Theme: Letters and Diaries

My Great Grandfather Alexander Johnston (1829-1906) came from a family of seven, and from all accounts they were a loving, tight-knit family.

Only one sibling emigrated from their home town of Glasgow, and that was Alexander, who with his wife Margaret (Lyle) and little son Charles made the long journey to Tasmania in southern Australia, through some of the stormiest seas in the world. That was in 1855, the passage having taken 71 days on the perhaps aptly named “Storm Cloud”.

They must have kept in close touch with their Glasgow siblings. The only way would have been by letter transported via sailing ship. Such letters would have been very eagerly awaited. So much so that it became a custom to have a photograph taken holding a letter …. As in this precious photograph.

It shows Alexander’s older brother Peter Johnston (1824-1916) and his wife Agnes (Todd) (1829-1902). The photo is doubly precious as it is the only one which survived a house flooding which resulted in all earlier family mementos, photographs, etc being destroyed. Somehow this one survived.

We do not have any of the letters received by Alexander, but we do have a number of letters written to his Tasmanian-based family by his son George Johnston (1855-1885), an ocean-going merchant seaman. He frequently visited his aunts and uncles in Glasgow and mentioned them in his letters, including Uncle Peter and Agnes. George’s letters will doubtless be covered in a later theme.