Skip to main content

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. 


Labels:

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

2025 Week 26 : Favourite name #52Ancestorsin52Weeks

 As well as researching my own family, one of the other trees I have spent a lot of time on is that of my daughter-in-law, Lucy. Whereas my heritage is Scots and Irish, Lucy's is English and therefore some of the names I came across were quite different to those found in my own tree. One of my first favourites was a Francis Badger who appeared in the 1851 census for England! He wasn't actually a relative, but an apprentice to Lucy's 3 x great grandfather and who also lodged with the family.  I did wonder how that  surname came about - did the original Badger have  a funnily shaped face? or perhaps a white streak through his hair?? Or was he just an annoying person?? I'll never know, but it was fun to find him! Francis Badger's entry at the bottom in the 1851 census for England. Source: Ancestry.co.uk However, my all time favourite name - and character - from Lucy's tree is a man named Golden Bridge ! He is Lucy's 5x great grandfather and he was born in Essex...
Post a Comment
Read more

2024 Week 19: Preserve #52Ancestorsin52Weeks

 A few years ago, I came into the possession of a family bible. It was the family bible of my paternal grandparents, John McAra and Christina Walker. Until her death in 2018, the bible had been in the hands of my Aunt Inez, widow of my Uncle Will McAra. When I started enquiring as to its whereabouts, I found that it was her grandson, John, who now had it. John himself had no real interest in it at all, so he was quite happy to hand it over to me. However, it was, to say the least, in a bit of a state. The front cover was completely detached and there were many loose pages as the spine of the book was also damaged and detached. I had no choice but to take it to a book repairer in Glasgow, where it was repaired as best it could be. The bible itself had been originally published in Glasgow in the late 19th century. In Victorian times it was common for Christian families to have such a large bible in which they could record events such as births, marriages and deaths. The one I have al...
1 comment
Read more

2026 Week 2: A record which adds colour #52Ancestorsin52Weeks

My husband's paternal grandmother, Janina Ciupka, was born in 1902 in a small town, Nieszawa, north of Warsaw, Poland, on the banks of the River Vistula. She was the youngest of 12 children, only 8 of whom survived to adulthood. At this time Poland had been occupied by their three neighbours, Germany, Russia and Austria and Warsaw was under Russian control.  Her family were very wealthy, owning granaries, bakeries, brick factories and carriage factories and they also bred white horses for the Russian Tzars. As with her elder siblings, Janina was taught by a private governess and the family had many servants, including cooks and cleaners. She obviously was leading a very privileged life. There was little known about the  period of her life from about 1909-1919, The family had moved south eastwards to Haczow around 1909. The reasons for the move seems to have been a combination of business and politics, as Haczow was under Austrian rule, considered more liberal than that of the ...
Post a Comment
Read more