Saturday, December 17th .....

Looking across the range of entries for the Gore family, it is interesting to see the same names recurring from generation to generation; Janet, Helen, Grace, Robert, William, and so on. The same thing occurs in the Christie family. We have lots of Alexanders, Andrews, Johns, Janets, Janes, etc. The Scottish tradition, of course, was to name children after relatives, the first-born son was always named after the paternal grandfather, the second son after the maternal grandfather, the first girl after the maternal grandmother, and so on. It makes things very confusing and you often find 2 or 3 cousins in the same generation with the same name.

I came across an Upstairs, Downstairs moment when I was sorting through the information on Jane Gillies’s tree. Helen Gore was born in 1847, one of a large family and was employed as a domestic servant. In 1871, when she was 24, she workd for the Menteith family in their home in Glasgow. The Menteiths are one of the great families of Scotland and the head of the family has the title of Earl. They are part of the powerful Graham clan.
In 1872, Helen left their employ because she was pregnant. That part of the Gore family believes that the father was Alexander Menteith. Alexander seems to be the name reserved for the Earl, so could it be that she was impregnated by a member of the nobility? Of course, it could just as easily have been the Under Footman, or even the Boot Boy, but not nearly as romantic.

Jane Gillies has discovered that Helen’s child, Janet, was born on January 7th, 1873, at 66 Dalmarnock Street, Glasgow. I’ve found a sketch of the rear of a nearby house in Dalmarnock Street, showing the open, rear staircases, the only access to the upper floors. The note with the sketch also mentions that the only running water to the house was at ‘primitive external sinks’, which would have been installed after 1862, in an attempt ‘to deal with the insanitary conditions in housing if the epidemics which ravaged Glasgow in the 19th century were to be controlled’. Before that, it would have been stand-pipes in the street, with an open drain if you were lucky.




I was also interested in the history of a later family member, Grace Gore, born in 1925. Grace was a Bus Conductress in Glasgow, and that’s enough information for any Glaswegian to know all he needs to know about Grace. Bus Conductresses during and after the Second World War became notorious for their crude and abrasive attitude to their customers. When an American soldier, or a recent immigrant tried to get on a full bus, the conductress would shout, ‘C’moan, Get aff! (Come on, Get off!) The poor old newcomer wouldn’t know whether he was coming or going.
Anyway, Grace married Sid Carter and they moved to Australia in 1960, settling in Carlingford. Their daughter, Elaine, married William Murphy and had three children. Lisa, born 1967 and her sister Nurel, born 1970, now live in Launceston. Their brother Paul Murphy, was born in 1974 in Battery Point, Hobart and is now a chef. I suppose we could pass in the street and wouldn’t know our connection.