My own great-grandparents, James McCreath, a Victualler (age 27), and Jane McConnochie, a Tambouring Machinist (age 18), were married on 8th February 1873 at Abbotsford Place, Glasgow. They had seven children.
Mary Caldwell McCreath – born 13 November 1873
Robert McCreath – born 8 January 1876
James McCreath – born 22 November 1877, my grandfather.
Barbara McCreath – born 22 February 1880
Jeanie McCreath – born 1 May 1882
William Young McCreath – born 22 February 1885
Thomas McCreath – born 28 December 1887
Their first child, Mary Caldwell McCreath, arrived within 9 months on 13 November 1873. Sadly she died three years later.
Their second child, Robert McCreath, was born in 1876 – the year of his sister’s departure from this earth. Robert married Elizabeth Rhodes on 18th October 1899.
They are listed in the 1901 Census as residing at 227 Caledonia Road Glasgow. Robert is listed as a Railway Waggon Inspector
There is no GRO record of children, nor of their deaths.
They are, however listed on the passenger manifest of the Anchor Line’s Athenia which departed for Quebec, Canada on 10th October 1924. Robert’s occupation is given as a Die Setter. The couple’s permanent residence is given as Toronto, Ontario and their first date of arrival in Canada as October 1902 on board ‘The Parisian.’
Robert (36) and Elizabeth (35) are listed in the 1911 Census of Canada in Toronto West.
It is believed that they did not have children. No death certificates have been found.
James and Jane’s third child is my great-grandfather, James McCreath (1877-1940).
Their fourth child, Barbara McCreath, emigrated to South Africa
Their fifth child, Jeanie McCreath….
A William Y. McCreath, age 25, is listed on the manifest of ‘The Pretorian’ that disembarked at Quebec on 10th July 1910. His occupation is given as Carpenter and his intended destination, Toronto. A William McCreath, aged 26, is listed as the same dwelling as Robert in the 1911 Census. In all likelihood, Robert’s brother; the sixth child of James and Jane. To date no further biographical information has been discovered.
Their seventh and youngest child, Thomas McCreath (1887 – 1890), also died in infancy – in strikingly tragic circumstances. The details on Thomas’s death certificate are harrowing; ‘burns of face, neck, arms and legs’. If 207 Waddell Street, where the family lived, was the ubiquitous ‘room and kitchen’, one can conceive of a harassed Jane trying to contain an active, almost three year old and nurse an ill husband at the same time. Did Thomas capsize a pan of boiling water on the kitchen range or even in the wash-house? The child died in the Children’s Hospital, Oakbank on 20 December 1890. His father survived him by just over weeks – 4th January 1891. What a Christmas!