Maggie Pollok’s 1904 Letter Provides a Window into the Past: 52 Ancestors 2021 Prompt “Steps” Part 2

 

Required Reading: Perusing the Maggie Pollok Letter Step by Step
Maggie Jessie Pollok: 1872- Approx. 1929?

Margaret “Maggie” Jessie Pollok was John Aird’s great aunt, the younger sister of his grandmother Jane Pollok Shields. The two sisters were four years apart in age, the daughters of John Pollok and Mary Burns Sellers. Maggie was born in 1872, and Jane was born in 1868.

Both girls appear on the 1881 Scotland Census, living at 305 Crown Street in Glasgow with their parents and older brother Robert. All three were listed as “scholars”.

By the 1891 census, Jane was out of the household, married to John Shields, and Robert had also set up his own household. Maggie, however, was still living with her elderly parents at 305 Crown Street in Glasgow. She was 18 years old and working as a milliner. Her father was 77 and listed as a retired farmer.

John Pollok died three years later on March 31, 1894. Maggie and her mother, Mary Burns Seller Pollok, eventually moved to an apartment at 27 Walton Street in the Shawlands area of Glasgow. They continued to live there until Mary died at the age of 95 on March 4, 1925.

Walton Street building where Maggie and her mother lived in Glasgow

I have been unable to find the 1901 Scotland census entry for Maggie which would have provided information on her occupation, and I have also been unable to track down a death record or probate record for her, so I am not sure when she died. Her last appearance on the Scotland voting register was in 1928, so I expect she may have died in 1929 or shortly after.

Voter record from 1920s

Maggie’s 1904 letter to her sister Jane provides some interesting information about both sisters’ lives. Let’s review the items, beginning with information about Maggie and the Scotland Polloks:

1.     Maggie states that she has “broken my rule and left her (mother Mary) alone, but it seemed a necessity.” Obviously she has been caring for her aged mother, then 74, and had promised to never travel without her. However, this time she left Mary at the Walton Street apartment on her own so Maggie could travel to Pitlochrie.

2.    Maggie has some sort of medical condition. She states “The week before we came here I lay in bed nearly all the time, and even when up could not do anything at all. I sit and lie about most of the day and in the evening have a short walk. My stomach is doing fairly well, the main trouble is sheer weakness.” She said that she felt better on their previous trip to Biggar, but got worse again upon returning to Glasgow.

3.    So who is Maggie traveling with? Apparently “Aunt Maggie and the others”, who she states are “all very good to me and we are having quite a nice time.” So who would this aunt be? I believe it is Mary Burns Seller’s sister. Maggie Pollok was likely named after this aunt.

4.    Brother Robert Pollok: Maggie states that she and her mother will “likely go to Edinb for August as the family is to be away.” Census records show that Maggie’s older brother Robert was living in Edinburgh with his wife and four young sons in 1901. Their home was located at 35 Royal Park Terrace. Presumably the family that will be away, enabling Maggie and Mary to stay at their home, is Robert’s family. (Sadly, within just a few years, Robert's wife dies. He remarries in 1908.) Maggie goes on to say that Robert was on holiday and planned to go to Shetland. Curiously, it sounds as if he planned to travel alone or with a male friend, without his wife or children.

Robert Pollok

The letter also offers clues about Jane and John Shields’ life in America.

1.     It appears John and Jane were still living in Hamilton Ohio, which was the first place they settled after he gave up his position at his father’s sugar plantation. Maggie writes, “If you invest in a house in Hamilton, I suppose you will be settled there for life.” It sounds as if the Polloks had hoped the Shields family would return to Scotland, but that this was looking more unlikely. What interested me, however, was that the family was apparently still renting their house in Hamilton. According to the 1900 census, they immigrated to the United States in either late 1893 or early 1894, so by 1904 they had been living in Hamilton for a decade. The address on the letter is 316 N. Eighth Street, Hamilton, which is the same address on their 1900 census form. The home, a townhome style attached home, still stands in Hamilton. It is 1280 sq. feet in size, and is only valued in the low $60,000s today on Zillow. John had been working as a machinist—it doesn’t seem like it paid well, since they couldn’t afford to buy a home after ten years employment.

316 North Eighth Street in Hamilton Ohio where Shields family lived for ten years

2.     Maggie wrote, “I was so sorry to hear of the affair about the meeting. I hope you will get satisfactorily settled somewhere else.” I believe she may have been referring to the Plymouth Brethren sect. It is unclear if the other Pollok family members belonged to the church, or if Jane Pollok Shields converted in Ohio. It sounds as if there was a conflict with the group Jane had belonged to, and that she sought a new congregation. Maggie’s wish came true of course, as the family relocated to Detroit, where they joined another Plymouth Brethren group.

3.     Maggie wrote, “I am glad the girls are able to help you a little; Mays report was very good.” May was eleven years old in 1904, so was able to help her mother with housework and caring for her younger siblings. I assume “Mays report” referred to a letter May herself wrote to her aunt. Wouldn’t it have been wonderful if the correspondence had been preserved.

May, Margaret and Bethia Shields in Scotland visiting family early 1900s

Vintage letters can provide many important clues about ancestors’ lives and relationships. Examining them step by step can bring add flesh to the skeletal bones of the data gleaned from historical records. The simplest piece of correspondence can provide amazing insights.