Roots, shoots and stories

 My great-grandfather, John McAra, was born on the 19th of February 1827, the illegitimate son of John McAra (27), a hammerman at the local ironworks and Jane Gregory, aged 17. John and Jane never married - nor could they, as John had gotten married three months earlier to an Elizabeth Gray! Elizabeth herself gave birth to a daughter, Mary, in the May of 1827. It does not take a mathematician to work out that Jane and Elizabeth were both pregnant at the same time! It is easy to build a narrative around the circumstances that John found himself in - two women expecting his child, marrying one of them while both were pregnant. Was he coerced into the marriage, with or without Elizabeth's parents knowing about Jane? Whatever situation he found himself in, he did not shy away away from it. He is named as the father to my great grandfather on the parish baptismal record and who of course, carries his name. Interestingly, John's brother Thomas, married Elizabeth Gray's sister Mar...