Theme: A Record That Adds Color.

I’ve chosen to interpret this theme a little differently. 

My Scottish Great Great Grandfather Dr. Thomas Lyle had a brother, John Lyle (1789-1822). For a long time I knew little about John, then discovered he had been a soldier in the 51st Regiment of Foot and had fought at Waterloo. I paid a researcher in London to go to the National Archives where she discovered a whole set of papers about him. Initially a foot soldier, he must have shown promise as he was promoted to Sergeant, then at the time of Waterloo he was made Colour Sergeant – ie he was privileged to carry the banner of the Regiment into battle. According to Wikipedia, “… the colour sergeant was a non-commissioned officer rank that is above sergeant and below warrant officer class 2. This rank, introduced in 1813, is typically responsible for training and discipline within a company and is considered prestigious due to its historical role in protecting the regimental colors during battles.”

Somehow John survived Waterloo; by then he and his wife had 2 children and after the battle his Regiment was one of those which remained in France. His wife either followed the Regiment or joined it at Valenceinnes, for that is where she bore their third child. 

But within a few years he and his family were off to Jamaica, where he speedily succumbed to yellow fever. It is not known what happened to his wife, but the official papers say he left three orphaned children “in the care of the Regiment”. I have been unable to trace them further.

Week 1, 2026.

Theme: An Ancestor I Admire.

My Scottish GGMother Margaret Lyle (1827-1925), born in Glasgow, spent much of her chidlhood in Airth, Stirlngshire – a small village where her father Dr. Thomas Lyle (1791-1859) practiced – although it would seem he was more inclined to write poetry and to follow his hobby of bryology, spending long days in the surounding hills. He still found time to fill in the Census entries for his neighbours! Margaret had three brothers and three sisters. Dr. Lyle seems to have neglected the education of his daughters at least as Margaret signed her name with a cross. She married cabinet maker and precentor (choir leader) Alexander Johnston in Glasgow in 1853 when aged 26; the 1851 Census showed her living in Glasgow with her sisters and working as a cap maker. Dr. Lyle could not have been a good provider!

Margaret and Alexander Johnston emigrated to Tasmania at the bottom of Australia in 1854, only a few months after her mother died. The voyage took 71 days in the stormiest seas of the world. By then they had a small son, Charles, less than a year old; then a few weeks after arrival Margaret was delivered of another son, George. How did she cope with baby Charles and life aboard the Immigrant ship? 

The family settled in Launceston, Tasmania where eventually a daughter and final son arrived, the latter when Margaret was over 40. Later her two sisters also emigrated, but they lived in a different part of Tasmania. 

Margaret’s second son George, the one almost born at sea, was to lose his life at sea aged 29 in 1855. After years serving as a seaman on the huge windjammers which sailed the world’s oceans (I have many of his letters written home over that time from all over the world which show his deep affection for his family) George must have decided to settle a little closer to home, becoming second officer on an almost-new coastal steamer. But tragedy struck on a moonlit night just off the Australian coast when the ship hit rocks;  fortunately help was not too far away but after working all night helping offload passengers to a nearby steamer, George (by then probably exhausted, and thinly clad) insisted on returning to the wreck for the mail and was swept overboard and lost. 

Margaret’s husband Alexander died in 1906, aged 76, and Margaret moved to Sydney to be near her surviving children, all married with their own children. In her old age Margaret was mainly with her daughter and granddaughter – yet another Margaret (1896-1978) who lived quite close to my own Grandfather. All the Huxtable children lived long lives, the eldest to 90, but Margaret trumped that, living to 97. Photos of her show a tiny upright little lady.

How I wish I had known her!