My great grandfather, John McAra (1827-1910)

 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 Mary two years later.

Baby John, my ggf, wasn't brought up in his father's household, but in his mother's, as might have been expected. Jane was still living at home with her parents, Joseph and Margaret Gregory (my 2 x great grandparents) and four, possibly five of her younger siblings, the youngest being five years old when her John was born. It would have been a busy household, with Joseph in his job as a shingler in the local ironworks. Joseph himself was English, having been born and brought up in Sheffield in Yorkshire, where his father also worked with iron. Joseph had moved up to Lanarkshire as a young man, where he would have heard there were jobs going in the industry and it was there he met and married Jane's mother, Margaret Adam. Margaret would have been a great help to Jane and her newborn baby, having had seven children of her own. 

When John was 9 years old, his mother Jane married John Watt, who also worked in the iron industry and she went on to have four children with him. Unfortunately, she didn't take John with her when she got married. John remained with his grandparents who brought him up. Again we can speculate - did John Watt not want to bring up another man's child? Or did John just want to remain with his grandparents? He's still living with them at the age of 14 and employed as a labourer as can be seem in the 1841 census.

Certainly Joseph Gregory must have influenced him. John's first job as a labourer would no doubt have been in the ironworks. By the time the next census was taken, in 1851, John was married with a young daughter, named after his mother, Jane, and is now an iron puddler.

At some point in the next ten years, just as his grandfather had done before him, John moves to find work - possibly better paid - down in Durham, England. He stays down in England where he and Mary have two more daughters before returning to Lanarkshire in 1863. Up to this point, John seems to have had a good life - he has his wife and growing family and he has been able to maintain his job as an iron puddler. But things were about to change and harrowing years lay ahead.

His son John, my grandfather, was born in Glasgow in 1864. This was a hospital birth, possibly due to complications as all of his sisters had been born at home.  This birth was soon followed by that of  a second son, William, just two years later.

 It should have been a happy occasion, when a third son, Hugh,  arrived in the August of 1869, but this was not the case. Hugh was not a healthy baby and died at only 21 days. Cause of death - an unknown "debility from birth". 

This would be a tragic affair for any family, but it got much worse. The mother, Mary, died the following day, her death attributed to typhus fever and pneumonia. The two deaths are recorded one after another in the statutory records:

Death certificate for John McAra and his mother

Source: Scotlands People

John, aged 42, was now a widower, left to raise his young family on his own. And less than six months later, his youngest son William also died  - the cause of death was measles. 

So in 1871, we find John and his family of three daughters and his only remaining son living under the one roof. Jane, the eldest at 21 is most likely looking after the young ones, while John continues to work.

A year later, John remarries. His new wife Mary is herself a widow.  So far I have not been able to find the death of her husband, nor if she had any children by her previous marriage, but if she was a widow without children of her own she would probably have been happy to take on John's children. Indeed, shortly afterwards, she and John had their own daughter, Elizabeth.

John continued to work in the ironworks and by 1880 he has been promoted to overseer. In 1881 he is the night foreman at the Monkland Iron and Steel Company, living in Main Street, Coatbridge with his wife Mary, their daughter Lizzie and three boarders.

However, there was more sadness ahead for John. His daughter Caroline died at the age of 24, one month after the death of her husband - both from tuberculosis - leaving behind their six year old son. Her sister Agnes died from bacterial tooth decay infection at the age of 34, ten days after giving birth to a daughter. His remaining daughter Jane also predeceased him , dying at the age of 49 from bronchitis, leaving a husband and at least five children under 16 years of age.

Four years after Jane's death, his wife Mary died. My grandfather, John, was the only family he had left and he took his father in as can be seen in the 1901 census.

John stayed with his son and his family until his own death at the age of 83 in 1910. A hardworking man, he had led a long life with much sadness along the way, losing two wives and all bar one of his children. 

John McAra ( 1927-1910) my great grandfather.