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Week 37: A small detail I love #52Ancestorsin52weeks

 My Aunt Meg was born Margaret Keir Anderson in May 1909, the daughter of Margaret Keir Adams and John Anderson, as yet unmarried. Young Meg was therefore brought up by her maternal grandparents, Margaret and James Adams. We find her there in the 1911 census with her mum, Margaret, her grandparents and three of her mother's younger siblings.

In that census, her mother has no occupation listed, so presumably she was looking after Meg and not just expecting her own mother to do that for her. Despite being an unmarried mother, Margaret must have continued to see John Anderson as, four years later, in 1915, Margaret gave birth to a sister for Meg, my own mum Helen Young Anderson. They had actually got married a few months before this event. It was what was termed an 'irregular' marriage, a marriage my declaration in front of two witnesses, a type of marriage legal in Scotland until 1940.

So around this time, young Meg and her mother would have moved out of the Adams family home to set up home with John Anderson. Over the next few years, Meg gained three more siblings, David, James (who sadly died young) and Anne. Her family was now complete.

At the age of 25, Meg married William Lannigan, my Uncle Bill. They moved into a house in the same street as her parents and, six years later, they welcomed their only child, Tom.

All of the above happened long before I came on the scene. Tom was born in 1940 and I only arrived in 1957, so Tom was my 'big' cousin. However, I did spend a lot of time around my Aunt Meg and her family after we moved back to Wishaw from Newcastle upon Tyne in 1964, as we also lived nearby. When we lived in Newcastle and came up to visit my gran (Margaret Anderson), I often stayed at my Aunt Meg's and I can still remember the layout of her house, which was an upper flat in a building of four flats, with a big garden at the side. Tom was around until he got married in 1963, but he was such a lovely man anytime we met at family events.

I would not have described my Aunt Meg as 'lovely' though :) - as a child, I found her quite formidable. She always seemed to be busy - baking, cleaning, going to her church - and I think small children may have irritated her. Her faith was important to her. She was a Baptist and there were certain things she would not tolerate happening on a Sunday - or on other days for that matter. But she wasn't wholly serious and stern - she had a very infectious laugh and giggle and I did like her - but she certainly would not tolerate any nonsense. I think she may have had a bit of a chip on her shoulder - of all of her siblings, she was still the only one who lived in the same small house all her married life and who worked for a living -  and of course being the eldest that was probably not as she would have wished it. When I started doing family tree research and found out that she had been illegitimate, my mother told me not to tell her I had found that out as she would have been mortified!

So my impressions of Aunt Meg mainly stem from what I thought of her as a child. That is not always the most accurate impression of a person. So I was delighted when I came across a 'character reference' in a box of old photos that her son Tom passed over to me. I think it speaks volumes to the sort of person my Aunt Meg was. This is the "small detail (or details) I love" - giving me more insight into my aunt.


It is a job reference given by her employer, Davidson's, a local drapers in 1931. It reads:

The bearer Margaret Anderson has been in my employment for the last eight years.

She is a most energetic and very capable assistant of a bright and cheerful nature. thorough, honest and straightforward and an excellent saleswoman. In the last respect she has no equal.

She is an exceptionally careful stockkeeper. ..............

It is with much regret that I part with her, but for the continued depression in trade, she would not be leaving my employment now.

I trust she will shortly be fortunate in securing a situation where her undoubted abilities will be appreciated.

What a find! My Aunt Meg for all her stern and sometimes austere nature was clearly a talented, hardworking woman. 

This find is the sort of small detail that can shed a lot of light on a person. I'm so glad she kept it and it eventually came into my possession.

Meg, Bill, her mother Margaret and son Tom.

(Family photo)







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