Harkness – MacGillivray Stories

I have obtained the marriage certificate from ScotlandsPeople. I have the original certificate as well. The advantage of official documents is that they rarely lie. The interesting thing is that even after years of looking at documents, you sometimes just don’t ‘see’ things. However, they still need to be interpreted because the bare facts can also be misleading. 

St. George’s Church

“Alex”⁵ and Rhoda got married on 4 October 1940 at St. George’s Church, Glasgow. My mother lived at 29 Scotia Street, which was demolished around 50-60 years ago to make way for the M8 motorway. St. George’s Church, which is near St. George’s Square, is a Presbyterian church. It is less than half a mile from Scotia Street.⁶

Cutting out details about ‘profession’ on official documents

I’m sitting here in August 2022, holding my parents’ original marriage certificate, which has been in my possession for about two decades. The intriguing thing is that the ‘profession’ of my mother has been cut out (perhaps with a razor blade). According to the digital official document (from ScotlandsPeople), it says that my mother was a “domestic servant”.  

I suspect my mother was the one wielding the razor, as calling her a “domestic servant,” as if she were some sort of skivvy, must have been insulting for her. If nothing else, my mother was a very proud woman, like all the Western Islanders. The fact is, my mother was not a “domestic servant” when she married my father. She first met him while working at the Highlanders Institute. She told me:

“I worked at the Highlanders’ Institute, Elmbank Street, Glasgow where I met your father in 1940. He was billeted there as he was in the R.N.V.R. The Institute was a series of clubs which provided accommodation for people visiting Glasgow from the Highlands of Scotland.” 

In other words, this was a job to be doubly proud of. It connected her to her Gaelic/Celtic roots, while also indicating that she was contributing to the war effort.

⁵ My father’s name was “Alexander”. However, my mother and other people never pronounced his whole name. A short form of Alexander is “Alex”. To confuse matters, my eldest brother was also named “Alexander”. To confuse matters even further, no one called him Alexander, but Sandy. I say this is confusing, because my eldest brother had dark red hair, suggesting he was, genetically, closely related to the Viking ancestors of my great grandfather, Ruaridh Campbell. The rest of the family had black hair. One is tempted to find other explanations, but we will not go down that road here. I mentioned above that it is “confusing” that he was called “Sandy”, because the name “Sandy” can be explained by at least two reasons. To begin, “Sandy” is a diminutive of the name Alexander. Confusingly, “Sandy” can also be used as a nickname for a child with pale red hair – however, my brother has dark red hair. To add more to the confusion, some people also called my father “Sandy” (like his workmates). To add even further to the confusion, while the diminutive of Alexander is spelt “Alex”, it is perhaps often pronounced “Aleck” or “Alick”. To add even more to the confusion, some people are also given the name Alick orthographically, such as my uncle Alick. 

⁶ http://discuss.glasgowguide.co.uk/Memories-Of-Scotia-Street-New-City-Road-t16668.html Date of reading: 2 Jan. 2022.