Renfrewshire/Port Glasgow

[Maud Jarvis]

I could not find a board to cover Port Glasgow, which I believe comes under Renfrew, so putting my query on here (is that ok?)

I am trying to find any contact with anyone there who could be researching the MCulloch name.
I am searching for information about my Pa.
ternal grandmother
CHRISTINA McCULLOCH

When I was a child I was shown her photo and told that this was Grannie Barr
but since I started researching my family, I found to my surprise, that she was not Grannie Barr at all and never had been!! in other words, my father lied on his marriage cert and to his children, of course I can understand now, that in his day it was a terrible handicap to be known as illegitimate and so can accept his reason, but, it is making it difficult for me to try and track down his natural father and to find out more about his mother, she died in 1914 before I was born, so I would like to know more about her

Christina was born 1869 in Tradeston Glasgow, her father was Ezekiel McCulloch & I believe he came from Ireland. her mother was Caroline Fraser
they moved to Port Glasgow, where she met James Barr of Greenock, my father was born in 1896 and his birth cert states him to be illegitimate and no father is given. However, Christina must have taken him to court, and James Barr was named as the father, he was then living in St Lawrence St Greenock. I have been unable to trace him any further, I would like to know more about him. His parents were Neil Barr & Janet(nee Cameron)

Christina married in 1898 to Joseph Hutton (he was a widower) and they lived in Port Glasgow. She died in 1914, did my father adopt the name of Barr then?
previously he was known as McCulloch & then indicated on the census as Hutton.
He married Laura Maud Gagan in 1918 with the name of James Barr

I have extracted quite a few BMD`s from the Scotspeople site and have built

up quite a bit of information on the family from that & the census up to 1901
but would love to find any descendants of either side, who could fill in the
gaps for me and put "flesh on the bones

[Lesley Robertson]

I see from the directly extracted records in the IGI that James Gilmour Barr was born 14 Aug 1869 in Greenock, and had 2 sisters, Janet in 1872 and Catherine in 1874. This means that you have the family reasonably well pinpointed for the 1871 census - either treat yourself to a day in Edinburgh or see if your local LDS or archives can come up with the film. Since you know how old he was, one possibility is to simply check all the death certs for James Barr until what would have been his 100th birthday (tedious but it does work). If you can find his d.cert, it'll tell you his occupation, whether he married, and if you're lucky one of his children will have signed the d.cert. Also, since you know where he was born, you could probably find him in the 1901 - also maybe with family.... All of this is cheaper to do at New Register House in Edinburgh that on line, but can be done on line.
Lesley Robertson

[Miron]

Hi Maud,
You could try contacting the Greenock Telegraph. They sometimes publish information from people looking for their families. Even better if you have a picture.
You should be able to find them by searching for greenock+telegraph
Good luck