Help- why did our Ancestors tell Porkies?

[Maud Jarvis]

Hi,
Sorry I cannot give you information, but I found your entry so interesting because I am in the same boat.
As soon as I started to research my family, straight away I discovered my father was illegitimate. A right merry dance that has given me, I had looked for him, expecting there to be no problem, after all, my parent`s marriage cert had all the info (or so I thought!) I even had a photo of my "grannie Barr" but I could not find my father`s birth for the name of James Barr, then I could not find the marriage for grannie Barr, turned out she never was grannie Barr, she was not married to the father .

Then I thought I would never find my paternal grandfather, he was also James Barr (from Greenock) such a common name, but to my amazement and delight, just a few days ago, a very very kind gentleman, sent me the BMD certificiates of the grandfather, I had been searching for years to try & trace him with no luck, now another avenue has opened up, I have discovered he was a soldier and very likely fought in the Boer War, so that is the next record to find.

By the way, fascinated to see that you have links with Dalmuir, that is where I was born! Pattison Street, Dalmuir West.

[joette]

Hi Maud,
Pattison Street- I remember it well. My Father was born 5 Kitchener St 1929 & was brought up in Burns Street. If you were there during the 30/50s then my Granny would have known your family &all sort of scurrilious tales about them- the more scandalous the better.
I think this was to hide away her scandalous past when she had not one but two illegitimate children who were brought up as her siblings.
Most of my family on all sides barely make it to the Altar. My Mother an innocent soul remarked when we were viewing a Marriage/Birth record for an Ancestor "oh theyve mixed the years up that would mean they were married three days before the baby was born".Needless to say they hadnt made any mixup and the couple were married 30th December & the child 2nd Jan.
My GGGreatGrandparents never married either in fact there is no evidence they even met!!!!!. Only the fact that she names her Father on Marriage Certificate was known by his surname by age 8 & there was definetly a Family relationship with what we presumed were her siblings but turned out to be Aunts/Uncles(the only logical conclusion we can come to.)
I still would like to find out the secrets behind this all & if there are any Leitch descendants who know anything about Archibald who may have married Annie Rogers & died 1898 please let me know.

[Maud Jarvis]

Hi Joette,
Interesting to note that you remember Pattison Street, if I remember correctly, Kitchener Street was across the road somewhere (am I right?)
I was born in 1932 and we remained in Pattison Street, except for a short period when we were evacuated to Balloch after the Blitz, we then came back to Pattison Street, until we moved to Canberra Ave, Mount Blow, in 1943. My grandparents went to Pattison Street from Anderston in Glasgow around 1907, their surname was Gagan (would your grandmother have remembered them?) my mother Laura, married Jimmy Barr and they stayed in the top flat of 6 Pattison Street, my grandparents were on the bottom flat, and my grandfather remained there (he moved into the middle single end after we moved to Mount Blow) he died in 1954.
I had already left Mount Blow by then and moved to London. I now live in Essex.

The surname of Leitch has appeared on the Barr side of my family, a John Leitch married Catherine Campbell Barr in 1904, he was a seaman, then age 26, he was the son of Donald Leitch and Queen (?) Dewar, I could not decipher clearly the mother`s name, they married in Greenock
Catherine was living at Ardgnvan Square & John`s residence was given as Nicolson St Greenock.
I don`t know when or where John died, but Catherine married again as a widow to a ship`s cook George Edmiston( I could not find their marriage)
That is about all I know about them, my paternal grandfather James Gilmour Barr was the brother of Catherine, and I never knew that side of the family, I remember visiting some relatives of my father before he died in 1941, but I cannot recall what their names were and I never saw them again after my father died. My mother dropped all contact with them, I think she must have been afraid that I would learn later that my father had been illegitimate, and that his name had not been Barr.

Would the John Leitch I mentioned be any link to yours?