DIGGING INTO MY FAMILY'S PAST

A map showing the Tilery in Tipperary that I have been told William owned.  The land was that of The Duke of Derby, also known as Lord Stanley.      William was my great great grandfather, or my 2X great grandfather, as seems to be the latest way of describing the relationship. One of his seven daughters, Sarah, was the mother of Robert Fraser, my mother's father.  Sarah's younger sister, Agnes married Alexander Fraser, older brother of James Fraser, Robert's father. Two sisters had married two brothers.  Some descendants of Agnes and Alexander have shared their memories of their families.  I will copy them into my blog so that more family members can read them.  Naturally, there are variations in some of the family stories as is quite a regular occurrence. However, it is interesting to read of the lives of our family in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries.  This is a transcription of the William's will sent to me by a descendant of one of...

PLACES OF INTEREST IN TIPPERARY ...  THE TILERY, SOLOBEGHEAD OR SOLOHEAD, LISHENNAMALAUSA, CO. TIPPERARY -   William McDowell was born about 1814, said to have occurred  in the area of Jerritzpass, now in Northern Ireland..  Land owned by the Duke of Derby, also known as Lord Stanley.  The land across the road from the house. This is where the clay for the tiles were taken from.  This is the house that it seems William built or had built at the place that is known as The Tilery. Opposite are the fields where the clay was taken from to make the "tiles" (apparently more like clay drainage pipes that were laid deep in the ground to drain the water from the very well fields.  TIPPERARY TOWN - HOUSES Photo from 2008. This is St Michael's Street (previously Nelson Street).  St Michael's Church can be seen at the end of the street. Houses numbered 60 to 65 were listed in William's will as being left to each of his daughters or their children and grandch...

                                                                  1914 - 1915 - LETTERS SENT HOME TO SEVERAL FAMILY MEMBERS. 1. LETTER TO KATE (HIS SISTER, CATHERINE) FROM DRAYCOTT CAMP, SWINDON Possibly written around September, 1914 2. LETTER TO xxxxx  (.....) FROM  Add P6

John Lucas MILLER   •  Born :   8 May  1878 •  Rank:  Private •  Service No.:  S/14018 •  Unit:  Queen’s Own (7 th)  Cameron Highlanders ( CO -  I think - Lt Colonel  JW  Sandilands), 44 th  Brigade (Brigadier General M G Wilkinson), 15 th  (Scottish) Division (Major General  FWN  MacCracken), IV Corps (Lt General Sir H Rawlinson), 1 st  Army (General Haig),  BEF   ( C-in-C Field Marshal French).  •  Landed in France (Boulogne) 9 Jul 15 •  Enlisted:   ??????? •  Killed in action 25 September 1915 (first day of the Battle of Loos) •  Medals:  1914/15 Star, British War Medal, Victory Medal   The 7 th  Cameron Highlanders started the Battle of Loos with 20 officers and 827 men and 24hrs later the roll call was 4 officers and 75 men.   According to Alan Clark (in his book “ The Donkeys ”, Introductory Note, page 1), “In the firs...

 1.   Greenfields, the home of James and Frances Smith (neé) Bryan. My mother told me she understood that Frances’s father built the house at Greenfields for her. The house is on a townland called Greenfields and it appears that the Smith property was the only one on this townland. As her father, Walter Bryan had a large land holding at Ashbourne, in Meath, I imagine that his contribution was of a financial nature, not a practical one.  The house still exists but, when last visited, was named Annsbrook House and is located on Seatown Road, a little way from Swords main street.  Some years ago, we knocked on the door, and were invited in for a tour. A friend of those people had created a a small painting of what the artist thought the house would have looked like when it was first built. James and Frances had ten or eleven children (the records are a little confusing).   At least one c hild died just after birth and several of the boys died by their 40s.  T...

John Lucas Miller b. 1878 Edinburgh Scotland WWI Service - 7th Regiment Cameron Highlanders Service Number:  S/14018 Killed in the Battle of Loos, 25th September, 1915 John Lucas Miller. Cameron Highlanders Uniform. b. 1878 Edinburgh, Scotland. THOSE HE LEFT BEHIND John Lucas' family about 1892.  His parents, Alexander Miller (died 1901) and Mary Jane Macdougall with their four sons, William abt 2 years, Charles abt 10 years, John Lucas abt 14 years, Alexander abt 12 years plus daughter, Catherine abt 6 years.  Family photo taken about 1913 John Lucas and wife Margaret/Peigi Miller  (neé)  Maccrimmon  with Son, Alexander Malcolm abt 2 years and daughter, Catherine abt 4 years. Sadly, Catherine died in 1914. Sons, Alexander Malcolm, abt 5 years, and John, abt 2 years, with John Lucas' mother,  Catherine Miller (neé) Macdonald.   Photo taken about 1914-15 J ohn Lucas Miller and wife Margaret/Peigi Miller neé Maccrimmon  abt. 1914 - 1915 WORLD W...

  Family Headstones in Scotland. Miller Headstones in Comely Bank Cemetery, Edinburgh. Three generations of Catherine are listed on this headstone on Comely Bank Cemetery. Catherine Macdonald, wife of Alexander Miller, my great-grandfather, Catherine Mary Robertson (neè Miller), only daughter of Alexander and Catherine plus Catherine Miller, my dad's sister who I believe died of scarlet fever in 1914 just 18 months before the death of her father, John Lucas Miller, who was killed at the Battle of Loos, September 1915.    This photo, above, taken in 2008 before the headstone was cleaned, is included to indicate the location of the headstone. In the background is an obelisk shaped memorial and in the distance, between the headstone and the obelisk, a church spire.  In 2025, Larissa Miller visited this cemetery to view the headstone and found a very new one with more names of the family listed. They are all members of John's sister's family,(that of Kate).  The new...