THE FAMILY OF ALEXANDER MILLER – MY GREAT GRANDFATHER
THE FAMILY OF ALEXANDER MILLER – MY GREAT GRANDFATHER
Much of this information came from Maisie Miller (Mary Miller, daughter of Alexander’s third son, Charles).
July 2024 - This information needs some updating as I have found some new records since putting this together in 2017.
ALEXANDER MILLER, b 1839
Alexander was the second son of John Lucas Miller and his wife Mary Jean McDougal.
Alexander was baptised with his other living siblings in 1843 in St Mary’s Catholic Cathedral after the family converted from Protestantism. It is not clear if the children had earlier been baptised at St Cuthbert’s Church of Scotland, where their father was apparently an Elder of the church, when they were born but so far no records to that effect have been discovered by me
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Alexander became a compositor and printer under the guidance of his father who was a Master Printer. His youngest brother, Andrew Carruthers Miller, also became a printer.
Alexander lived with his parents and other siblings until, at the age of thirty-eight, he married Catherine Macdonald.
Unfortunately, according to reports in the Edinburgh Evening News in early 1880, due to some operations of the Edinburgh Improvement Trust, and by forced realization of property through the calling up of bonds, the printing business of the three Millers was forced into bankruptcy.
In the 1881 census, while living in what looks like St Mary’s Street, he was described as a “Printer, Manager of Office”. In 1891, now living at 369 High Street, his occupation is again described as Printer and described as “neither employer or employed but working on own account”. Alexander, according to Maisie, established his own printing business after he and Catherine renounced Catholicism becoming Protestants and probably becoming estranged from the rest of the family.
Census records show that, like his parents, the family lived as tenants in a different location around Edinburgh each decade.
In 1901, at the age of only sixty-one, Alexander died of cancer of the stomach. At that time Alexander and Catherine had been living at Craigcrook Gardens, Blackhall, Edinburgh. The informant was his son Alexander.
CATHERINE MACDONALD b about 1847
As a matter of clarity, I will use the spelling Macdonald although some records show other versions of the name.
It has been difficult to find out about Catherine’s early years. Her census records from 1881 and later show she was born in Edinburgh but no birth or baptism record has yet been found. Maisie believed that Catherine was a Protestant before her marriage.
At the time of her marriage, on 4 Feb 1877, she was living at 376 Castle Hill, Edinburgh. On her marriage record her parents are named as Archibald Macdonald, plumber, deceased, and Alexandrina Macdonald, nee Ross.
A woman named Alexandrina Macdonald died at 376 Castle Hill, Edinburgh on 13 Jan 1877 just a month before Catherine’s marriage. However, the record states that she was the widow of Hugh Macdonald, Private 92 Highlanders. The informant was Jas (James?) Ross Macdonald, son. This Alexandrina had parents called Hugh Ross, Colour Sergeant 92nd Highlanders and Catherine Ross (nee Ross) both deceased. It seems a huge coincidence that Alexandrina died at the same address that Catherine shared at almost the same time if they were not related, but the conflicting names of her husband on the records is a puzzle.
Records do exist for a Hugh Macdonald and Hugh Ross in the 93rd Highlanders, not the 92nd. It is possible that there was an error made in the recording of their details or in my interpretation of the writing on the records; in which case it is possible that these were my ancestors.
The discrepancies in the name and occupation of Alexandrina’s husband may be explained by the fact that the informants on these two occasions were different. It is possible that the informant at the time of Catherine’s marriage was Alexander Miller, the groom, who may have got his information from Catherine who would have known her father at the end of his life, if she had known him at all. If James Ross Macdonald, his son, was quite a lot older than Catherine, he may have known his father in his younger years when he was in the military. The differences in the first name are a little less easy to explain.
There is a record in the 1851 census that shows an Alexandrina Macdonald, widow, living in Edinburgh with her children including James Ross aged sixteen (the surname Macdonald is not used here for James so perhaps he was a son from a previous marriage), Catherine aged four, and another girl, Isabella aged seven. It seems possible that this is the family of my great grandmother Catherine.
No matter how many combinations and variations of names used in the search on Scotland’s People, no 1861 or 1871 census records for Catherine and her mother were found. Perhaps in the future some more information might come to light.
Maisie believed that Catherine had not been Catholic before her marriage but converted to marry Alexander. Their children were all educated at St Thomas Aquin’s school in Chalmers St, Edinburgh until Catherine had a falling out with the nuns, apparently in relation to their treatment of her younger children. So Catherine and Alexander then converted to the Protestant faith. I am not aware where the children finished their schooling.
In the 1901 census she notes that in her past she had been a milliner. Alexander had died earlier that year and she was living in Cramond with four of her children; their son Alexander was the one not with the family on census night as he had probably commenced working as a servant/valet by that time. In 1911 at the time of the census Charles and Catherine were still living at home with their mother and she was also caring for two grandchildren, Catherine (“Bunty”) and Annabelle aged seven and five, children of Alexander and his wife Annabelle.
After her eldest son, John, was killed in 1915, she apparently cared for his two sons, Alex and John (“Jack”), much of the time as well as Alexander’s girls.
Catherine died in 1925. The informant was her son Charles.
THEIR CHILDREN
Child 1 - John Lucas Miller – b 1878. My grandfather.
John was born at the family home in St Giles Street and named after his grandfather.
John became a printer after his father and as did his brother Charles. John married Margaret Maccrimmon, known as “Maggie”, in April 1907. At the time of the 1901 census Margaret was a “General Servant” with Catherine Macrae’s family in the village of Roskhill on the Isle of Skye, close to her home in Borreraig. She most likely worked as a domestic servant in Edinburgh before her marriage, possibly with the Miller family but no record of this has been found. John and Margaret’s first child Catherine was born about 10 months later in 1908. Alexander Malcolm (my father) was born at the end of 1909 and youngest child John (known as “Jack”) in mid 1913. Sadly little Catherine died of a childhood disease in mid 1914 aged only six.
John enlisted in the 7th Battalion Cameron Highlanders. The Battalion, made up solely of Scottish volunteers, was raised in Inverness in September 1914 before a move to Aldershot and Cirencester. They embarked for Boulogne on 4 July 1915. The battalion was involved in the Battle of Loos in which thousands upon thousands of men were killed in just a few days. John was one of many Cameron Highlanders killed on the 25th September 1915. His remains were not identified so he has no grave. His name is one of many inscribed on the honour board at the Loos Memorial, Pas de Calais, near Loos-en-Gohelle, France.
After his death, John’s two sons spent a lot of time with his mother, Catherine, while John’s wife Margaret went back to work.
Child 2 - Alexander Miller – b 1880.
Alexander was two years younger than John. He was born at the home in St Mary’s Street. He appears in the 1881 and 1891 census documents. At the time of the 1901 census he would have been about twenty-one years old. He is not recorded with the family probably because he was working. He married Annabel Gardner (born abt 1878 in Dundonald, Ayrshire) in 1902. His occupation then was recorded as Valet. The records shows that his was an “irregular” marriage – I think that indicates it was not a church wedding and it may have been that Alexander and Annabella were not of the same religion so did not or could not marry in a church.
Interestingly one of the witnesses at his marriage was a James Miller, clothier of High Street, Ayr. Perhaps James was an uncle or cousin.
Their children Catherine (known as “Bunty”) and Annabelle, born in 1903 and 1907, spent a lot of time with their grandmother, probably because their parents were servants and their children could not live with them where they were working. According to the 1911 census, Catherine was born in Edinburgh and Annabelle in Ayr.
Alexander was said to have died in Prestwick, Ayrshire, in 1961 aged eighty but so far I have found no record.
Child 3 - Charles Miller – b 1882.
Charles was an eight-year-old scholar at the time of the 1891 census but by the 1901 census he had become a Printer/Compositor (“own account”). The 1911 census record shows that he was still living at home, aged twenty-seven. He was a then a printer who employed others. Charles married Mary Ford Cameron in 1922. They had three children, Mary (“Maisie”) b 1923, Alexander (“Sandy”) b 1924 and Muriel b 1929.
Charles died in 1966.
Child 4 - Catherine Mary Jean Miller – b 1886.
Catherine was four years old at the time of the 1891 Census. In 1901, after her father had died, she was a fourteen-year-old scholar, living with her mother and brothers John, Charles and William; Alexander having moved out to work. In 1911, she is recorded living with her mother, Charles, now a printer, and her two nieces, Catherine (“Bunty”) and Annabelle, children of her older brother, Alexander.
In the 1891 and 1911 censuses Catherine is recorded as “Catherine M. J.”. I am speculating that she was named after her grandmother, Mary Jean McDougal, so her full name was probably Catherine Mary Jean Miller.
Catherine married Tom Robertson in 1928. They had one child, Stewart b 1932.
Later in life, Catherine was known as Aunt Kate, so perhaps she was known as Kate all of her life.
Child 5 - William Miller – b 1890.
William was an infant at the time of the 1891 census, then a nine-year-old scholar in 1901, after his father died. He does not appear with the family in the 1911 census. According to Maisie, William was badly gassed in WWI and suffered from serious illness for the rest of his life. He married Elizabeth Mitchell (who later became known as Aunt Lizzie in the family) in 1922. William and Elizabeth had two sons who sadly didn’t survive infancy. Iain was born in 1923 but I believe died very soon after birth. Their second child, William or James, born in 1926 died just before his second birthday.
William died in 1956 aged sixty-six.
Page 7 of 7
The family of Alexander Miller – my great-grandfather. Anne Mackay, September 2017.
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