sadly  even after  years of searching a crucial 10-year period- 1911 is missing. Lavinia and has left us with some anecdotes, photos and documentation which fill in some of the spaces in lieu of these Census details.

Shattering the myths  

Lavinia Strelley was born in Glasgow in 1896 to Mary McLaughlan and William Strelley. Although it doesn’t say it on her birth certificate transcript sent to my father  in the late 80s  a check on Scotland’s people does say she was actually illegitimate. In most documentation we knew of she was known as Strelley. It was believed that her mother had been married to her father. He was a well-known character in Glasgow having been a championship bare- knuckled boxer, referee and boxing promoter.

A previous transcript forgot to show Lavinia  was illegitimate

Although it was believed that Lavinia was an only child, her father also fathered Williamina Strelley in 1897 and Robert Strelley in 1898 by  Ellen Brown. Later another William Strelley was born in 1902 to Agnes Short, a woman who William later married in 1903. It is interesting to note the surname Strelley was well known in Glasgow and these were the only people using it until William Jr married and  had children himself in 1935.

It took a long while to find the 1901 Census record of Lavinia, and her mother living in Milton Lane, Milton. Because of all the variations of spelling Lavinia, McLaughlin and Strelley a genealogist advised me to do an asterisk (*) search on Scotland’s People.  With something like L*vin* McLa*l* in the search I finally turned up a result which gave us Lavinia S McLaughlan living with a ‘widow’ Mary McLaughlan. Mary was a Glaswegian pottery worker. It was the first time I knew her age and place of birth.

At last we found her on a census as McLaughlan- 1901

Lavinia used the name Strelley most of her working life and upon her journey to Australia.  The only time she was known as McLaughlan was in the 1901 Census when she was living with her mother in Milton Lane, Milton. What went wrong between Mary and William is not known.  Any thought of marrying William would have been problematic as William came from a very unreligious line of the Church of England Strelleys and Mary being Catholic  would not have been able to marry a non-Catholic. Lavinia was brought up a Catholic as I have a photo of her making her First Communion.

Lavinia's First Communion

Who was helping Mary look after Lavinia by day? Why did Mary remain single? Where did they disappear to by the time of the 1911 Census? Looking down lots of rabbit holes couldn’t find a definitive death or marriage for Mary.  Lavinia was nowhere to be seen either.  That Mary married someone was one theory, I speculated Lavinia was orphaned and  brought up by nuns.  Possibly her mother may have had a not so lovely moral life.

I tried with my new found knowledge of Mary’s age to find her parents in the 1881 Census and to cross match them with birth records. Still no luck.

Some of the clues left by Lavinia were some work photos and a reference. She was an ovens woman at MacFarlane Lang’s biscuit factory and a worker at Salt Coats Mission prior to that.  I have a photo postcard addressed to Lavinia at Salt Coats Mission Homes at Ardrossan. In the photo sent by a nurse she is wearing her work uniform. Another photo shows in her finery on a Lang’s social outing on the Clyde with her Lang ( MacFarlane) workmates. Later on in researching the Salt Coat Biscuits. It seemed they had some sort of medicinal purpose.

A postcard photo addressed to Lavinia at Saltcoats

I speculated that perhaps Mary was housed at the Salt Coats Mission recuperating from any of the lung or stomach diseases around at the time  and Lavinia had been given a job while she was there, Ardrossan seemed quite a way to the coast from Glasgow but I have also been told that commuting to Ardrossan each day was quite doable from Glasgow. The postcard may have been sent to her using that address if they weren’t sure of her tenement address.

A reference given to Lavinia by MacFarlane's upon her impending travels to Australia, has her working for them for nearly 10 years, suggesting  from about 1916 to 1926 .  The long awaited 1921 Census has her boarding with a MacFarlane family member. Still no news of her mother. 

Lavinia Strelley  1921 census

Some lucky Covid research

More recently I’ve been able to fill in the dots with her early life. I said before that Lavinia had brought with her photos, but what puzzled me was that there were no photos of her mother, or even firm details about what happened to her. My  great uncle Alf  had described her as being quite the mystery woman.

Finding Mary‘s background has been a 13-year mission. Back and forward through lists of McLaughlans in censuses, cross matching births and deaths, matching up potential marriages. Nothing popped out. I needed to find Mary’s parents.

In late 2022  I was suffering from Covid and in isolation. I clicked on my computer to have a little check around the Ancestry and lo and behold somebody had been searching the McLaughlan family since I last checked and placed Mary in their tree. My break through was that they had  posted  a death certificate for her father which showed he was married twice.

I found my great grandmother Mary, living in Milton with her Irish parents, Catherine Hall and James McLaughlan in the 1881 Census. Further digging found that Mary had four siblings  all of whom had died in infancy or at birth. There was Harriet born 1877 Margaret, born 1880 Jane born 1880 and James born 1881.

Mary's parent married in 1872

Suddenly the 1881 Census and 1891 census for Mary  fell into place and I was able to get a definitive birth certificate for Mary.

At last the facts fell into place

Mary’s mother Catherine or Kate died in December 1881. So Mary was left to be brought up by a single dad, James McLaughlan.

Mary and her parents in the 1881 census

Soon James McLaughlan had married a second lady, Sarah McAllister in 1886.  The family had been expanded by the birth of Margaret McLaughlan born 1889 and Annie McLaughlan born 1894. Brother John had been born  in 1887 and died in 1890, The 1891 census has them living in Barony St with James a Causeway worker, Sarah dressmaking from home and Mary aged 16 working in some sort of weaving mill.

The McLaughlans in 1891 census

Sarah McLaughlan, stepmother died in 1903 of a gastric ulcer leaving Mary,  the two girls and her husband James.

In the meantime, Mary, now a pottery worker had a relationship with William Strelley a bricklayer labourer and had young Lavinia in 1896. in answer to my previous question, about who was looking after Lavinia, I’m presuming Mary had the assistance of her stepmother until her death.

 Despite the 16 years age difference It appears she kept a relationship with her stepsisters and father. Reviewing all of the documents I have downloaded and cross-referenced over 13 years enabled me to drop a few more things into the timeline. One of the certificates I had downloaded matched up with a man called John Bannan. Her father’s address in the 1911 census was the same address that that particular Mary had on her marriage certificate. Mary married John Bannan a widower with a daughter, Elizabeth Bannan who was  about Lavinia’s age in 1914. John was a County Down man from Lisburn. Another mystery solved.

Mary married John Bannon

This is probably the time about the time Lavinia began working at Salt Coats Mission as an oven’s woman manufacturing their famous medicinal biscuits useful for stomach ailments. Whether there was extra demand during war time is not known. Salt Coats manufactured more than plain biscuits. They provided an easily assimilated diet when you mixed Salt Coats  biscuits and hot water. I’m assuming they are like Arnott’s Milk Arrowroot biscuits.

Apparently, they could  be taken for use as a sole diet for some weeks to assist stomach troubles. Presumably during the war, these biscuits which were made from the purist, whole wheat and flour, along with some hot water were able to help the digestive troubles of men in the Front Line.

The reference given to Lavinia from Lang McFarlane’s in 1926 when she was about to travel to Australia has her as an oven’s woman for almost 10 years. So presumably, she finished up at Salt Coats Biscuits around 1916 to start at Langs. When the 1921 Census was taken  Lavinia had returned to Glasgow and was living with some of the Macfarlane family  in a 2-room house/ tenement with 9 persons in residence at 38 Sister St Calton. What a squeeze.

The reference confirms Lavinia's work movements

Lavinia boarding  -1921 census

Finally with a marriage I was able to locate Mary in the 1921 census where she was living at a 1 room tenement at 149 Garngad Rd Provan with John and his daughter Elizabeth. For the first time in her life she is listed as performing domestic duties.  

 

Mary and John Bannon 1921 census

 Her sister Annie remained unmarried and lived at Bright St until 1924.  Her other sister, Margaret McGonigle had married Charles McGonigle, was still living at Bright St with her father, James  also residing there.

Mary's Dad and sisters 1921 Census

Margaret  was a witness on Mary‘s death certificate when the 49-year-old widow died of cirrhosis of the liver in 1934 her husband, having predeceased her in February 1932.

Mary's death in 1934

Anyway Lavinia never saw her mother again after paying her fare to Australia and travelling to meet up with her fiancée in Sydney. She married James Kerr in 1927, and then Jean Stevens Kerr came along in February 1928.

It’s still a mystery about Mary McLaughlan and the lack of information the family in Australia had about her life. My great Uncle claimed to have never met her in Glasgow and knew only that she died a little after Lavinia came to Australia and married his brother James Kerr.    

Many things come to mind. Perhaps Lavinia had a fall out or lost contact with her mother and stepsisters. Literacy or postage costs may have stopped them  communicating across the waters. After all, Australia is a very long way from Scotland. Certainly there were no remnants of letters amongst the papers retrieved from my grandfather’s house in the late 1960s but there were none from the Kerr side either.  The Scots did pride themselves on their photographs. For that I’m grateful that they have survived and I’m the custodian. Her photos were homed and on top of the family piano in a loaf sized ceramic box. They were subsequently mangled by yours truly and my brother when we jammed them in the piano keys and played jumping photos on our numerous visits -as kids do!

If you look at the timeline, Lavinia had a bit going on around the time of her mother’s death. Any remnants of letters between her mother and Lavinia had probably been read and disposed of. It’s nearly 100 years since Lavinia came to Australia and I can hardly have  a hissy fit over lost correspondence. Far from living in a small and cramped one room tenement the Kerrs lived in a 3-bedroom house on the north shore of Sydney. However soon space had to be made for the first grandchild Jean born 1928 who lived until December 1932. At  the same time, the house in Neutral Bay was being shared by Lavinia‘s brother-in-law Alfred, and her father-in-law James Cross Kerr. Just nine months later in 1933,  her first son Alfred was born followed soon by William in 1935,

Lavinia was the much loved, mother, wife and neighbour in North Sydney. She was a lifelong Catholic spending much time with her friends  and the Josephite nuns at the Neutral Bay convent.

Another brick wall has been knocked down this year. I’m thrilled to find so much information about my great grandmother and her relatives. It was my goal  this year to find Nanny’s mother in the  Scottish 1921  Census and to piece together what more I could of her story. Instead I cracked it!

 Post script- Another mystery to ponder, investigate and “channel” some hints

Just today, as I was looking for photos to insert in the story. I looked again and another photo that I have never identified. There’s a lady and a young woman there who I presumed was from the Kerr family and her granddaughter possibly around the late 1920s. I looked again- she parts her hair the same way that Nanny had parted hers - may well be Mary and the unmarried daughter of John Bannon. Will I ever know for sure? 

Is this Mary? Elizabeth Bannon?

I’m grateful that after 12 to 13 years of searching, I’ve found a story of Mary McLaughlan, her mother, Catherine, her stepmother, Sarah. her half-sisters Margaret, and Annie in addition to  her dad, James McLaughlan. I’m glad she lived out her days with John Bannan and stepdaughter Elizabeth, Yay the mystery is somewhat clearer than it was this time last year.  

My mission now ......is to find out where James McLaughlan came from in Ireland. In searching for the story of James McLaughlan, and where he came from there’s more to tell about the McAllister‘s and Mary‘s half-sisters. Watch this space.