John

The first character I'd like to explore is John. There are many Johns in the Barclay family history, in fact it's the most popular name, but this one is the father of James and he was born on Christmas Eve 1794. My research suggests he was the fifth of six children born to John and Margaret, and he interests me for several reasons:
He married Menie on 29th December 1823, some seven months after the birth of their first child. Although this is not uncommon today, it would have been significant and controversial at the time.
He was a servant at Ladyland, an important estate in Ayrshire and I've discovered that Barclays were the original Barons of this estate...
His death certificate describes him as a slater so it seems sometime after James was born he learned a trade

What's next?

Having dabbled in family history several times over the years, this time I'm determined to create some output. It's so easy to get caught up in the process of conducting research that documenting and organising the findings gets overlooked. However I've managed to assimilate a reasonable amount of information on the Barclays, going as far back as my great, great, great, great grandfather. I'd now like to add more detail to some of the key characters in the story. For example I'd like to find out more about James who having been widowed in 1872, married a woman 30 years his junior only a year later. I'm not suggesting there's anything wrong in this, but I suspect there's some drama behind it and that's what I'd like to explore.

John and Sarah

John married Sarah Swanston in 1940 and they lived in Renfrew throughout their lives. John was a draughtsman to trade, but they later set up their own business: Barclays Newsagent. They had two children John, born in 1941 and Ilene, born in 1945.
John & Sarah (known to many as Cissy) were my own grandparents and I have very fond memories of the time we spent with them - particularly the summer holidays when my brother and I would spend time with our cousins playing tennis in the garden or listening to music in the living room.

John and Agnes

John married Agnes McGarrie on 7th September 1900 and they spent their early years together in Incle Street in Paisley. John may have been the first of the family to leave Kilbirnie - he was certainly born there, but by age 19 when he married Agnes he was living in Paisley and training to be an Iron Turner. Within a year Agnes had given birth to Helen the first of six children. Jean, John (my grandfather), Agnes, William and James followed later. John became active in Renfrew Town Council and Barclay Square is said to be named after him. He died on the 21st of June 1953 at Loanhead Avenue.

James and Ellen

James was born on 26th May 1823 and he's the closest thing I've found to "scandal" in the family. Firstly he was born before his parents were married (29th December 1823) and whilst that's perfectly normal today, in those days it would have been frowned upon. The second intriguing part of James' story is that in 1873 at age 50 he married his second wife, the twenty year old Ellen McGuire.
James, a joiner, had married Helen Sanderson in 1852 and they had two children together Mary (born 24th June 1856) and Agnes (born 29th June 1862) but sadly Helen died in 1872.
Shortly thereafter, James married Ellen and they went on to have four children of their own Ellen (12th July 1874), Jane (4th July 1876), James (17th May 1879) and John (19th July 1861). All six children were raised by James and Ellen in Main Street, Kilbirnie.
Following James' death in 1883, Ellen went on to marry William McClauchlan and had one more son, William in 1887.

John and Menie

The fifth child of John Barclay and Margaret Allan was John, who was born in Kilbirnie on Christmas Eve 1794. John was a Servant at Ladyland, and on 29th December 1823 he married Menie Montgomrie. They already had one son James (born on 26th May 1823) and then on 23rd September 1827 they had their first daughter Mary, followed by two more daughters - Margaret on 26th July 1829 and Janet on 23rd June 1839.
There is still some work to do on this generation of the family - the records suggest they may have had another son. John died on the 21st April 1861

John and Margaret

The earliest ancestor I have been able to trace is John, a Weaver in Kilbirnie. He married Margaret Allan on the 9th February 1784. I think they had six children Janet (born 1st July 1785), Ann (born 25th October 1787), Mary (born 29th August 1790), Hugh (born 10th October 1792), John (born 24th December 1794) and William (born 20th June 1798). As yet I have been unable to confirm any other details on this generation of the family.

Background

Barclay is my mothers maiden name and it's this line of my ancestry that I've been researching. So far, I've identified several generations of the family with the oldest being my great, great, great, great grandfather - John Barclay, who married his wife Margaret in 1784. The eight generations so far are as follows:
John & Margaret
John & Menie
James & Ellen
John & Agnes
John & Sarah
Ilene & Eddie (my parents)
Paul & Gayle
James & Niamh (my children)
Each generation before my grandparents had large numbers of children and adopted a common naming convention of the time meaning that only a handful of names were ever chosen. In the next few posts I'll give a brief summary of each successive generation.

Welcome

Welcome to my Barclay genealogy blog. Over the years my Mum, my brother and I have each dabbled in family history. Although the research has always been compelling, we've never been able to dedicate sufficient time to documenting and organising the results. However a few months ago I began using Heredis, an application that is available for PC and iOS which has made it really easy to create records for all the members of the family we've identified. I now have a basic level of information for eight generations of my Mum's side of the family and this blog will allow me to publish my findings in the hope that, with the input of others, I can continue to further the project.