A Search for Roots

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GLASGOW Day 92

Today I have attempted to sort out my Scottish and Irish roots, with little success. I headed to The Mitchell library, which has the genealogy centre for the Glasgow area. I know that many generations ago my Irish great great great… married my Scottish great great great… in Glasgow. I found the marriage listed in the Old Parish Registry but it didn’t provide any real information other than the following: Thomas McCabe, Luarrier in Glasgow & Margaret McLean residing here married on 12 February 1854. I don’ know what on earth a Luarrier would be but it would have been his profession. So next I tried searching the census records for 1851 and 1861. Unfortunately, there are many Thomas McCabes and even more Margaret McCabes and without ages or parents names it becomes near impossible to discern one amongst so many. I found two Thomas McCabes in their early 20’s while the rest were in their 40’s or under 20. The first completed his census form from prison but he was born in Perth, thank god! The second was 20 born in Ireland but residing as a lodger in someone else’s home, which means that trail ends there. And this was the 1851 census, which would make him born in 1831 but from other families research they seem to think he was born in 1822. So that doesn’t fit at all! But if he was born in 1822 and married in 1854 that means he was 32 when he got married, which seems odd to me when most people in that time were married younger. So stumped once again I decided to ask for help.

The head of Archives, Dr. O’Brien, was assisting me but she said without dates of birth or parentage it would be almost impossible to go further back. She said the easiest route would be to try to go forward in time to a land deed, immigration records, or something of that nature to first determine birthdates or parents names so that we can then go back further. She did try to help me look up the child that was born in Scotland before they immigrated but according to all records no child was born, James or a Margaret, to a Thomas and Margaret McCabe. So again I am stumped and confused. If a child was born in Scotland it would have been registered and/or baptized and there were no children of either name born to Thomas or Margaret. So after 5 hours of scrolling through many microfiches I threw in the cards and headed for the Modern Art Gallery.

The gallery had some interesting displays but it was pretty small so it didn’t take up too much time. I left and went for another wander around town before returning to the hostel to try to research the ancestry some more from the internet. After many more hours of no more information and still no idea what a Luarrier would be I gave up and had dinner before heading to bed.

Oh I forgot to mention that a broke my glasses, my spectacles this time. I bent the arm of my glasses at the hinge so it could not sit on my face at all. Thankfully, I headed over to spec-savers and they used their machines to twist it back. So my glasses sit nicely on my face and all is well again.

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