At some point I feel everyone decides to explore their family history. Thankfully some of my wider family have already done an amount of legwork. I’ve placed it here so that I don’t delete or lose it, and it might help other Curran’s out there whose families interweave with my own (very large) family. There’s also some history about the Curran name in general here which might help. The following is written by Ron Curran. Feel free to read on!
The Name CURRAN
There are a number of sources which give a clue to the origin of the name Curran. My younger brother Ken put to me that it was KERN, which in the Oxford Dictionary described a light armed Irish foot-soldier: peasant, boor. I followed this up in the more difinitive and complete version in the National Library of Scotland in Edinburgh, and it confirmed this, but added – a wild Irish or Scottish spearman. Some who may be surprised that the name KERN can be a derivitive of CURRAN should read on. In tracing the families of the name CURRAN in Ayrshire, Scotland, I found that the earliest families were John KERN who married Agnes Fulton and had a son, Robert born 15th June 1707 at Stewarton Ayrshire. Then a John KERN who married a Janet Walker on 29th December 1802 at Riccarton (near Kilmarnock) Ayrshire.
I wrote to ‘Surname (British) Services’ in 1972 and I quote some of the relevant parts of this:-
Meaning – The surname of Curran is derived from the Celtic Curadhan (dh mute) therefore becoming Cura(dh)an – Curaan, meaning hero or champion. Alternatively from the Irish MacCorrain, meaning the son of Curran, from the diminutive of Corradh, meaning a spear. In the 16th century the surname of Curran was mainly to be found in the counties of Waterford, Tipperary, Galway and Leitrim. The surname is numerous and widespread in Ireland. The Irish Index of Surnames gives the Irish spelling as O’Curran. There are few names as numerous as Curran about the background of which so little is recorded. The older Irish form of the surname was O’Currain, this being found in Co. Donegal as Curreen or Curen. Currane is more usual in Kerry. Kirrane and Curreen are also more modern synonyms. The form Crehan is usual in Co. Galway and in Co. Mayo these are called Crean. Greegan alone of these variants can be said to belong now to Co. Sligo. A further complication in regard to the name Crean arises from the fact that O’Corrain, normally Curran in English, has become Crean in some places.”
You will notice the reference to spear. This seems to bear out the dictionary version of spearman, which would seem to me to be a reference to warriors or perhaps early mercenaries, rather than peasants or artisans. In any case, you have the evidence and you can make your own mind up about the origin of the name CURRAN. It is however an irrefutable fact that surnames were derived from a number of recognisable sources, Smith’s being a good example of this, Field being another. Smiths are as numerous as was their original dirivative. i.e. – blacksmith, whitesmith, silversmith, goldsmith etc., and Field for a worker in fields, probably farm workers? Another source is to take the name of the hamlet or village where one then belonged. Near me there is a village called Ormiston and my wife and I once met a lady of that name. She claimed she could trace her name back to the 16th century in that village where she herself was born. I believe her.
Ayr Currans, with a variety in between such as Carrans, Corrans, Currence, Curren. So please do not dismiss a similar name if you are researching your own family. Remember that the name Curran is an anglicised version and now is in common useage. I have included the wrongly spelled names in our own family just to prove the point. Anyone who wishes to “do their family tree” would be well advised to remember this above all. Many budding genealogists must have given up in despair in not being able to go any further because of a misspelt surname. Let me now give two examples of this which delayed my progress for several years. Early in my research I could not find my father’s brother Patrick on the birth records. I puzzled about this until I mentioned it to brother Ian. “I’m not surprised” he said. “Father always said that his name was spelt Cairns, no doubt from the way he pronounced it. Anyway, he couldn’t get his army pension for quite a while till it was sorted out”. I then found him. Another example I came across was a Bridget Carrans who married George McLachlan at Bartonholm, Ayrshire in 1863. I did not give it much thought although it must have been retained in my memory. Several years later when I found that my father had a son by his first marriage called George McLachlan Curran, something clicked. I went back and found that Bridget was the daughter of Peter Carrans (as spelt) and Bridget Gillan. See what I mean? I found a much more comprehensive history of the Curran name on the Internet, but it is much too lengthy for this document. I think that I have included sufficient to give food for thought to dispel certain pre-conceived notions.
History of the Curran family in brief
As far back as the mists of time, the Curran’s were of Irish stock, although originally believed to be Gaels from Spain. All Gaelic surnames derive from two brothers, Heremon and Heber Fion, and the son, Dochad Heber, of a third brother. They were the sole survivors of the eight brothers who invaded Ireland circa 500-350 BC. These brothers were the sons of Milesius of Spain. They ruled until the conquest by England in 1159. The Curran’s didn’t branch off from the direct Heremon line of Monarchs of Ireland until 365 AD. The first direct link with the name Curran was Fiachra, son of Meochy Moyvane (Eochaidh Muigh Meadhoin) the 24th Monarch of Ireland, died 357 AD. Fiachra was the direct decendants of the Mac Carrains (now Currin or Curran). The O’Curineen (or Curran’s) were bards and historigraphers under O’Rourke (12th Century until Cromwellian wars, mid 17th cent. when estates were confiscated). They are also listed as one of the chief Bardic families in Ireland, and described as eminent historians, in the period following 900 AD. Two O’Curran families, One in County Donegal, the other in County Clare, are listed as among the principal families in Ireland of Irish, Anglo-Norman, and Anglo-Irish origin. The name Curran in its earliest form derives from the oldest of the five types of Irish names, which are now recognised as of Irish origin. (Taken from Irish Families, their names, Arms and Origins, by Edward MacLysaght, Crown Publishers, Inc., New York.) also (Philip McDermott MD. in his “A Topographical and Historical Map of Ancient Ireland”).
Of our own particular family, the family legend was oft repeated that “we came from Armagh” although whereabouts in Armagh, no one could say. Indeed, it was suggested that it could be Omagh, which left a difficult problem. Irish records are among the most difficult to research, many being destroyed in the burning of Custom House, Dublin in 1922. It was only very recently, with the help of the Internet, that I found a positive member of the family, born in Armagh city in 1835 – James Curran, first child and son of Peter Curran and Bridget Gillan. I have entered into further research, but can only find the family of Bridget Gillan (a revelation in itself, of course), which suggests that the Curran’s were passing through Armagh (albeit perhaps, over a period of time). This is possibly reinforced by the fact that Mary Curran, their second child, although born in Ireland in 1836, cannot be found in Armagh. Nor also can I find the marriage in Armagh of Peter and Bridget in 1834. Anyway, at last we have a starting point in Ireland that gives any intrepid family historian a flying start in the future. I wish them the best of luck.
History with it’s flickering lamp,
stumbles along the trail of the past,
trying to reconstruct its themes, to
revive the echos and kindle with pale
gleams the passion of former days.
Sir Wiston Churchill
The beginning.
I started my research into the Curran family with virtually nothing! I only knew that my father spoke with a Scottish accent, owned a set of bagpipes and a kilt and all the paraphanalia of a regimental pipe bandsman. He was much older than my mother, twenty years exactly. There was no wedding photograph nor any photos of my father’s side of the family, except of a young boy lying in bed which he kept at his bedside. When I asked my mother who it was, she said “someone your father knows”. I learned much later that this was Alexander Patrick Curran, my father’s son named after his two brothers. I had no other clear idea about my own family let alone my relations, no idea who my relations were within the family system and no real desire to find out. I knew that we had relations in Edinburgh because we travelled there by car on two occasions, that I remember, when I was very young. We were taken there by an “Uncle Adam” who turned out to be a bookie who used to travel down for the Newcastle races. We thought he was married to Aunty Patsy who was my father’s brother Patrick’s daughter? I was later to find out that they were not married. I was also happy that I had some “cousins, aunties and uncles” whom I knew by name, and it seemed to me that there was no good reason to enquire further. If there was a mystery, it was my parents affair!
That is of course, until that itch called ‘curiosity’ got the better of me – much later. That is something that grew from a string of unconnected events, some of which I have forgotten. But the one that stuck, was when Patrick Curran of Wallsend, “Paddy” as I understand he came to be known and who also had a Scottish accent, walked into the blacksmith’s shop at the pit where I worked (the Rising Sun Colliery, Wallsend), where he was an underground worker) and showed me a photograph of a man, who he said had just become a Labour M.P. for Fremantle, West Australia. “That is my brother Harry Curran” he said. This immediately set me thinking about another Harry Curran who worked in the colliery brickyard, who was about the same age as Patrick, and who I knew to be another “Uncle”. Who then was he ? What I did know about this Harry was that he lived at Shiremoor and visited our house quite frequently. I also knew in the course of time that my father was born in a village called Annbank in Ayrshire in 1876, and that his parents were Frank Curran and Catherine Ross. It was from him that I got to know that the maiden name of the spouse was used frequently in Scotland. For example, my father said he was called “Katie Ross’s boy”, not Frank Curran’s son. This establishes the link within families to a much greater extent than if it were otherwise. The son may have the father’s name, but the child, without doubt was his mother’s son. The link was also much used by the maiden name of the mother becoming the middle name within families. For example, my father was John Ross Curran, his sister was Mary Ross Curran, his brother’s son was John McKenna Curran and Patrick Curran of Wallsend was Patrick McKenna Curran, both the latter being sons of Rosina McKenna. It was much later that I learned that this also applied in Ireland. I also got to know of a naming pattern among both the Scots and the Irish that helps to establish relationships. But I am racing ahead.
In producing this document, the third and much more ambitious than previously, I want to introduce an entirely new way of presenting this to the reader, with the aid of my computer programme, Brother’s Keeper. This programme allows me to install information, people, dates, place-names, events etc., and it sorts them out in proper date and chronological order. Therefore the reader begins with the earliest known Curran born and reads any information concerning that person, up to the last in the long line of descendants, now well over 700. I have included (where known) occupations, special attainments, and other information from the many letters that I have received and from my own memory of events. I have had to limit this however, of necessity, to prevent the book from becoming more like a dictionary than a portrayal of a family (and their descendants) through history.
This method brings a greater realism to the story, and I am sure is much more understandable to read. The document also indicates each generation separately, so that at a glance a descendant can find “their place” in the tree. I also hope that you will appreciate that I can only include information that I have received. On the other hand, where information has been overflowing from a particular source, I have had to limit it to give room for others. Except perhaps in relation to my own family, because in effect, this is my story about my family and our relations. The story is about the movement of the Curran’s who are the children of Peter and Bridget Curran (and their children etc..) and the events in which they were involved, within the particular pages relating to that person – i.e. “The Blantyre Calamity” – Frank Curran, my grandfather who was one of the rescuers. Also, Peter Curran’s movements are essential to the story about the family arriving in Northumberland, and their return to Scotland. With regard to the Great War, which affected almost all of the Curran families of that period, I have selected my father’s tales, because he was a participant and told us about it in graphic detail. No one else was as easily accessible. My brother Ian was able to verify his stories with the actual dates of the actions he described.
But I have tried to strike a balance. I have included letters from various members of either Curran or related families which give accounts of personalities in the family, or incidents with which they were involved. My previous document was more a guided tour by ‘yours truly’- myself. I have not included on this occasion, the tedious routes that led me to discover my ancestors, with the exception of a number of extraordinary pieces of “good luck” or alternatively misfortune due to incorrect recording by the respective authorities. I have taken the football supporters view – simple and unequivocal “its only the results that count”. I am sure that this will please the majority, although I am sure, and fervently hope, that among all our family there will be someone willing and eager to take our history a little further. In this production, the story of the times through which the Curran family lived, speaks for itself where this is possible, except in this preface. I hope that you will read of the varied achievements of our ancestors, and note especially the progress indicated by the educational attainments and professions entered by the succeeding generations. Of course it can only be as good as the information available and in this respect I have used many snippets that have been kindly passed on to me by relatives. Even if your name is not Curran, you will be part of the Curran genes somewhere, passed through the blood by sisters or daughters of Curran’s who married into another family. I hope that no one will feel offended that I have written in the first tense, because to do otherwise makes it sound false. Where there may be doubt as to the authenticity of a statement, I take full responsibility for any errors that may have occurred, although I hope they are at a minimum. As the author, I have had to be selective (for example in choosing photographs) owing to the great amount of information and photographs available. I am however including a photograph album in order to minimize the number of inserts in the book itself.
This document, the third and hopefully the last that I will produce of the Curran family, is intended to be the most comprehensive in its scope, including as it does, all the families who have been traced and who are decendants of the original parents who arrived first in Scotland from Ireland in 1837/38, and afterwards went on to Northumberland and back again to Scotland, leaving behind wherever they went, their children who would marry and produce their children, who would then talk with a different accent to that of the first Irish ancestors. Some of these decendants, grandchildren or perhaps great grandchildren, travelled even further afield, to lands abroad, including Australia, Canada, South Africa and the USA, either seeking a new life or merely searching for work. But nevertheless, whatever the accent that the children adopt, the bloodline remains, and someone, somewhere, will be a replica of an ancestor, such is the power of the genes. I have had the good fortune to have been in contact with a number of these descendants and as a result I have been able to enrich the skein of this yarn, with letters, memories and observations, without which it would be a tiresome list of connected names without a human thread.
Brother’s Keeper – There are many kinds of Family Tree Computer Programmes, and I have tried most of them. Many are suitable for a family tree of perhaps three generations at the most, but they are in “tree” format, that is to say, parents shown above a line, indicating their marriage, below which are the children’s names, with dates of birth and birthplace. This is called a ‘drop chart’ which one can hang in the family home. These usually only show the direct line, from the father to his parents, and on to their parents, not all the siblings (brothers and sisters) but only that one who is of direct descent. But if they do show the brothers and sisters, they do not usually trace their children. To do this on a drop chart would be impossible. In our case, I have decided to trace all the families and their decendants, and to follow them through the years, showing their attainments and talents wherever possible.
For this, Brother’s Keeper is ideal. It indicates, for example, each individual by number, then by the order in the family through Roman numerals. It also shows the line of descent after the number and the child’s name, e.g. 467. Siobhan O’Neil 309.Veronica7 , 179.Cordelia6 , 78.Henry5 , 14.Agnes4 , 3.Peter3 ., 2.James2 , 1.John1 ) which means that Veronica7 the mother, is of the 7th generation down from the 1st generation John1; Siobhan being the eighth generation. If a person has a + to the left of their number, this means there are children to that person and they will appear later in the book under that number. Under the title “Occupations” it is impossible to include more than a brief description on the database. I have added more when necessary on an addendum file, but I want to emphasise that to insert absolutely every occupation in one’s lifetime, other than the most important and perhaps longest serving, is a volumous task. Likewise, to include everybody’s educational attainment throughout their career will make the ducument appear like an enormous CV.
This then is more of a story, which I have titled “Yesterday’s Journey”“, to indicate that it is a family’s journey through time. I have added significant events against those individuals to whom it is applicable. The significant events in our time have been chosen to cover scientific, social, political and educational events which have helped to dramatically shape our environment and improve the quality of our lives. That I cannot include a significant event for everyone in the document will be self evident, but it would also add enormously to the volume, and become mere padding. I have also included a family tree of sorts, designed to cover Peter and Bridget Curran and their children, and their marriages and their children, so that anyone who is a descendant of that particular line, will be able to trace their own family, and perhaps develop upon that which is included here. I have also included all the census returns pertaining to these families, in order that it can be seen where they lived, and their occupations. This is an invaluable source to genealogy.
Also, in certain cases, I have included valuation tax rolls (not applicable to England) which are another valuable source of information, but only if you have some idea of where to look in Scotland. The valuation tax roll is a statutory roll, and only in Scotland (it is similar to the electoral roll) starting in 1855 but it only includes the head of the household and no one else. However, anyone who pays less than £4 per year valuation tax, is not included. But it can be a valuable device for tracing around an area if you know that the family were there at a particular time. But, if the family suddenly disappears from the area that you are examining, how would you know where they had gone? This is where you then have to look for the births of children, to give you a clue. And believe me, there are a lot of Curran’s in Scotland, so if you don’t know the child’s name, or where to look, you could spend days or even weeks looking for a family.
Anyone who wishes to develop their own family tree can easily do so from this document, provided that they have an appropriate computer such as Windows 95. The word processor programme is Amipro, which allows you to add, insert, or delete, that which in your own case you deem to be inappropriate. You will notice that quite a lot of space is devoted to my own family. That is because it is my document. But supposing you had different experiences, during the last war, for example. You could delete my references and include your own. It is also possible to delete all but the basic facts about your ancestors and increase the information about your own line of the family. In other words, there is no limit to using this “book” to suit your own ideas about your own family, and the only thing I would ask is that some credit for the extensive (and expensive) research and compilation over a period of about twenty years, be recognised in the general context of your own edition.
It is worth reading the “book” from the beginning, and it should emerge, how lucky we are, and how much we owe our ancestors for working for us, caring for us, fighting for us, improving the environment for us, developing the educational, health and welfare services for us, and generally speaking, laying down the foundations for a much improved way of life. I am not being tempted to say “a much improved society” because that depends upon each other’s point of view. Nor is this a Burke’s Peerage, attempting to attach our family to a royal lineage (See “The Curran Name”) nor necessarily attempting to find the most famous among us, but rather showing how, over the decades, our lives have improved beyond measure, to those of our forbears, and largely because of them. There are nine generations listed in this book, from the earliest to the youngest and most recent. As in all things, I have to say that we must end at this point, otherwise the book will never be printed, because the family tree is forever spreading its banches and producing new buds, but not without thanking all those who have contributed in any way, through letters, photographs or oral communication.
Ian my brother was in at the beginning, telling me many stories told to him by my dad. Ian was the oldest in my family and liked to talk to my father, hence his knowledge about, for example, the Boer War and the Great War. Ian was also able to give me information about my own family, but only when he knew that I was determined to find out. It was he who told me, only when I was living in Scotland, that my father had married a lady in Scotland called Elizabeth Ann Brown, at, he believed, Coatbridge. He was absolutely right. It was surprising what he knew. Harry Curran of Coxlodge helped me enormously with the Jimmy Curran side of the family, as did his sister Jean (Crilly). They both gave me information and photographs that gave me a great insight into their family. Harry passed me on to Delia Calder, nee Moreland, by then in her eighties who gave me reels of dates of births, marriages and deaths of her Moreland family. She also was able to tell me of the family ‘residence’ in Muirkirk, to where the family to’d and fro’d from Pegswood in Northumberland.
Mary Curran, my half-sister (it seems very impersonal to put it that way but it is genealogically correct) also greatly helped about my own immediate family of which I knew so little. She gave me all the necessary dates and many photographs. She has also put up with my persistance and bringing our visiting Australian relations to meet her. Mary Boland, another descendant of the Morelands (we share mutual Great Grandmother Bridget Curran nee Gillan) who lives in Ayr Burgh, Ayrshire was able to tell me about her mother’s family, also Moreland’s and how they left Ayrshire for America. These included her own family, but they returned and finally settled down in Muirkirk. She also vaguely remembered a number of Curran’s of New Cumnock, about which little or nothing is known. She also sent me some beautiful photographs. And Jackey (his way of spelling it) Morrison of Ochiltree near Annbank, son of Bill and Susan Morrison, nee Curran. Susan was the daughter of John McDonald Curran. Jackey took me around the places where the Curran’s lived in the Annbank area and gave me a mine of information, not least the book of poems of his grandfather John McDonald Curran.
More recently I have again been in communication with Alan Thomas Curran of Gosforth and, through him, have collected a lot of information, including photographs, of his own family. Today, Tuesday 7th October, Alan was at my house and left a half-an-hour ago, conversing about the coming family document and receiving some corrections. John Richardson, my father’s grandson, who I have known since I was a child, has supplied me with information about his own family, and also some family photographs. One wonderful connection was that of Ed Dawson of Ontario Canada, son of Cathy Combes (Maiden Surname Dawson) who was my father’s sister Esther’s daughter. From him, by letter, I found out about my father’s family, especially his brother Sandy who was killed in the First World War. I also received some wonderful photographs. I met first Ed and his wife Dorothy when Ed complied with his mother’s wish to be buried in Edinburgh on her death aged 96 yrs in 1994. She was buried at Mount Vernon Cemetery. This Canadian connection was made through Cathy Dunlay whose mother was Catherine Curran, daughter of Patrick my father’s brother. She currently lives in Glasgow and her name and address was given to me from, of all places, Australia. My family met Cathy at her home along with our Australian relatives, It was a memorable time, the closeness of the family ties being that we were all the descendants of two brothers, Patrick and John my father.
Last but by no means least is Carol Curran (Nee Hames) of Fremantle, West Australia and wife of another Peter Curran, who has written consistently over a period of almost six years, sending photographs of her husband’s family (my father’s brother’s children and grandchildren) and giving me an insight into modern life in Australia. Her determination in seeking out all the scattered family over there, and bringing them together, as she did as a Curran get-together at a public park in Perth just a few years ago, was no mean feat. Their visits to Scotland were looked forward to events, Peter and Carol first, then Carol on a flying visit, then Geoff a cousin, and then Peter and his cousin Garth who I took over to Stirling from where the family had left for Australia in 1924, and then down to Tyneside to visit my own relatives.
It has been a labour of love to have discovered all those past relations, of the near past and long past, and to have traced their footsteps, in some cases from birth to death, noting their undoubted grief at the loss of children, and to acknowledge that their lot was much harder than ours; and to wonder how on earth they covered so much ground, going from place to place. May we use the opportunity of “Yesterday’s Journey” to salute them one and all, and to feel grateful for their legacies. The principal contributors deserve to be named and are, in surname alphabetical order, – Mary Boland, Ayr, Ayrshire; Alan Curran, Gosforth Northumberland; Harry Curran, Gosforth, Northumberland (deceased); Ian Curran, North Shields, Northumberland (deceased); Jean Crilly, Gosforth, Northumberland; Mary Ward, Wallsend-on-Tyne; Ed Dawson, Brockville Ontario, Canada; Cathy Dunlay, Glasgow; Carol Hames, Fremantle, West Australia; Delia Calder, Ponteland, Newcastle-upon-Tyne (deceased); Jackey Morrison, Coylton, Ayrshire (deceased); John Richardson, Longbenton, North’land. I wish to thank them all very sincerely for their contributions! (I strongly reccommend that you read the “Thumbnail Sketch” in the Preface which gives the reader an outline of the movements of all the families over a period of two centuries – bearing in mind that “Yesterday’s Journey” deals with the full account).
Preface: A thumbnail Sketch! (by Ron Curran)
Coat of arms and Motto: “Create me in a clean heart God”
From Ireland to Scotland – and onward – 1834 to 1851
I am only giving a brief description of the movements of the family – in other words, a thumbnail sketch, because the story lies in the pages of the main document ‘Yesterday’s Journey’, and it would be fruitless repeating it here. However, the purpose of this preface is to allow the reader to see in a small number of pages, the movements of this particular family over a long number of years. Peter Curran and his wife Bridget Gillan are the main persons around whom the story revolves because it is through them and their children that I have been able to re-construct their journeys though Scotland and beyond. And it is their children’s children that have allowed me to monitor their progress through the years. I am dealing here, only with the facts as the records have shown – births, marriages and deaths, places and occupations, and armed forces and navy records where known.
Peter Curran married Bridget Gillan in Ireland in 1834. On the basis of evidence that a son was born at Armagh in 1835, this makes it highly probable that the parents were married there. It is also confirmed that the son, James, was born in Armagh city, not in Armagh county. This narrows down any future research that an intrepid relation may want to make. Mary Curran was born in Ireland in 1836, a date construed from her age given on the Ayr census of 1851 – 16 years. She almost certainly would not have been born in the same year as James, i.e. November 1835, and therefore I have opted for 1836. If they were in Armagh and heading for Scotland, a glance at the map shows that the shortest route would be to the port of Belfast, and from there to Glasgow. Glasgow was certainly the most obvious destination for an ongoing journey to Edinburgh. It is in Edinburghshire that we find the births of John Curran in 1838, and Catherine in 1839.
It was from the Catholic Registers that I found every other child born in Scotland, perhaps with the exception of one (who may have been born in Scotland or Ireland) and who’s name we do not know, although I am aware he was male. Bridget had thirteen children in all, two of whom are positively known to have been born in Ireland – two born in Edinburghshire, and eight born in Ayrshire. (See the family tree). John Curran was born in Edinburghshire in 1838, which suggests that the family must have travelled from Ireland after the birth of Mary in 1836, or even after the birth (and death) of another male child in 1837, because we definitely know there was another called James. Anyway, Peter and Bridget had to come over between 1836 and 1838 at least. The family’s arrival in Edinburgh suggests that they were over for the harvesting in either Midlothian or East Lothian.
“Irish immigrants began to come (to Edinburgh) in substantial numbers for the building of the New Town, and from that time, one project or another held the new arrivals. They landed at the Broomielaw (Dock) in Glasgow, but at harvest time, scarcely one remained in the city by nightfall, all having hit the road for Edinburgh. Most were hired by farmers in the Grassmarket, and would work from south to north as the crops ripened, starting at Berwick and reaching as far as Perth. {The Life and Times of James Connolly by C. Desmond Greaves).
Also, J. E. Handley said in his book “The Irish in Scotland”, that – “Most of all, they {The Irish Immigrants} concentrated on the south east lowlands, comprising the counties of Berwick, Roxburgh and the three Lothians. For these rich cornlands to be harvested rapidly under the unpredictable conditions of a Scottish autumn, an immense amount of manpower was required befor the age of the mechanical reaper and binder, and to the annual call for reapers, immigrants from Ireland were able to respond in their thousands, due largely to the fact that the demand for their labour coincided in time with the establishment of a cheap steamboat shuttle service across the channel separating the two countries”.
1851-1861
The family’s appearance in Ayrshire in 1841 (the year that Sarah was born in Irvine) and the fact that I knew my father was born in Ayrshire, fitted in to my impression, quite wrongly, that they were an Ayrshire family. However I was unable to find them on the 1841 census returns. This is probably because they were travelling between Edinburgh and Irvine at the time of the census. When I found Peter and Bridget Curran and their family in Ayr on the 1851 census returns, which confirmed where each child was born and their age, a number of children were missing (presumed dead) and this was later confirmed. Peter was now shown as a coalminer. Why they came to Ayrshire is not known, although one hint to a reason could be that many Curran’s were shown on the 1851 census for Ayr, brought there almost certainly by the Great Famine of 1848/50. But it was when the official registers for births, marriages and deaths were introduced in Scotland in 1855 that the greatest insight into the background of the family was found. This was on son Henry’s birth certificate in 1855, termed the Golden Year by genealogists because of the amount of information contained in that one year. Such volumous information was never repeated. From this we got to know, from Bridget Curran the mother, that Henry was her thirteenth child. That four boys were living and two had died. Also that four girls were living and that two had died. That they were married in 1934 in Ireland and were of Catholic denomination. Unfortunately, no place name in Ireland was given.
It would be beyond the bounds of credibility for so many people of the non-Scottish name Curran to be found in a small county town (which Ayr was at that time) if it were not a pre-arrangement. For example, I found that next door to Peter Curran was a John Curran and a Mary Bennett, and that they had been sponsors to at least one of Peter and Bridget Curran’s children. Moreover, they were both witnesses to the marriage of Mary Curran, Peter and Bridget’s daughter to John McDonald, at Ayr in 1852. When Peter and family moved to Bartonholm Colliery Village near Irvine, I again found John Curran, also a coalminer, and almost next door. The conclusion I reach is that Peter and John were brothers. John and Mary Bennett were married in Ayr in 1843, before the famine years, so I am suggesting that he travelled over to Scotland with Peter. Another (but fainter) legend is that three Curran brothers came over together. This is highly possible.
However, coming back to Ayr in 1851, the census showed five families of Currans. Among these is a James Curran, aged 32, shoemaker born in in Ayr with wife and three children. He lived in the village of Newton-on-Ayr, the village ‘next door’ to Whittletts where Peter Curran lived. At 276 High St. Ayr lived another shoemaker called David Currans, born in Ireland, with a wife and two children all born in Ayr. Also, an Anne Curran aged 18 and shown as a domestic servant, born in Belfast and working at 2 North Quay, Newton-on-Ayr. Another James Curran lived in Ayr but the address is indecipherable. He is aged 57 and shown as an agricultural labourer, with a daughter, Margaret Curran aged 9yrs. Her birthplace is indecipherable. Perhaps more significant is the family of George Curran at the small ironstone town of Dalmellington only 14 miles from Ayr. The same census of 1851 shows a George Curran, ironstone miner aged 32 years, with his wife Mary MacAtier aged 32 years, and several children and a number of lodgers. Two of these lodgers are James Curran aged 70 yrs, formerly weaver, born in Ireland and another James Curran aged 13 years, Ironstone miner, born in Ireland. Significantly this James Curran is not shown as a son.
An intriguing question relates to the other James Curran aged 70yrs. Could he be Peter Curran’s father. If so, it is possible that George Curran is the third brother. Even if none of this is correct, I feel convinced that all of these families are somewhere connected. George Curran’s eldest daughter Elizabeth was born at Airdrie in 1841, so it is possible that George came over with Peter, If he was his brother,, of course. I was nonplussed to find that the family were not in Ayr at the time of the 1861 census. They just seemed to disappear and I had no idea where to look for them. It was only when I traced the death of daughter Esther Curran aged 8 years at Dundonald, that I found the family again, or rather, I then knew that they had moved north to near Irvine where Mary Curran (now McDonald) lived. But they were not on the 1861 census at Dundonald, so yet again they were on the move? I was deadlocked for a considerable time, until a thought struck me. Some time earlier I had noticed that a Bridget Carrans (who I dismissed out of hand as being a relation because of the spelling of her name) had married a George McLachlan in 1863 at Bartonholm, Ayrshire, and in the course of my research I had found that my father had a son called George McLachlan Curran. Surely, I thought, he had named his son after this person. And so I found this to be correct, the whole family were at Bartonholm! I had found them again.
1861-1871
Not only did I find Peter and Bridget and the children, but almost next door I again found John Curran and his wife Mary Bennet, almost certainly confirming that he was Peter’s brother. Also I found some other Curran’s, who followed certain members of the family some time later. When I searched the 1871 census, (they only have these census returns every ten years) again at Bartonholm, once again the family had moved on. Not surprising perhaps, over a period of ten years, and of course they may only have moved several villages away. However, in the meantime, there had been a number of marriages in the family, John Curran, born in Edinburgh in 1838, being married to Hannah McCluskie at Kilmarnock in 1862. Following that of course was his sister Bridget, who married George McLachlan at Bartonholm in 1863, and Patrick who married Janet Crawford Frew at Ayr in 1867, and Francis my grandfather who married Catherine Ross at Tarbolton in 1869. I am sure that it will be noted that all of these marriages were in Ayrshire. So, I speculated, the parents and James, Agnes and Henry, could be anywhere between these places, not forgetting Mary the eldest daughter who lived somewhere near Irvine, but not yet found.
Again I was at a full-stop. Although I could trace the above families fairly easily, or at least two of them, John’s and Patrick’s – Bridget and her husband had disappeared, along with her parents and the unmarried children. Also my grandfather Frank and his family could not be found in or around any of the areas in Ayrshire where his brothers and sister Mary resided. Some years went by, the most frustrating of all the time I have spent over the last twenty years. However, one record I found of profound importance was the death of James Curran, Coalminer at Tarholm, Annbank on 10th August 1866. His death was reported by his son Peter. Peter’s own death certificate gives his father’s name as James. Not only that, but Tarholm, a small hamlet near the mining village of Annbank was precisely where Patrick Curran, Peter Curran’s son and his family lived for many years. James age is given as 82 years and he is shown as a coalminer! His father, the grandfather of Peter is shown as John Curran, farmer. Thus, with one discovery, we are taken back to the previous century.
1871-1881
Time and again I examined the records of the 1871 census in the areas I expected to find them and could find no trace of Peter and Bridget Curran and family, or daughter Bridget and brother Francis and their families. I assumed that wherever they were they would probably be together. I examined births and deaths records but all to no avail. However, by a most extraordinary co-incidence, a stroke of luck, or a piece of Divine Providence, it all suddenly landed “on my lap”, metaphorically speaking. One day when I was at a meeting in London, which finished early, I made up my mind to go to St. Catherine’s House (The Record Office) and look for the marriage of Jimmy Curran, who I was sure had married in England. A colleague, a Scotsman, asked if I wanted a lift to the railway station, and I said, no thank you but………and explained my intentions. He was full of enthusiasm, and said that a short while before, he had searched for his family on the census returns, and what he found was nobody’s business, in a manner of speaking. Therefore he said, I must go there. However, this was a building in another street (although just around the corner) Portugal Place, and I explained that I was looking for a marriage, or perhaps births of the children of Jimmy Curran (of Pegswood and Coxlodge). However, this chap was so excited about his ‘find’ that he dropped me off at Portugal Place nevertheless. I was really annoyed.
I entered this building despondently, and had to wait in a queue. I was then given a seat with a Micro-film machine and had to go and find whatever I was supposed to be looking for, not a needle in a haystack but a needle in a barnful of haystacks. I went to the desk and asked a “lady” some advice which related to how to find the 1871 indexes. She snapped back something that I didn’t quite hear, but obviously she was being sarcastic in her tone. If it wasn’t that I was short of time I would have immediately reported her. I abruptly went to the indexes and saw in front of me “Tynemouth Parish” without even searching. I picked it up and picked out Backworth because it was a mining village near where I used to live. I sent for the relevant microfilm spool. I fitted it on and turned the handle nonchelantly, eschewing how I would get my revenge on old sourpuss at the desk. I hardly noticed the names that went past except perhaps noting the Northumbrian names – when suddenly – “94, Fisher Lane Row, Backworth, Peter Curran, aged 63 yrs. retired coalminer, born in Ireland” – hit me between the eyes.
Then, ‘Bridget Curran born in Ireland, James Curran, Agnes Curran and Henry Curran’, giving their respective ages, all born in Scotland. I stared in disbelief. Then rolled the handle again, and lo and behold, “102 Fisher Lane Row, George McLachlan and Bridget McLachlan” appeared, with three children, two who were born in Scotland and one in Tynemouth Parish. This was the find of the century. I could not believe that anyone else could possibly better this “fluke”? (Actually, my wife had a similar experience some time later). I almost kissed the receptionist on the way out. I couldn’t wait to get back to Scotland to find out where young Bridget’s two children were born in Scotland. Needless to say I found them. In summarising on this incident, I was more than surprised to find that Peter Curran and his wife Bridget had actually contemplated walking as I assume they must, with their children to Northumberland, and he was now shown as retired? This then, was the pilgrimage that began the Curran dynasty on Tyneside. (See family Tree for births and marriages of Northumberland families). No wonder that they could not be found in Scotland.
Finding Bridget’s two children gave me an indication of where this part of the family lived after they left Bartonholm. James McLachlan was born at Shotts, Lanarkshire, on 4th December 1864 and Mary McLachlan on the 5th January 1867 at Dalziel, both of these places within a few miles of each other. So we know for certain that the family did not leave Scotland before 1867. Also, the place names would suggest that their rout to England would most likely be From Dalziel (the district of Motherwell and Wishaw) along the present A71 to West Calder, Mid Calder and East Calder and turning south at Dalkeith, following the present A68 south and either branching off towards Coldstream or continuing to Jedburgh and Carter Bar. Certainly the easiest and quickest route would be Coldstream. However, if they harvested on the way south, they may have proceeded via Haddington, Dunbar, Berwick and on to Tyneside. However they went, it was on roads that were little more than drovers roads at that time. We can only salute their grit and forbearance. All in the interests of survival?
1881-1891
Peter Curran was possibly now ailing from severe bronchitis (as shown on his death certificate in 1879. He is shown above as retired miner? He is possibly suffering from the miner’s stone and coal dust disease, pneumoconiosis. Later his death is found at Auchinleck, Ayshire in 1879, so he had returned from Northumberland. But what about the rest of the family who had went with him? Agnes Curran had married Hugh Moreland at Earsdon, parish of Tynemouth in 1871, shortly after the census was taken. James Curran, Peter’s son married Millicent Brown at Morpeth in 1876. More than that I did not yet know. (See story in main document of New Hartley Pit disaster). Had either of them returned with Peter and Bridget Curran? I now set about looking for them on the 1881 census. I looked first at Muirkirk, Ayrshire where I knew the Moreland’s had lived for many years. And there I found Hugh Moreland and family – they had returned. I also found Bridget Curran (Maiden Surname Gillan) and son Henry at Kaimes Row, Muirkirk. But another surprise was finding John Curran and his family from New Cumnock residing in Muirkirk. But the biggest surprise was finding Jimmy Curran (of Northumberland) lodging with his brother Patrick and family, at Tarholm, Annbank on the 1881 census and shown as unmarried??
Before we pursue that problem, let us ask why so many of the family are now living so close together in 1881. Was it because of the death of their father Peter in 1879? Although they might return for the funeral, this was now eighteen months afterwards. John Curran of New Cumnock and his whole family could hardly have just been visiting. So it must have been in pursuit of work. (In any case, we find him back in New Cumnock in 1891). Or was it a family get-to-gether because of the death of Bridget Curran married to George McLachlan, who died in the 1st Quarter 1881. (I could not find a more precise date unless I purchased a death certificate. I intended to but never got around to it). It might have been to discuss the arrangements for the fostering of the children. I do know from Mary Boland that Walter McLachlan was fostered to the Morelands. It was much later before I found that Jimmy Curran’s wife Millicent Brown had gone down to Yorkshire to have her child Mary in 1881, perhaps giving Jimmy the excuse to visit his family in Scotland? But when I searched the Muirkirk census in 1891, fully expecting to find at least the Moreland’s, they were gone. Where to now, for goodness sake?
We may never know but speculation sows the seeds of research, and without it little would be achieved. What we do know is that Agnes Moreland, daughter of Agnes Curran and Hugh Moreland, was born at Muirkirk in 1879, so the Moreland’s had returned by that time. Sarah Moreland, Mary Boland’s mother was born in Muirkirk in 1888. Also, Bridget Curran (Maiden Surname Gillan) died at Muirkirk in 1889. I had also started to look for my grandfather and family at Blantyre, Lanarkshire in 1881 and found at 53, Calder Street, Blantyre, Catherine (Ross) Curran with four of her five children including my father. But where was Frank her husband? I later found the death of my grandmother Catherine Curran (Maiden Surname Ross) at 53, Hendry’s Row, Bothwell, Lanarkshire in 1886. This was a sad episode for the family because children Patrick, Mary, John, Esther and Alexander were all shared around the various relatives. My father ended up at the Cunningham’s house at Dreghorn, where the head of the family Andrew Cunningham had married Catherine Ross’s sister Betsy Ross.
1891- 1904
So now I had to search for all the families on the 1891 census, an enormous task. Where would I start to look? I decided that the best bet would be to look for my grandfather. I had already found my father John Curran living at Dreghorn on the 1891 census. So I expected to find Frank living on his own. I started at Barrhead Renfrewshire, where I knew that Mary Ross Curran had married John McInally. I found them without much problem at 301 Main Street, Barrhead. With a little more search I then found, at 1 McLennan Terrace, Main Street Barrhead – Francis Curran, aged 43 years (this would be his exact age) Labourer, Married, born in Ireland. This mistake of birthplace was also made by his brothers Patrick and Jimmy Curran on their 1881 census returns, but was corrected in 1891. The address of Frank Curran at Barrhead was confirmed much later by Ed Dawson of Canada who told me later that Frank lived near his two daughters Mary and Esther. According to Edward Dawson, brother of Cathy Dawson and told to her by him, John McInally was a drinking pal of his father’s and also a wife beater. At one time they lived as neighbours at 301 Main Street, Barrhead and during one of John’s rampages, Cathy Dawson’s mother Esther walked down the hall, knocked on the door and when he opened it, hit him on the head with an iron pot. Rough justice!
I kept on looking at the census returns, now at Cambuslang, Lanarkshire where I knew that my father had often spoken about. I was looking for his brother Patrick who I knew had married in 1890 at Neilston, Renfrewshire, and felt it was worth examining that long industrial belt. I had found that Catherine Curran his daughter had been born at Cambuslang in 1892. I never found him. Instead I found Hugh Moreland and all his family, and lodging with them was Henry Curran, living on his own now that his mother had died. This was indeed a surprise. So they hadn’t gone back down to Northumberland as I had surmised?
Hugh Moreland, his wife Agnes Curran and six children were living at Westburn, Cambuslang Lanarkshire. Apart from Henry Curran lodger, was a visitor, nephew Daniel Cairns who, I was to learn was the son of one of Hugh Moreland’s sisters. Although I could not find my father’s brother Patrick on the 1891 census, I decided to try tracing him on the valuation roll. In 1905 I found the three brothers, Patrick, John and Alexander (Sandy) at Gilbertfield Halfway, Cambuslang. This was a breakthrough because it now showed the brothers together again. But a lot of water had passed under the bridge by this time. My father had joined the Lanarkshire Militia (forerunner of the Territorial Army) in 1895, and was shown as living at 2, Dixon’s Row, Blantyre aged 18 years and four months, born at Ayr, and working at Crofthead Colliery. He married Elizabeth Ann Brown at Coatbridge in 1896. He was promoted from Private to Corporal on 26th May 1898, and then joined the Special Service Section on 24th July 1899, which then made him available for service abroad with the regular forces.
Start of the twentieth Century, 1900-1935
He sailed to South Africa for the Boer War and arrived on 3rd of May 1900 and was promoted to Sergeant on 9th May, six days later, but within 20 days of being promoted he was arrested, on 29th May 1900. He was tried by District Court Martial on the following charges:- 1. Leaving his post without orders from a superior officer. 2. Breaking out of camp. 3. Absenting himself without leave. He was sentenced to be reduced in the ranks to Private on 9th June 1900. He had obviously been celebrating his promotion? I have a photograph dated October 1898 of my father and his brother Patrick in their army uniforms. They must have both been in the Militia and I am certain the Patrick was also in the Boer War. Ian my brother said that Dad had told him this.
Why did they join the army. Was it because, as the records clearly state, that anyone who played a part in the Tattie Strike would be proscribed and barred from a job in the Lanarkshire coalmines? I cannot ignore the fact that the Tattie Strike of 1894 may have had a damaging affect upon Frank Curran’s family. Although I discuss this strike at length in the main document, it is worth noting that (a) my grandfather was no longer a coalminer on the valuation roll of 1895, being shown as employed at Blantyre Works, a blast furnace iron works. (b) that my father at his marriage in 1896 is shown as a tube worker (b) that by 1905, Patrick and my father had left Scotland for Northumberland, (c) and when Sandy married in 1905, he went to live in Fife. (d) finally by 1909 there are none of our family left in Lanarkshire with the exception of Mary Ross Curran who married John McInally. Incidently, she died of the flu’ in 1919, a victim of the epidemic that swept Europe at the latter end of the First World War. When I found the three brothers at Gilbertfield Halfway, Cambuslang in 1905, it gave me the idea of finding the first marriage of Sandy Curran which I had been told about through correspondence from Canada. It had to be before his marriage in 1909 at Stirling which I had found some time before.
Yes, it was on 3rd January 1905 and Sandy was living at 25, Graham’s Road, Gilbertfield Colliery, Cambuslang when he married Helen Clark (see Yesterday’s Journey for details) and his brothers Patrick and John lived close by. I was surprised to find that Paddy Malloy was witness, the same man who walked down to Northumberland later that year with my dad and his brother Patrick. Patrick’s son Francis was born on 19th November 1905 at Gosforth, Northumberland. So yet another story fits the facts discovered so many years later. I also found Paddy Malloy living next door to Sandy Curran in Lochgelly, Fife, where I found the death of Helen Clark in 1909. She had died in child-birth, but a name was given to the child – James Clark Curran. The child died four hours later.
First World War
When I found the second marriage of Sandy Curran at Stirling in 1909, I quickly found Mary Curran, born at 39, Lowercraigs Stirling on 21st December 1909, daughter of Patrick Curran and Rosina McKenna. So at last I had found this mercurial family. I then found the birth of a son, Harry Curran born at 48, Baker Street on 25th January 1912, and sadly, the death of my grandfather at the age of sixty, who died at 48, Baker Street Stirling on 16th April 1912. So one branch of the family had now been traced. But the birth of Harry Curran at Stirling meant that Patrick my father’s brother had returned from Northumberland. That turned out to be the case. More births were found at Stirling, and more marriages. But a development which would have a significant affect upon Patrick and Rosina’s family was to show itself, first with the message to Rosina Curran (Maiden Surname McKenna) at 53, St. Patrick’s Square, Edinburgh, that her son John McKenna Curran had died in action in France/Flanders on 26th April 1915. The horror of the Great War was now upon them. But why was Rosina living at Edinburgh. There were no electoral rolls available during the war, to check, but afterwards in 1920 I found Patrick still living at Stirling.
In 1924, the Australian Archive Immigration records show that Rosina Curran emigrated to Australia with “four of her children” in 1924. Actually, one of the children, John Curran was the son of her daughter Bridget, later to adopt the name of Patricia. The rift between Rosina and Patrick now seemed to be total. Although Rosina returned to Edinburgh with at least two of the children (Harry worked at an Edinburgh hotel for a number of years) nevertheless they returned to Australia and the children married and settled down and a new Australian Curran dynasty was born. In the meantime however, at Paisley in 1911, Esther Curran my father’s sister who had married Edward Dawson, died suddenly at the age of 32yrs. Her children were sent to orphanages (one I know at Fort William) with the exception of Rose, who lived with Patrick and Rosina at Stirling for some years.
However, a number of them were sent to Canada to work on farms, and from that small beginning yet another branch of the family developed, that of the Dawson’s. Edward Dawson, the son of old Edward and Esther Curran, married in Canada and had six sons and six daughters, none unfortunately being named on the beautiful photograph I received of them with their parents. And yet another branch of the family emerges in a far distant country. However, I must refer to Patrick Curran, Rosina’s husband. I met him twice in Edinburgh, living at his daughter Patricia’s house at 7, Belle Vue Crescent in 1932 and 1934. He seemed to me to be a typical nice Scottish Uncle. We were not to know that he would die one year later in 1935. We also of course met Auntie Patsy as we called her and Uncle Adam Grant who we thought was her husband. We did not know it but we were witnessing the end of an era, and eventually almost all of Uncle Patrick’s children would end up in Australia, the exceptions being Partick who now lived at Wallsend-on-Tyne; Catherine who now lived at Edinburgh, and Esther who although she went to Australia before her mother Rosina, returned and settled in Edinbugh.
1935-1997
I must now bring the clan together. I have briefly given a thumbnail sketch covering a period from 1834 to 1935 a period of a hundred years. I have done no more than show how our ancestors lay the foundations of why we are what we are and with the accents that we have, and perhaps, unless you have moved on also, why we are where we are. One thing is certain – we have moved rapidly from the industrial revolution period of the nineteenth century, great though that was with its building of railways and canals, inventions such as the telephone and the electric light bulb, into a period of the twentieth century where we have lived to see men land on the moon, satellites hovering above the earth beaming back pictures to our television sets, and heart transplants and brain surgery in our hospitals. This book is written now at the latter part of the twentieth century and in almost two years time we herald in the 21st century. Let us remember also that, apart from inventions that have enhanced our lives, we have lived through terrible wars in which millions have died; we have polluted the earth with industrial fumes which are causing global warming with its potential for future disasters; that we are cutting down the rain forests faster than they can be grown, with further danger to the world; that acid rain is killing our trees, and drugs are now the greatest threat to our children’s future health and happiness. If it is appropriate to appreciate the efforts of our ancestors on our behalf, perhaps it is also appropriate to stand back and wonder at the future, if we continue to plunder our mineral wealth and allow corporate global companies to build almost at will, to bulldoze our countryside, and to dictate to governments. Perhaps it is our turn to do something for our children’s future, to say stop, surely there is a different and a better way. The alternative is to be ground down by the profit motive of giant corporations!
I hope that you enjoy reading Yesterday’s Journey. I have taken some small advantages by writing of my own family, but that, I suppose is dictated by information being easier to find. I have also included anecdotes, which are mine. I hope you don’t mind. By and large I have attempted to keep a broad aspect, and include as much as I could from other branches of the family. Perhaps you are now inspired to do your own?
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