Introduction

When I first became interested in researching my family history I asked my parents what they knew of their origins. My father thought that his grandfather had been an only child and that possibly his father had been called Andrew.

In those days there were few online sources of information and I had to start my research by paying for a certified copy of my great-great grandfather’s death certificate. From this I learnt that his name had been Joseph, his wife Agnes Waugh and his parents James Shaw and Janet Jaffrey. The certificate also revealed that they had at least one other son, William, who acted as informant. Not a bad start!

The 1881 Census, digitised by the Church of Later Day Saints, revealed four more children. Once the General Register Office for Scotland’s records went on line I was able to determine that Joseph Shaw and Agnes Waugh had had a total of thirteen children, so much for son James being an only child. Of the 13 only 8 survived to adulthood and only 7 outlived both parents.

There is a sandstone memorial in the Old Kirkyard of the parish church in Cumbernauld Vilage that commemorates the parents of Joseph Shaw, himself, his wife, Agnes Waugh, and all of their children who died in Scotland, except James, who is commemorated alongside his wife, Margaret Whitecross and her parents on a stone in the adjacent cemetery.

Joseph Shaw and Agnes Waugh

Joseph Shaw was brought up at his parents, James Shaw and Janet Jaffrey's farm, Glenhead, to the East of Cumbernauld. He married Agnes Waugh, brought up with parents John Waugh and Agnes Mackie, living at the adjacent Crowbank. They married 31 July 1846 and took on the tenancy of Stand farm, to the South of Cumbernauld. Here they had eleven children together. Three died there in childhood.

In 1865 they took on the tenancy of Carrickstone farm, just to the West of Cumbernauld village. Here they had another two children, one died in childhood and one, born at Stand, was killed in a railway accident.

Joseph Shaw died here 21 February 1883, aged 74, while his wife, Agnes Waugh, initially retired near Cumbernauld, then moved to Glasgow where she died 15 March 1905, aged 76.

Lifespan Comparison

Although 13 children were born to Agnes Waugh it can be seen that only for a few months did she have 10 children alive and by the time Joseph Shaw died he was father to only 7 living children. For the children that made it into adulthood they survived an average of 66 years.

Agnes Shaw

Born 8 Nov 1846 at Stand Farm, New Monkland. Died Stand Farm, New Monkland, aged 8.

James Shaw

Born 17 Dec 1847 at Stand Farm, New Monkland. Married 19 Nov 1875 to Margaret Whitecross, daughter of Alexander Whitecross , Factor of the Cumbernauld estate. Became a dairyman in Cumbernauld and then Glasgow. Later took on Ramoan Farm, Glenboig. Father to 8 children of which 7 survived to adulthood. My great-grandfather. Died 23 May 1935 at Gartcosh.

John Shaw

Born 21 Dec 1849 at Stand Farm, New Monkland. He was probably the first son to leave home, enterying the biscuit and cake trade in Glasgow. Around 1874 he took on a dairy across the road from his brother, James, at 29 East John Street. He only did this for a year or so, going back into biscuit and cake trade, being described as a van man when he married 4 Jan 1878 Agnes Main from Glenhead farm, neighbour to Carrickstone farm, Cumbernauld. They set up home in Lumsden Street, Glasgow but sadly he died 9 January 1878 only five days after their marriage. He was just aged 28. Widow Agnes Main went to work as a dairy maid. She was at Machibreg farm Argyll in 1881. Later she emigrated to Australia where eventually she was admitted to Sunbury asylum where she died on 4 Feruary 1921 aged 63.

Joseph Waugh Shaw

Born at Stand Farm, New Monkland, 14 July 1851. Died Stand Farm, New Monkland, 22 March 1852, aged 10 months.

Janet Shaw

Born Stand Farm, New Monkland, 2 January 1853. Died Stand Farm, New Monkland, 27 July 1854, aged 1 year 7 months.

Agnes Shaw

Born on 21 January 1856 at Stand Farm, New Monkland. She was brought up at Carrickstone farm, Cumbernauld and most likely still living there when her father died. Sometime after that, around 1883, she became housekeeper to William Young, a chemist, working for a family starch and gum making business at Castleglen, living at Braehead, East Kilbride. His first wife, Elizabeth Pollock, mother of 7 children, died 18 December 1881. Married William Young.

Agnes Shaw married William Young on 31 October 1884, a month later she wrote to her mother, apparently still living at Carrickstone farm:-

Agnes and William would go on to have another 6 childen together. One of these childen, Margaret Whitecross Young, was born at Ramoan, the farm of her brother James on 2 November 1891, clearly named after her sister-in-law, Margaret Whitecross.

Agnes died on 10 May 1905, aged 48, just two months after her mother, Agnes Waugh.

Joseph Shaw

Born 12 October 1857 at Stand Farm, New Monkland. Joseph Married Elizabeth MacKay on 1 June 1883 in Glasgow when he was resident at 183 Bellfield Street but described as a farmer in Cumbernauld. This was four months after his father had died. Elizabeth MacKay lives at the same address, (this is a building with eight households sharing the same street door). Perhaps he initialy worked with his brother, a few streets to the East, in John Street West? By 1884 he was operating his own dairy at 208 Main Street, Bridgeton, with a house at number 82.

Elizabeth and Joseph have five children together, though the first two, Catherine and Joseph, die in early childhood. George had a long career in the Navy and lived to be 71. Elizabeth married Peter Jack and emmigrates to the USA in the early 1920s, where they have a daughter, Elizabeth, in 1925. The mother, Elizabeth died aged 54. The youngest son, Joseph, originally employed at Howden's of Scotland Street, joined the Highland Light Infantry and was killed in 1915, serving in France.

Following the death of his first wife, Elizabeth, Joseph married her adopted sister, Margaret, on 11 April 1900. by now Joseph has moved to Cubie Street. They had two daughters, Margaret and Agnes. Margaret worked for her uncle Joseph at Ramoan farm before she married Robert Shearer on 11 October 1934. This was a short-lived marriage as she died 22 May 1937, pre-deceasing her mother who died 15 February 1953 aged 84. Sister, Agnes, (Dollie), married William Robertson on 17 december 1931. They had a daughter, Dorothea. Dollie died in 1966.

Joseph had moved his dairy business to 115 Main Street, Bridgeton by 1913. He also had the lease on a shop and house at 11/13 Camden Street where his sister Annie Shaw Browne was a milk dealer. Joseph died 28 December 1929, aged 72.

Janet Shaw

Born 18 January 1859 at Stand Farm, New Monkland. Brought up at Carrickstone farm, Cumbernauld, where she was still living there in 1881. On 14 February 1882 she married Thomas Main, described a a ploughman, who had been brought up on a neighbouring farm. Both were aged 23. (Agnes Shaw's older brother, John and Thomas Main's older sister Agnes had a tragically short-lived marriage two years previously, so each was marrying an inlaw).

Janet and Thomas had 10 children together. They emigrated to Saskatchewan, Canada in 1912, when Janet was 53.

Annie Shaw

Born 4 February 1861 at Stand Farm, New Monkland. Brought up at Carrickstone farm where she was the last daughter to leave hime. She married widower Married John Eccles Browne on 28 July 1911 when she was 50. They were both living in tenaments at 15 Camden Street, Glasgow at the time.

She ran a dairy leased by her brother Joseph at 11/13 Camden Street. (Neice Bella Main, daughter of sister Janet, stayed at 38 Camden Street in 1916, but Annie might have moved away by then).

Annie's husband died, aged 64, died on 20 January 1922. By then they were living at 285 Crown Street, Glasgow.

Annie attended her nephew Thomas Shaw's wedding in 1923, along with Thomas' father, James.

Annie moved to 691 Cathcart Road, Glasgow, where she died 23 September 1932, aged 71.

Robert Shaw

Born on 14 April 1863 at Stand Farm, New Monkland, the last child to be born at Stand.

Robert was knocked down by an express train at Dullatur station after leaving an evening train from Glasgow. He died at Carrickstone farm, Cumbernauld in the early hours of 30 April 1879, just two weeks after his 16^th birthday.

William Marshall Shaw

Born on 8 April 1866 at Carrickstone Farm, Cumbernauld, the first child to be born there.

William, aged 16, was the last son of Joseph Shaw and Agnes Waugh to be still living at Carrickstone when his father died on 21 February 1883.

In November 1887 he set off for Australia in the company of his brothers-in-law, George and William Main. In September 1891 he married first-generation immigrant Ellen Loretta O’Grady of Irish Catholic heritage. They had three children together, the first Robert, died aged 7. The second boy, Donald, entered the priesthood and became well established arount Devonport, Tasmania. Donald took a World Tour and was able to visit his cousins at Ramoan farm, Glenboig in August 1937.

William and Lorreta's third child, baptised Mary Amelia. styled herself as Marie Angela and was married twice, apparently without issue.

Mary Shaw

Born on 17 June 1868 at Carrickstone Farm Cumbernauld. The second and last child to be born there. Sadly only survived seven months, she died at Carrickstone Farm, Cumbernauld on 22 January 1869.