The McConnachies were an early genealogical brick wall for me 12 years ago.

 

Finally found them in the 1911 census

The McConnachie's were an early genealogical brick wall for me. They were a Scottish family, much loved and somehow, we were related.

Working out the clues

I had the clues and a copy of a reply to a mystery inheritance letter. The McConnachie's surname  had come up in many conversations my dad, his father and uncle had had during my childhood. No names of the individual people. In fact, the mother was always referred to as “Mrs McConnachie.”  A 1970 letter from a solicitor in Scotland asked for details for the extended family.

They were duly provided by my great uncle Alf in elaborate detail. But the reply gives no detail about the individual family members of the McConnachie family. Solicitors were looking for the next line to inherit from an intestate John McConnachie who died in Glasgow in 1972. Who were these McConnachies and how did they fit in exactly and did we inherit?

John McConnachie

Annie McConnachie

When sifting through the papers my father left in the 2010s, there were other mentions. Letters my grandfather James had written during his return trip to his homeland Scotland after retirement in the 1960s. Some photos signed Annie and John were identified by a relative as Mc Connachies.  A wedding photo with William McConnachie from my great uncle's collection is soon cross referenced with my great Uncle Frank’s wedding documents – he was a groomsman.

Frank and Katies Wedding - William McConnachie seated

There certainly was a close relationship. My grandad had especially visited them when he went to Scotland to thank them for looking after his mother in her dying days. The belief was that Mary Ann Kerr was the first cousin of Mrs McConnachie. It seems the McConnachies were very close to our Kerr family though due to Mary Ann (nee Murphy) Kerr's closer age and the closer ages of the Kerr boys and the McConnachie children.

The mystery letter.

It is the greatest gift to someone tasked with doing the family history. My great uncle had written back in reply to the solicitors. He detailed my immediate family and other relatives who migrated to Australia in the 1920s and the family of Elizabeth McBride, still in Scotland, who it seemed were all involved in vaudeville in Scotland with stage names to boot. The solicitors would have had fun trying to unravel that.

They were all related to my great grandmother Mary Ann Murphy nee Kerr. However, these McBrides and the Kerrs were related to John McConnachie as well. I just needed to locate the family and the parents.

I struggled to piece it all together with modern technology of Ancestry Scotland's people and newspaper archives. How did the solicitors do it all in the 70s?

Building the family tree. The 1911 census sheds some light.

Firstly, I had to work out who the McConnachies were and where they actually fitted into the family.  There were a lot of combinations of Johns. Eventually I found that William was a groomsman to Francis Kerr and a photo in my Dad’s possession showed there was a sister Annie. Several attempts later I found the 1911 Scottish census which told me the names of the parents (Mary Ann’s cousin) were Annie and David. Through sourcing her marriage certificate Annie was nee Blackwood.  Then I worked out her parents. From there I could backtrack through the Murphys and the Blackwoods to my great great grandparents – the McNamaras.  At last, I could fill out the family trees and most importantly the individual members of the McConnachie clan.

                                James McNamara married Jane Henderson.

I

I

Children were Elizabeth McNamara     +             Anne McNamara      +    Alexander McNamara

Married:

Michael Murphy                             John Blackwood

Children:           Elizabeth + Mary Anne Murphy           Annie.  

(First cousins)

 Married :     C McBride              James C Kerr           David McConnachie

Children :    various                    James +Alfred+ Francis Kerr  William+Annie+ John McConnachie (second cousins)

 

In summary : The common ancestor was James and Jane McNamara, whose children were Elizabeth, Anne and Alexander. The McNamara family of James and Jane were nee Henderson. had a daughter, Elizabeth McNamara, born 1835 in Ireland. She had arrived with them in Scotland sometime before 1845, when Anne and Alexander McNamara were born. Of his children, Anne, 1845-1917, had married John Blackwood. Her daughter, Annie Blackwood, had married a sheet metal worker, David McConnachie, in 1899, resulting in three living children, John, Annie and William, the second cousins to our Mary Ann Kerr's children.

So, with the handy relationship calculator, it seems that Great Uncles Alf Kerr, and Francis and my grandfather James were second cousins to the McConnachie children. The McConnachie's had lived in several locations around Glasgow, namely 390 Argyle Street, Buchanan Street, Dalcross Street and Lincoln Avenue. The 1911 census tells us of the McConnachie children 5 in total had been born, two dying in childhood.

 

The next available information was the 1921 census.

1921 census

 

A recent update of the family came via the newly released 1921 Scottish census. David and Annie were in their mid-40s and the children were beginning their careers or about to. David was a tinsmith, sheet metal worker at D. Rowan & Co. Engineering Company in Glasgow and remained so until his retirement and death aged 78 years.

His son William was a sheet metal worker and daughter Annie was a sewing machinist. John was just completing his schooling eventually becoming a sheet metal worker.

The McConnachies were sad to see the Kerrs leave for Australia in the mid-1920s. Mary Anne and her cousin had kept in touch while in Australia. When Mary Anne decided to return from Australia to Scotland in 1927, she returned with her son Francis (Frank). They both stayed with the McConnachies back in Glasgow.

 The matriarch of the household, Annie, nursing cousin Mary Anne during her final days with lung cancer at 10 Buchanan Street where she died on the 11th of August 1927. Francis Kerr continued to live with his mother's cousin and his second cousins until his marriage to Catherine Tolland in 1930. William McConnachie was the witness to the marriage. By then they were living at 10 Dalcross Street.

While the senior Anne's children worked in traditional jobs such as sewing machinist and sheet metal working, her cousin's children had a much greater range of jobs. Alfed was a welder at the Singer factory. James, my grandfather, and Francis Kerr, worked for George Green Ltd (picture houses). Francis had dabbled in music hall comedy. Dad’s cousins Ann and Mary Kerr, own a theatre poster where great Uncle Frank was billed in a variety act (a Hebrew comedian) at the Palace Theatre in Lawn St Paisley in 1923. Frank went on to become a Cinema/ Theatre manager and sadly met an early death on Christmas Day 1953 because of an accident at the Cinema. Francis was a cinema manager entertaining famous movie people. Sadly, he died childless in 1953 from a fall at the Bedford Picture House. The McConnachie's were devastated when he died. 

Frank Kerr on stage with Herbert Wilcox (l) and Anton Walbrook (r)

Frank and Katie entertaining at an opening

The McConnachie's other second cousins, i.e. those children of Elizabeth Murphy who married Cornelius McBride, were mostly involved in Scottish Music Hall. They were much loved comedians, singers, dancers and performers. Scottish music hall was a great source of fun and entertainment. The cousins under stage names Jeannie, Neil Power, Jimmy Finch, Oliver and Mac, and Arthur McBride mostly performed comedy skits in variety shows and they toured around Scotland and UK.

The theatres of Glasgow were always filled with knockabout humour, Scottish songs, music, comic scenes and skits. They were a fun family to be around.

Access to the Scotland’s Peoples marriages confirmed none of the McConnachie children married or had families. They corresponded with the Kerrs in Australia and exchanged photos. They would have informed us here in Australia when William died aged 52 of a cerebral haemorrhage in 1956 and Annie after retiring had died of coronary artery disease aged 67 died in 1969. 

A later photo of Annie and John sent to the Kerrs

Alas, the last child standing, John died of lung cancer and intestate aged 65 in 1973.

At this time, it was my Great Uncle Alf in Bondi New South Wales Australia who was contacted by the solicitors to ascertain the remaining relatives who could potentially receive the inheritance.

  The second cousins reunite

In 1966 my grandfather, James, retired and took an ocean liner trip to his beloved Glasgow. On his list of things to do was a visit to the remaining McConnachies to thank them for looking after his mother. Although Mary Anne's cousin Annie Sr had died in 1952 and David in 1954, he still wanted to acknowledge that the McConnachies had cared for his mother and housed his brother until his marriage. It had been a long time since he had seen his three second cousins and he was a little taken back to see them aged and one of them bedridden. Even so, he fulfilled his wish to thank them.

When James visited and Alfred in following years, they saw the transformation of Glasgow. Some traditional industries had declined and tens of thousands of people were moving into new housing estates and on the city outskirts away from the slum areas of their youth. Glasgow had been one of the most important industrial areas in Britain.

The solicitors in search of succession to the estate.

So, when John McConnachie died intestate, the search was on for the nearest of kin. The solicitors wrote to the Kerrs in Australia to ascertain details. The solicitors would have been hard pushed to trace all the Music Hall artistes with their myriads of stage names without help from Uncle Alf.

However, for me a copy of Uncle Alf's reply has been most crucial to my family history research 40 years later. In the end, the confirmation that the McConnachies were second cousins to the remaining Kerr's and McBride's family members. The investigation brought me closer to identifying John and Annie whose signatures were in the unlabelled photos in my father's collection. I've enjoyed revisiting the McConnachie's for this story and their movements around Partick and comparing their lives with those of their second cousins.

And now to the bad news….. The letter my Great Uncle Alf wrote off to the Glasgow solicitor outlining the relationship of the McBride’s, the Murphy’s and the Kerrs to the late John McConnachie amounted to nothing.  A closer relative was found. I actually came to the same conclusion but I was overjoyed with my findings. I am guessing it was the Blackwoods who got the money as they were the closer relatives. Perhaps it was even some of David McConnachie’s family.

The research into Lizzy McBride and her tribe of performing McBrides continues….Thank God for the information in the letter.

Here is the letter that started it all off. 

 

 

 

Kerr Cousins- a tangible entertainment legacy! (Music Hall Story Part 4)

The McBride cousins were from  my paternal Great Grandmothers side. My direct line- the Kerrs had a minor involvement in the Music Hall scene. My Dad’s cousins Ann and Mary Kerr,  own  a 1926 theatre poster advertising the  Palace Theatre in Lawn St Paisley. Great Uncle Frank Kerr was billed  in a variety act  under the stage name of "Frank E Rayner" (E Rayner being the  name of an  Australian relative). He was one of the many who performed as a Hebrew impersonator at the time. I can’t help thinking he would be run out of town in these politically correct times.

He was billed along side  acts such as King and Bentley, a natural conversationalist, “clever comedian” Nicholas Rimsky , and the Gordon Brothers Acrobatics Act. The mind boggles at the concept of a “funny acrobatic Chinese act “ and a Hebrew impersonator  being played in the 1920s in Glasgow. Frank went on to become a Cinema/ Theatre manager. In the early days of motion pictures the films were promoted by personal appearances by the stars.

Dame Anna Neagle's personal appearance promoting her movie  "Sixty Glorious Years" (Frank to her left)

Frank Kerr on stage with Herbert Wilcox (l) and Anton Walbrook (r) on the Bedford stage

 Sadly he met an early death on Christmas Day 1953 as a result of an accident at the Cinema.

 James Kerr (my Grandfather) top left in a Scottish Minstrel band c1920s

My grandfather James Kerr, is  pictured here playing in a Scottish minstrel band before he left Scotland for Sydney. One assumes this was a weekend job or he was part of an amateur performance band.  A letter written to my Nanny, Lavinia Kerr nee Strelley who was still back in Glasgow at the time, tells of a young James newly arrived in Sydney looking for employment and of his frustration at missing out on one job because they needed him for singing and dancing!


I'm told that music and singing is the "Scottish way". The Sydney Kerrs became audiences not performers. My uncle, Billy Kerr, recalls the family regularly visiting the Burns Club in Sydney to enjoy the entertainment and friendship. He  remembers  the ruckus of the Scottish New Year celebrations when he was growing up. He remembers the visitors staying over because they had sung and drunk whiskey all night. I think his words were “passed out all over the lounge room”.

James singing a Scottish tune during his retirement cruise to his homeland in Scotland. This was to be a catch up with remaining McBride relatives  (1960s)

There was an old piano in James and Lavinia’s house at 35 Park Ave Neutral Bay. It was supposedly purchased because my Dad had a hankering to play and he had short lived lessons as a child. I had never seen him show any interest when it was moved to our house after James' death. The banjo from the minstrel band found its way to the family home too where they lay abandoned and forgotten until my father's death.

No-one ever learnt  to play my grandfather’s piano. I think most of my clan were standing well behind the stage door when the creative arts were given out. Some of James’ Great Grandaughters enjoyed amateur performances of various musicals during their school days.  In the end, even though the great grandkids were fighting over who would have it, the old and neglected piano would never get played by anyone related to the surname Kerr. We sold it with the house. 

And what of my grandfather’s banjo that hadn’t seen the light of day for 40 years? Well that’s the good news story. An expert in the field told us it was hand built and would fetch $20,000 (£10,000) if we had it restored. Now that’s an entertainment legacy!!

McBride siblings- Greasepaint in their veins ( Music Hall Story part 3)

Cornelius wasn’t the only McBride to “tread the boards” .  Along the way he would see many of his family joining the stage with their own variety acts. In fact some married others they met in the theatre.   Their was certianly greasepaint flowing through the veins of the McBrides.

Sadly the youngest sister died just as she was in her prime. Jeannie  McBride was born in 1904. She was mentioned in the April 13, 1916 Stage archive as appearing with others at the Olympia and was described as “is a smart dancer”. Apparently she did impersonations of the “Great Vesta Tilly” a popular and famous male impersonator. Unfortunately, not long after this article was printed she succumbed to meningitis and died in August 1916. Her oldest brother Neil was the informant. It must have broken all their hearts.

Michael McBride born 1889 married Glasgow girl  Margaret (Mary) Kerr  in 1916. At the time of her marriage, Mary described herself as a music hall artiste. She had been shown as a professional singer in the families 1911 census return. Later, Michael, an engineer’s machine man, joined with “Mary Oliver” to become part of the comedy routine “Oliver and Mack”.

By 1920 they had had two children Sarah known as Sally McBride and Cornelius. As tradition has it Sally was a tap dancer who performed with her parents before leaving for Canada.

1924 saw them play at the Tivoli in Aberdeen, in the popular “Hop Scotch” which was a lively show full of amusing burlesques, catchy songs and smart dances. Here Oliver and Mack played beside his younger brother, James in the partnership of Carr and Finch.

Oliver and Mack were in popular demand in the late 1920s playing at Bernstein theatres, East Ham and West Ham and  Gaumont Canterbury Music Hall to name a few. They are playing together in 1940 at the Olympia in Dublin. In another show “Scotland Calling” the comedy elements were much appreciated in this “bright show “. At another time it was reported that they sailed from Southhampton via the RMS “Edinburgh Castle” to fulfil an engagement with African Theatres booked by IVTA Ltd.

Not a lot is known about James McBride b 1894 who worked under the name of "Jimmy Finch". He lived with his wife Madge (Margaret) E Reynolds who he married in 1921 at the age of 26. At this time he must have been gainfully employed in the theatre as he describes himself as a Music Hall artiste in his wedding documentation.  Madge’s stage name was "Mrs Finch" and she was still living at 28 Osborne Street in Glasgow in the 1970s. Jimmy was known to have performed with Billy Adams at the Palladium, Edinburgh and was described as a clever comedian. At another time he teamed up with Jack Carr and a gang of singing youngsters in 1927.

Of course, "Finch and Carr" worked with "Oliver and Mack" as fellow comedians in “Hop Scotch” which toured the UK.  One report has Jimmy Finch still working in September 1946 with John Walker where they were again described as clever comedians. It is also noted that his partner left him to work with Mary Oliver’s brother as part of Hayes and Austin who was born  Augustine Kerr and performed under the stage name "Jimmie Austin".

Arthur McBride b 1903 followed in his older sibling’s footsteps. In a tribute to “The 60 Glory Years of the Glasgow Pavilion” in 1964 he was mentioned as being associated with this theatre through performances in the Tommy Morgan Show. Arthur was a 22 year old singer who performed under his own name and as a variety artiste at the time of his marriage to Jemima Barclay McNeill in 1925. Jemima McBride worked under the name of "Mima McBride" and was possibly Mima McNeill, a dancer and  variety artist who later went on to work as a wardrobe mistress. In 1934 Arthur appeared at the Edinburgh Royal in Tommy Morgan’s “Laughter in the Roar” alongside Tommy Morgan, Tommy Yorke , Jerome and Kay, 12 Morganettes etc.  He continued to live in the family home at 10 Roslea Avenue, Glasgow  died in 1972.

Neil Power - Cornelius McBride's Scottish Comedy duo (Music Hall story part 2 )

Cornelius McBride  k/a Neil Power (photo courtesy collinsvariety.co.uk)

Cornelius McBride was the oldest of the McBride clan. He was born in Glasgow in 1887. .At the time of 1911 census  he was listed as an unemployed 25-year-old living at home with mum, Elizabeth (Lizzy), dad. Cornelius (Neil) and the family.

Such was the fortunes of this ex spirit merchant salesman/ performer who chased openings on the Scottish theatre circuit. He performed under the stage name of Neil Power and worked with Hillier and Hayes. He  was also the long-time partner of Bert Benton in the comedy duo Power and Benton.

 His comedy act with Bert Benton was a “nationwide bill topper” in the days when variety was hard-working and sincere. Neil married Louisa Stout of Lambeth in 1923. It is quite possible he met her through the theatre as music hall artists Mary and Ernest Silly were boarding with her mother at the time of the 1911 Census.  They are both described as “Artistes” in their travel documentation.  There is a record of Louisa and Cornelius travelling back from New York in 1924 and back from South Africa in 1928.

In 1925 Neil Power and Bert Benton, performing at the Hippodrome in Leeds received high praise as “a couple of talented laughter makers” in a review entitled “Star Struck”. This seems to be where they introduced their famous skit  “Mend the Door”. Bert’s catch phrase of “I’m only an apprentice!” made thousands laugh. (I can hear him saying it with all the gravity and timing it required for the effect.) The skit goes along the lines of attempting to mend some sort of door. They performed this act regularly amongst much audience mirth and laughter. It was described in the Variety Stage on 11 August 1921 as “admirably conceived and played in capital fashion by the artists concerned”.

The production, which had opened to acclaim, had had a large amount of money spent on the staging. It was said to have “a considerable amount of brainwork, much time and pain, good taste and a flair for heating the public fancy”. Although it had no semblance of a story Power and Benton and their fellow artists contributed to the general scheme of things doing several skits.

The review opens with Power and Benton doing a Railway Station Scene followed later by a Hospital Scene with Power and Benton as the doctor and patient and Carrie Kasric as a nurse. The scene goes along these lines. The patient is recalling stories of the instruments left in bodies after a procedure when the absent-minded doctor returns and asks for his misplaced umbrella. It was described as “cleverly done and highly amusing”.

This was followed by a Waxworks Exhibition Scene and a Recording Room Scene has Power and Benton giving an old and new version of “Annie Lawrie”  to much laughter. The scenes are interspersed by dancing and singing acts so the boys were pretty busy on stage.  On another occasion at the Bedford, Camden Town they play a great part of the 14 scene revue called “Show Life”. One scene has them as a couple of gas fitters in a Factory Scene but other humerous  scenes include  a Customs Office Scene and  a Rich Aunt sketch set in  a bullfight !

In 1927 they were the principal comedians in “Yes Yes Princess” at the Hippodrome, Brighton.  “The Romance of the Navy “ played all over the UK and was described as “an enormous success” in the trade journal “The Stage”.  In 1929 they announced their new routine which was described as “as good as anything they have ever done, packed with good fun on beginning to end”. By 1931 they were still playing together at Sheffield Empire in a lively sparkling show called “Good Bye Blues”.


The partnership ended. Bert went on to work with Billy Hayes as residents of the Edinburgh Palladium. Billy Hayes was the brother of Mary Oliver  (Margaret Kerr) who had married Neil’s brother, Michael.

A short  2 minute silent film on SCRAN  can be found at  http://scotlandonscreen.org.uk/database/record.php
(Search Power and Bendon)

This clip called “Buying a Horse” is a silent film black and white comedy sketch of the two music hall comedians where they go to buy a horse  out of a line up they decide upon a pantomine horse who creates mischief.

The website http://collinsvariety.co.uk/fred/  has details, scripts  and photos of Power and Bendon from their Mother Goose Days.

Neil Power and his comedy partner Bert Bendon (photo courtesy of  collinsvariety.co.uk)

After the death of Bendon in 1964 it was reported that Power was also deceased. However, this was retracted when he let journalists know  that he was alive and living in 14 Clenerow Road Clapham, London at age 78. “I’m living here in happy retirement in Clapham” he told Gordon Irving of The Stage.

Electoral records show that Neil and Louisa had left Glasgow quite early on  and based themselves around London. Neil died in 1967 in Lambeth Surrey 8 years after Louisa’s death.