Topic: A Breakthrough Moment.

I wasn’t getting very far with my wider Glasgow-based Johnston famiiy. Census entries were useful but not always to be trusted, with multiple common names like Charles, George, Peter and Mary.

I had established that my GGGF Charles Johnston was born in 1797 and died in 1848, and that he married Mary Learmonth in Glasgow. They had seven children including Charles b. 1817, plus George, Peter, Robert, Alexander, John and Mary. The elder Charles died in 1848 aged 56; he did not leave a will but I discovered a huge legal document signed by two of his sons and his wife, who ”… entered upon the management of the deceased’s personal Estate”. So I can be certain of his date of death.

I knew Charles was buried in the Southern Necropolis, Glasgow. So I contacted the Necropolis office in the hope that some more information would be forthcoming. It was!

they told me that either Charles or his son a younger Charles (born 1817) was the registered owner of a lair (grave), and there was a huge tombstone … (Incidentally I am very lucky to have this photo as I’ve been told it has since fallen over).

Curiously the top portion is engraved IS … 42 (Isaiah 42?). The property of Charles Johnston”. But which one? Charles Senior, born 1797, died in 1848; his son Charles (born 1817) and also his wife Isabella are known to have died before 1857. Their son, yet another Charles, was born about 1838 and died in 1857 – his death certificate says both his parents were deceased.

The monument has Charles’ name and two others. One is George Johnston (d. 1906), son of Charles and Isabella; the other is Jessie Johnston, who was George’s wife. The surprise was that another five people aged between 2 months and 82 years, who died between 1848 and 1935, were also interred in this lair according to the Necropolis office – who helpfully gave me full details of their names, death dates and ages.

With all these names and the certain knowledge that they were part of my wider family, I was able to expand my family tree. Modern-day DNA matching has turned up several distant cousins all easily traceable to Charles Johnston and Mary Learmonth.

As to why the second Charles and his wife Isabella were not buried there, I surmise that either there is another undiscovered lair nearby, which seems unlikely, or that they succumbed to typhoid or cholera and had to be buried quickly in a mass grave – there were known outbreaks in 1848 and 1853. Glasgow was desperately overcrowded at the time with fresh water and sewerage problems.

So although learning the names of the family members buried the lair undoubtedly gave me a breakthrough, it also raised some more questions.

(Amendment – after some discussion it is agreed the top of the tombstone is a biblical reference – Isaiah 52. )