The elusive James Gallacher

[catbug]

Hello all!

For years now I have been struggling with the Gallacher line of my family tree and have had very little progress. I have written posts on here about this family in the past and had some help for which I am very grateful! I wonder if a fresh pair of eyes could help me with this problem?

I am looking for the death or an 1871 onwards census entry for a James Gallacher. I have looked at several possibilities on SP over the years, but none seem suitable.

Here is what I know about him:- he married Mary O'Hara in 1838 in Dundee; in 1841 is in New Monkland with his wife (both age 20 - probably rounded down), 1 year old daughter Mary Ann and 7 month old son Hugh; in 1851 is still in New Monkland, with another 3 children - Margaret, William and Richard (it says incorrectly they are all born in Ireland - as far as I know only James and Mary were, although I don't know where. I got this info from Jack some time ago as SP doesn't have the image for this, so thanks Jack); in 1859 Mary died and in 1860 he married Ellen Glendinning, ms Allan; I have them on the census in 1861 in Glasgow, both age 46, with various children and step children. Their MC is hard to read but it looks like his parents names were Hugh Gallacher and Mary Mcgill (??). Ellen died in 1865 and James was still alive in 1873 as he is the informant on his son Richard's death, in Dunbarton. However, I cannot find him on the 1871 census, or anything about him at all after 1873 - no marriage, censuses or death. I have tried various spellings, including Gallocher, Gollacher, Gallaugher but cannot find him.

If anyone has any opinions on this, as always, I'd love to hear them

Thanks,
Cat

[crayspond]

Hi Cat,

Have you thought that he may have emigrated? I had a relation who emigrated when she was in her 40's in 1883. She left Scotland with her two daughters and the older sons also left a few years later. She went to Boston Mass but why she decided to go is a mystery. She probably had family already there.
SarahND on this site was a great help in looking at the ships' directories.
I am sure if you do a posting asking if someone can look up sailings from Glasgow from 1873 you may be lucky.
Best of luck,

Ailsa

[catbug]

Hi Ailsa,

Thanks for your reply Emigration sounds like a possibility, especially seeing as I can't find his sons William and John on the censuses either. I have tried looking for him on US censuses, that I can get access to, but so far have had no luck. I have looked at ship lists in the past but, again, had no luck at the time - doesn't help that his name is very comon too. Maybe I'll come across something if I can find the right source. I also thought maybe they went back to Ireland, although I can't find out which part of Ireland he originally came from, so have no idea where to start! I know his wife and another son were buried in Dalbeth Cemetery, so have contacted them to see if they can tell me anything about the graves. My guess is that it will be a mass grave, rather than a family plot, as they were pretty poor, so I probably won't find out anything new. Fingers crossed for a reply from them though!

Thanks again for your help!
Cat

[Jack]

Hi Cat,
I really can't remember if you already have this on James...
He seems familiar...
Note age on DC...
--
1871 census 644-7 Ed 85 p? (Milton)
6 Stirling St.
James GALLACHER, head, 50, Labourer Foundry, b Ireland
Mary GALLACHER, wife, 40, --------------------------b Ireland
Catherine GALLACHER, daur, 4, ------------------------b Glasgow, LKS
Helen GALLACHER, daur, 1, ------------------------------b Glasgow, LKS
Michael McDERMID, stepson, 14, Labourer in Moulding? shop, b Glasgow, LKS
Peter McDERMID, stepson, 12, Labourer in Moulding? shop, b Glasgow, LKS
Maryann McDERMID, stepdaur, 10, -------------------------b Glasgow, LKS
--
DC 1874. 644-7. 1161. (Milton) ........RCE Vol 1? Page 12? (29 March 1875)
James GALLACHER (39) Canal boatman.
Married to
1st - Mary O'HARA?
2nd - Mary KELLAGHAN or McDERMID.
Went missing 30 OCT 1874.
Found dead 11 NOV 1874, Forth & Clyde Canal near head of Ann Street.
(Residence 6 Stirling St, Cowcaddens)
Pas - Hugh GALLACHER, Farmer (dcd) & Mary ms McGILL.
Cause - Drowning, probably 11 days under water.
Infmt - Mary GALLACHER, her X, Widow, 6 Stirling St, Cowcaddens.
--
Jack

[catbug]

Hi Jack!

Thank you so much for that

I had the 1871 census but not the DC. The age is nearly 20 years out (which explains why I couldn't find him - I had allowed for age 40+ and included unrecorded ages in my previous searches, due to getting far too many results searching with no age as his name was so common!), but it is definitely the right man. He seems to have had a hard life - he died in the same way, doing the same job as his son who died the year before, lost two wives and several children, including at least two grown up children who died a few months apart The RCE for this entry doesn't appear to be on SP, but hopefully will be sometime in the future. I wonder if this would have appeared in a local paper, as it says he was missing, or if such a thing was quite commonplace. I'm still determined to try and find out where in Ireland he was from, as on one of his MCs and the DC it doesn't have his mother down as deceased, but she doesn't appear to be on SP, unless I'm missing something else really obvious!

Thanks again for all your help - I have been searching for this for so long and thought I'd never find it
Cat

[LesleyB]

Hi Cat
If you find yourself in Glasgow it would be worth checking the Poor Relief records at the Mitchell Library. These have certainly been a source of places of birth, or at least counties or Parishes in Ireland for me on more than one occaision which narrows it down considerably from just that frustrating entry of "Ireland".

Best wishes
Lesley

[catbug]

Hi Lesley!

Unfortunately I don't think I'll be able to get to Glasgow any time soon, but I'll be sure to visit the Mitchell if I do I have previously contacted them to see if there's any way to search the Poor Relief records online, as I am pretty sure they would've applied for it, but, as you probably already know, you can't do this at the moment. I'm not suprised as it would probably be a massive job trying to transcribe all of that information! I also tried to contact Dalbeth Cemetery (where his first wife is buried) but haven't had much luck getting a reply. Hopefully I'll stumble across something eventually.

Thanks for your suggestion
Cat