Down a Rabbit Hole: Tracing a Robertson Great-Grand-Uncle

Thomas Robertson: 1851-?
Albert Cameron Robertson: 1897-1917

 

I often make discoveries about ancestors unexpectedly, while looking for someone or something else. I pull one thread, and a whole set of mysteries unravels. It’s a bit like falling down the proverbial rabbit hole into a whole new world. That happened today, while tracing the Robertson branch of the Aird family.

My husband’s grandfather, Harry Aird, was born to James Aird and Jane Ann Robertson Aird. Jane was the child of Hellen Wood and William Robertson; she was born in Dundee, Forfarshire, Scotland on June 30, 1857. Jane had three siblings, Thomas, James and Mary Ann, and today I decided to search for their death dates, as well as any other information about spouses or descendants I might turn up on the way. Thomas and his children proved to be of special interest.

Jane’s eldest brother, Thomas Robertson, was born around 1851, also in Dundee. He appears on the Scottish census records in 1861, living with his parents. But by 1871, now twenty years old, he was living on his own on Millars Wynd in Dundee as a boarder in the home of Charles Marie and family. Thomas was working as a baker, possibly nearby at William Coupar’s bakery at 51 Perth Road, near the University of Dundee.  

Intersection of Millars Wynd and Perth Road, Dundee, early 1900s

Millars Wynd intersected with Perth Road, which was where a 20 year old nurse by the name of Jessie Galletly lived, caring for someone in the Andrew Hendry home at 245 Perth Rd. Since Thomas and Jessie lived and worked in the same small neighborhood, it’s not surprising that they met. They married sometime between the 1871 census and the birth of their first child, Isabella Anderson Robertson, March 6, 1873.

Three other children quickly followed: Helen or Hellen Wood Robertson, born September 1, 1874; Wilhelmina “Nellie” Robertson, born in 1877, and finally Alexander Robertson, born sometime in late 1879 or possibly early 1880. I discovered all four of these children living with their father Thomas in his parents’ home in Dundee on the 1881 census. Also living there were James and Jane Ann Robertson Aird and their newborn, Isabella Aird. But no sign of Jessie. Obviously something had happened to Thomas’ wife, leaving him a widower with four young children. Perhaps Jessie died giving birth to young Alexander.

Census record, Robertsons and Airds 1881

                

By the next census, Thomas had acquired a new wife, Margaret Smith, and the first two of their eventual four sons had been born, Thomas Smith Robertson in 1887, and William Robertson in 1890. Father Thomas was still working as a baker, and the family was living at 10 Peddie Street, just north of Perth Road.

Peddie Street where family lived in 1890s

By the 1901 census, they had moved to 15 Forest Park Road, still in the same Dundee neighborhood near Perth Road where Thomas had first met and married Jessie. Now the family included the two youngest sons, Albert Cameron Robertson, born in July or early August of 1897, and Norman McLeod Robertson, born June 8, 1900. 

Robertson residences over course of 30 years: 1. Forest Park Dr.; 2. Peddie Rd.; 3. Millars Wynd/Perth

Wilhelmina/Nellie was still living at home, now 25 years old and working as a domestic nurse, while her brother Alex, 21, was employed as a drapery warehouseman. Thomas’ two other daughters, Isabella and Helen, had moved out. I have been unable to locate any further records for Isabella; she may have married, died, or moved somewhere unusual. There are a couple possible records for Helen, but nothing verifiable. The two young women essentially disappear.

15 Forest Park in Dundee today

I have found no 1911 census records for Thomas, Margaret or their four sons. They, like Isabella and Helen, might have mysteriously disappeared but for one important record: the military records for young Albert Cameron Robertson.

Albert enlisted in the army on August 5, 1916 at the age of 18 years and four months, joining the 11^th Battalion of the Argyll and Sutherland Highlanders, otherwise known as the Princess Louise Regiment, which saw action on the Western Front in Europe with the 9^th Scottish Division.

Hatpin for Albert's regiment

Military records show that Albert died April 23, 1917, in the Second Battle of Arras. The British Army suffered 10,000 losses in an attempt to take the high ground near the French city of Arras; Albert was one of those losses.

One of the Argyll & Sutherland battalions in WWI

His army paperwork provided a treasure trove of information. First, he provided two addresses: his family’s home when he enlisted, No. 12 Peddie Street, one building down from where they lived at his birth in Dundee, and the family’s new address in Perthshire, in the Campbells Buildings, a large apartment complex, in the town of Stanley. I’m not sure what caused his family to move there—perhaps his father retired from his bakery job, or lost his job, or perhaps there was some other motivation. But at least I know why I could no longer find them in Dundee.

Albert’s army papers also provided a hint of a rupture between his half-siblings and the rest of the family. He was asked to list all siblings: he wrote he had no sisters, and only three brothers, Thomas, Willie and Norman, all of whom were in the army. Of course in reality he had three half-sisters and a half-brother, but even though there was a section on the form for “Full-blood” and “Half-blood” siblings, he ignored his half-siblings. There’s a story there that, sadly, we’ll never learn.

Albert was awarded the Victory Medal and the British War Medal for his service and ultimate sacrifice in battle. The medals were sent to his father Thomas, who signed for them, so while we have no photos of Thomas, we have his signature from a century ago.

In summary, I failed in my goal for the day: to find death dates and records for Jane Ann Robertson’s siblings. Her oldest brother Thomas’ death date remains a mystery, although I was able to confirm he was still alive in 1918. However, my unsuccessful search for that piece of information led me to some fascinating new discoveries: Thomas’ long-time job as a baker, the decades his family spent in one small neighborhood in Dundee, his two wives and his eight children, and the tragic loss of his young son Albert Cameron Robertson in World War I. After learning so much about Thomas and his family, it’s hard to see the day’s research as a failure!

Now I’ll need to burrow further down my research rabbit hole to find out what happened to Albert’s three soldier siblings: did they make it home from the war or did they die like Albert? Every new discovery always leads to new questions. And who knows—perhaps my research on Thomas Jr., Willie and Norman will lead me to my research Holy Grail: Thomas Robertson’s date and place of death! I can dream!

 

Sources:

Photo of Millars Wynd and Perth Rd, Dundee.http://www.leisureandculturedundee.com/photopolis/millars-wynd-and-perth-road-dundee

K, British Army World War I Service Records, 1914-1920 for Albert Cameron Robertson. Ancestry.com.

https://www.ancestry.com/imageviewer/collections/1219/images/30974_185764-01093?pId=1651322

Information and photos, Battle of Arras. https://military.wikia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Arras_(1917)

Correcting the Record for Louise A Shields: 52 Ancestors Prompt “Changes”

Time for Changes to the Tree and Changes in Family Attitudes

Louise Annie Kinnear to Louise Antoinette Pool: 1872-74 to 1975

 

According to the tree I had assembled for my husband’s family, his great-granduncle Archibald Shields married a Dutch/Javanese woman by the name of Louise Annie Kinnear. My information on Louise was minimal. I had no birth records or parents’ names for her, and I had no marriage record for Archibald and Louise. The only records I found for Louise were from the period after her marriage—the first record she appears on is the birth record for Archie and Louise’s eldest daughter in 1909. Louise appears only on records as Louise A. Shields—her middle name and maiden name never appear.

So how did I come up with the name Louise Annie Kinnear? I confess, with shame, that I had just copied that maiden name from several other Ancestry trees, including the one managed by my brother-in-law, who is a careful researcher. None of those trees had links to any records that would verify “Annie” or “Kinnear”.

So I shouldn’t have been surprised when I discovered another Ancestry tree that provided a very different name for Louise. That tree, apparently managed by a direct descendant of Archie and Louise Shields, listed her as Louise Antoinette Pool, born in Padang, Sumatra, Dutch East Indies. Despite all these new details, there were no records attached to the tree that would verify the information.

Padang, Sumatra around 1900

I faced a conundrum. I lacked documentation for either maiden name. Should I just assume, since it looked like this new tree was managed by a direct descendant, that he or she had more accurate information, and change my tree to match? I tried searching both names in Ancestry with no result.

I then turned to my old friend Google. And lo and behold, the name Louise Antoinette Pool turned up a match in the archives on the island of Jersey. The Jersey court records include her will. While the will itself cannot be accessed online, the indexed description provides some essential information, reading:

“Will and Testament of Louise Antoinette Shields, widow of Archibald Shields, of Sous Les Arbres, St. Peter’s Valley, St. Peter and formerly of Aintree, College Hill, St. Helier. Dated 25/08/1959. [Includes two closed documents]”

This is verification that Louise’s correct maiden name was Louise Antoinette Pool. I already knew that Archie and Louise had retired to the island of Jersey when he quit managing Alliance Plantation in Suriname. Everything matched up to the data I already had. I quickly made changes to my Ancestry tree, providing correct information and a screenshot of the Jersey Archive index entry.

So what else do we know about Louise? And how much of what we supposedly know is as inaccurate as the surname “Kinnear”?

Archie and Louise apparently married in Suriname around 1907, following the death of Archie’s father Thomas in 1905. I have no information about how or where they met. Their first child, Margaret Sutherland Shields, was born October 13, 1909 in Paramaribo. Their second child was born in January 1912 in Lambeth, London, during one of the family’s regular visits to Great Britain. They named her Euphemia Louise Shields. Their third daughter, Bethia Delphine Shields, was born in 1913 in Paramaribo.

The Shields family on steps of Alliance Plantation house, supposedly taken in 1903, but woman at bottom is Margaret Shields, who only came out after husband's death in 1905. Likely taken around 1907. I believe Louise and Archie are the two people standing. 

The family spent most of their time living at the Alliance Plantation house. They were an attractive family. The girls grew up with their cousins, James Allan Smith and Bethea Elizabeth Smith, the children of Archie’s nephew James Laing Smith. Young James was the same age as Archie’s youngest daughter Bethia, and Bethea Smith was a year younger.

Louise at left with her three daughters, Margeret, Effie, and Bethia. Marguerite Smith and her children James and Bethea at right. Around 1915 or 1916.

Archie and Louise spent some time living on Bay Street in St. Michael, Barbados. At some point, Archie acquired property on Jersey and retired there, although he continued to travel to Suriname until at least the 1950s when the plantation was sold to the Suriname government. It is unclear where Archie and Louise’s daughters were educated.

Archie died on Jersey in 1962 at age 98. Louise died in 1975; she was between 100 and 103 years old, depending on her actual birthdate.

So that comprises the facts about Louise. But what stories and impressions do we have from other family members?

Archie and Louise’s niece, Ruth Shields McNiven, included Louise as a character in a story she wrote in high school about life on Alliance Plantation in Suriname. The way Louise is described is quite unflattering. She blithers on about people coming to tea and the need to roll the tennis courts while Archie is discussing serious problems with the plantation’s workers which eventually erupt into a worker uprising. Louise repeatedly demands that she be allowed to order expensive English dresses to keep up with other women in her and Archie’s social set, and the story ends with her getting her gowns.

Ruth’s description of her many years later was a little kinder, but still indicated that Archie’s extended family weren’t very fond of Louise. She told John and Laurel Aird that when Archie brought his new bride home to Ellangowan, the Shields family home in Scotland, Archie’s mother was upset, wondering why he couldn’t have married a good Scots lassie? Ruth’s further comments on Louise were recorded by Laurel as follows:

“ Aunt Louise was half Javanese. Her father was an officer in the Dutch Army. She was brought up in a convent. Attractive. Lived to be 100 on Isle of Jersey. Much younger than he. She made Uncle Archie jealous by flirting.”

John Aird’s memoirs contain his memories of the Shields family’s assessment of Louise:

“As a matter of fact, Grandpa Shields’ brother Archie married a Javanese woman, who was referred to as Aunt Louise. I once saw a picture of her as a mature woman, from which it was obvious that she would have been very attractive in her youth. Anecdotes about Aunt Louise suggested that she was very conscious of her station and also that the family were careful to make sure that her status did not encroach on their own. She must have had a difficult time of it in some respects. There apparently were some children from that union, who were taken to Scotland when their father retired there, and they lived near London for a time after his death, but the family later lost track of them and no one seemed to know (or to care) what became of them.”

John’s summary is repugnant, and reflects the bigotry of the extended Shields family. It is also inaccurate. John Aird’s grandfather attended his mother’s 100^th birthday party in 1937, and Archie and Louise were also in attendance, as is obvious from this portion of John Sutherland Shields’ letter to his family:

“Uncle A. and Aunt Louise came across Monday with the 11 A.M. boat. Dick and I went down to meet them. They are both looking very well; Louise much improved, looking almost younger and stouter than ever and a very healthy color, bright eyes and lots of talk. Aunt B. and E. too are very well.”

So obviously the extended family knew exactly where Archie, Louise and their daughters were, at least during John Shields’ lifetime. Ruth seems to have kept in touch as well, and presumably the Smith cousins, who grew up with Archie and Louise’s daughters, kept in touch with the girls.

But apparently racism kept some of the Shields family from accepting Louise and her daughters as real members of their family. I shudder at John’s casual comment that she was “referred to as Aunt Louise”, as if that were merely a courtesy title granted to a “fancy woman” or something. She WAS their Aunt Louise. And the idea that Archie’s daughters “were taken to Scotland when their father retired there”, implies the family thought they ought to have been left behind in Suriname with their “kind” or something. Louise isn’t even mentioned as having accompanied Archie and their daughters. For goodness sake! They were a family! Of course they moved to Jersey with their father! Families live together!

Aintree, College Hill, St. Helier, Jersey: Louise and Archie's first home on Jersey.

It is just stunning to be faced with the Shields’ family’s bigotry.  It is so disturbing to read that they worried that Louise's ethnicity would drag down their own social standing. John’s phrasing and word choice show he had, likely unintentionally and without awareness, picked up on his extended family’s disdain and repugnance for Archie’s half-caste (I use this phrase only in the context of the time period—it is a horrible way to describe people now, of course) wife and daughters, and channeled it in his writing. I want to emphasize that John never exhibited any sign of racism himself as an adult; he was uniformly kind and accepting of everyone. This reflects another type of “Change”, the theme of this post: the younger generations of the family began, thankfully, to move past the casual bigotry of the early twentieth century.

It would have been fascinating to ask Louise what she thought of Archie’s family and their treatment of her and her daughters. I’m sure it would have been enlightening and disturbing. She deserved better. At least now her real maiden name is in the family tree.

 

Sources:

https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/3/3c/COLLECTIE_TROPENMUSEUM_De_Padangrivier_te_Padang_Sumatra%60s_Westkust_TMnr_60003520.jpg

https://catalogue.jerseyheritage.org/collection/Keywords/archive/content.person.name/Shields,%20Louise%20Antoinette,%20n%C3%A9e%20Pool

Memoirs of John Shields Aird: 10 November 1919-09 October 2005. Pg. 28.