I began researching my family tree in the 1980s. My mum and dad were both still alive and gave me the basic information I needed to get me started - their parents' and siblings names and rough dates of birth. It was only at that point did I find out my dad had had five elder siblings who had died and even my mum had had a younger brother who had died as a child. They had never come up in conversation before and were not talked about. In my dad's defence, three of his siblings had died before he was born, though the other two had died in their 20s-30s. My mum's young brother had died when she was 8 years old, but as I said, she had never spoken about him previous to my starting my research.
So, armed with what little I knew, I started filling in the gaps - dates of birth/marriage/death and places associated with my close relatives. All the dates associated with the births and tragic deaths of my aunts and uncles. It was when I turned to my mum's siblings that a couple of things sprang out - my mum's elder sister Margaret (Meg) Anderson had been born in 1909, my mum herself, the second eldest born in June of 1915 ( that was a large gap between children in those days) but... their parents, Margaret Adams and John Anderson had only got married in March 1915!! That meant that my grandmother was six months pregnant with my mum when she got married and she already had a 6 year old daughter! Scandal!!!
Of course, I immediately broke the news of my discoveries to my mum. She was quite unperturbed. " Oh yes," she said, " Aunt Meg was brought up by my granny". Another revelation! This she followed up with, " But don't tell your Aunt Meg you know all this. She wouldn't be happy". My Aunt Meg was a staunch Baptist. The 'no having fun' on a Sunday type who had a bit of a chip on her shoulder at her siblings having 'moved up' in life. A nice lady though, who had a lovely infectious laugh, though she could be quite stern.
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Well well well! A closer look at my grandparents marriage showed that they weren't married in a local church, but in Glasgow, a marriage by 'declaration', an 'irregular' marriage:
Until the mid-twentieth century most people in Scotland were married by a minister, in a 'regular' marriage. This involved banns being read on three consecutive Sundays at the parish church. However, a minority were wed by 'irregular' marriage, in which a man and a woman made a declaration in front of two witnesses, hence the other name ‘marriage by declaration’. By showing proofs of their marriage the parties could obtain a warrant of a sheriff or sheriff substitute to have the marriage registered by the local registrar. Churches disagreed with these marriages in principle, but accepted them for fear that couples would otherwise 'live in sin'. (Source: Scotlands People https://www.scotlandspeople.gov.uk/article/irregular-marriage-scotland)
This was obviously due to the fact that they already had one child and another on the way. So that brought up more questions. Why hadn't they got married sooner? Was John Anderson even Meg's father??
John was certainly named as her father on her birth certificate, so I don't have any reason to doubt that. As to the why they didn't get married sooner, it turns out that Margaret Adams was 23 when she had Aunt Meg, but John Anderson was 33, a whole ten years of a difference. It is therefore possible and likely that her parents were against the marriage for this or some other reason, but obviously they didn't succeed in keeping them apart. But again, I'll never know as nobody talked about it!
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