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2025 Week 25: FAN club #52Ancestorsin52Weeks

 I was not familiar with the term 'FAN Club' as used in a genealogical sense when I first came across it, so I had to resort to googling the term. I discovered that FAN can stand for 'Friends, Associates and Neighbours' and is yet another 'tool' that can be used in traditional family tree research to learn more about people and the lives that they led. Was this something I had previously used but just been ignorant of the term? Or was this something I could use to further my traditional research?

The answer to both of these is yes! Traditional genealogy relies on building out a family tree using information from credible sources/documentation. For example, amongst other things,  a Scottish birth record will list the names of both parents  (if known) and possibly even their date of marriage, a marriage certificate will give the names of the bride and groom's parents and their occupations and whether or not they are still alive, a death certificate will give the deceased parents' names, whether married or not, occupations and the names of their spouses. Those things are usually what we need to push our tree back further or confirm what we know already. However, there are also details on there that we might 'skip' or just not notice which form part of a person's FAN club - the names of the witnesses to the marriage and the person who informs on the death, especially if at first glance these people are not recognised as immediate family.

My grandparents' marriage certificate. Source: Scotlands People

My grandparent's marriage certificate from 1887 was a case in point. John McAra, my grandfather had had two younger brothers who had died but had no other brother to be his 'best man'/witness. The male witness was a James Barclay.  John's sister Jane had married an Andrew Barclay. Censuses showed that the two families (McAra and Barclay) were almost neighbours in the village of Greenhill, Shotts. The map below shows clearly the row of houses where the families were living.

Reproduced with the permission of the National Library of Scotland

James Barclay was obviously a friend of my grandfather - perhaps even a friend from childhood as, again, censuses detailed that the families had lived there for years. My grandparents with James as their witness had got married at Spoutcroft (see Map) and James Barclay himself died there in 1904. Both my grandfather and James were miners, so it is likely they worked as well as played together! The friend acting as a witness to a marriage points to how close knit these mining communities were in the latter part of the 19th century.

What of the other witness to John and Christina's marriage? Who was Jessie Watson?? Let's check her out in relation to the Walker family - Well, one of Christina's elder sisters married a Watson! A quick check through the censuses again and low and behold we find my grandmother aged 2, living next door to Jessie Watson aged 2! Not just friends apparently, but neighbours as well!!

Source: Scotlands People, 1871 census for Shotts.

And ... as it turned out also family as Jessie was Christina's niece! 

I'm sure there are lots of other instances where expanding your search to your ancestors' friends, work colleagues and neighbours will shed light on aspects of their life. That is something to try and keep in mind. 


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