Harkness – MacGillivray Stories

In my mother’s collection of photos, there are a few photos of my father’s family dating back 80 to 120 years; that is, roughly between 1900 and 1940. Most of these photos are ‘unknown’. Neither my father nor my mother have written detailed notes on the back of the photos, or the notes were a little vague. I don’t know much about my father’s life before he got married in 1940. However, as I was researching and attempting to trace my father’s bloodline on the internet, I came across Paul Harkness’s family tree.

Paul Harkness’s Bloodline

Paul’s father is James Whitecross Harkness. Let’s call him ‘Little James’, although he’s not really little anymore. Little James’ grandfather was also called James Whitecross Harkness, whom we will call ‘Older James’ (1882-1952). ‘Older James’ younger brother was my grandfather, Alexander Whitecross Harkness (1885-1928). Alexander’s father is William Harkness. In other words, William Harkness is the great grandfather of both ‘Little James’ and me. Thus, we may be ‘second cousins’.

I’m not an expert in family tree terminology. The point of this long introduction is to provide some background information about my family’s extended family.

Exchanging emails with Paul and James Whitecross Harkness (2007-2009)

I wrote an email to Paul Harkness in 2007. He lives in the US now. His wife, Carol, replied to me and put me in touch with his father, James, my second cousin. 

I began exchanging emails with my ‘second cousin’ James in 2007, about 15 years ago. I lost contact with him around 2009; it was my fault, as I was very busy working in Australia and in the US teaching Norwegian students then.

I was going to include this exchange in the appendix, but I noticed that it provides so much helpful information. Therefore, I will add it here in the main body of the text. This action will mean there may be a good deal of repetition. I ask for patience from the readers.

I may try and proofread it all at a future date and attempt to remove the ‘repetition.’ But as mentioned before, it is better to repeat oneself than leave something out. As also mentioned, James’s son, Paul, has done considerable work on the Harkness family, listed in the appendix under ‘Paul’s family tree.’

These notes are a little haphazard,  as I did not methodically file away my email exchanges with James. I think the items are of great value because they provide a new line of investigation. I haven’t emailed James for at least ten years or more (as of 2022). Today, I’m focusing on consolidating this work, as it has now been nearly 30 years in gestation.

Cousin Jimmy, Uncle Jimmy, and Grandmother Isabella

As far as I know, my father more or less lost touch with this branch of the family after he got married. I know that he still kept the house in Chesser Loan for a few years after he got married so I’m not really sure when he left Edinburgh for good, but this was probably in 1948.

He was most likely in contact with his cousin Jimmy and his grandmother Isabella (as shown in the photo above). Isabella seemed to play some kind of familial role in his life after his parents died. His father died in 1928 when he was 12 years old; his mother died later in 1934 when he was 18. From what I know, Isabella passed away in 1945. 

Moreover, the people in the photo all lived in the same area in Edinburgh. My father’s Uncle Jimmy lived in Comely Bank Road; this wasn’t far from 134 Gorgie Road, where my father was born. It was also near Chesser Loan, where my father lived with his mother and father! It was also not too far from Isabella’s home at Eyre Place.

Getting clarity about the photos

The photo shown below is in a nice old frame and was certainly a mystery; I remember my mother explaining that it was his uncle Jimmy, his grandmother Isabella, and his cousin James. Nevertheless, I was still unsure of the identities of the people in the photo, especially since I couldn’t always ask my mother about it. I was living in Norway at the time, and  she was well into her eighties by 2007.  

I sent the photo (without names) as an attachment to an email. He was able to provide clarity about this mystery. James said the picture also hung on the wall of his home! Moreover, he was the baby in the photo!

Email 14 Oct 2007 from James

Hi, Ian

What a great surprise to receive from my daughter in law, Carol in Texas, a copy of the Email you sent to her, enclosing the old family photographs. Unfortunately, I do not recognise anyone in the large wedding group photo. But the other one is well known to me.

As you rightly point out, the baby is me. The others are my father, Jimmy ( who died in 1981) my grandfather and my great grandmother Isabella. I remember this photo hanging in my grandfather’s house in Comely Bank Road, Edinburgh, when I was a child. It then appeared in my father’s house after my grandfather died and it now hangs in our family gallery in my house. The photo must have been taken about early in 1939, because I was born on 29-8-1938.

I remember visiting my great grandmother Isabella at her house in Eyre Place Edinburgh. The last time I was taken to see her was when she was lying in bed a few days before she died in 1945.

My grandfather died in 1952, when I was about 13, and I think that I vaguely remember meeting his brother Willie. However I do not know very much about my grandfather’s brothers and sisters, so it is really great when someone like yourself, makes yourself known after all of these years.

I have no photos of my grandfather with any of his brothers or sisters and their families, so I would be really pleased to receive copies of any you may have.
I did discover a family link to a lady who lives in Rutherglen, Victoria, Australia, called Margaret Cowan, who I think was the granddaughter of Willie Harkness, my grandfather’s brother. Margaret I think was the daughter of Flo, who was Willie’s daughter, and I think Flo had a sister called Ella.

I got this information from Aunt Mamie, who was the wife of Charlie Harkness, who was my father’s brother. Mamie died this year at the age of 90.

You have had contact with my eldest son, Paul and his wife Carol, who live near to Houston in Texas, and they have a daughter, Siobhan, born in America. My other son, Michael has lived in Adelaide Australia for many years, his wife is Claire and they have two daughters, Eirenn and Bonnie. My sister Eleanor has lived in Canada since the 1960’s with her husband Ronnie, They have a daughter Evelyn and son Charlie, and Evelyn and her husband have a son Ian and daughter, Sandra.

So you can see that you now have distant American, Canadian and Australian cousins as well as Scottish ones.I have attached a photo of myself and my wife Maureen taken in September on a visit to my sister in Canada, so that you can see how the baby in the old photo has turned into an old age pensioner !!!
All the best,
James Harkness

This description, of course, does not follow the main chronological principle used here. But as mentioned, thematic considerations will sometimes contradict the chronological principle. As I have been considering some old ‘mysterious’ photos, I may as well conclude on this subject. So I will share two pictures of ‘ancient’ unknown Whitecross relatives here with the only hint: Orkney and Wick.

I have tried before to find the identities of family members in my father’s photos of his old relations. I started on this ‘project’ several years ago without success.

However, not wanting to give up, I tried again. My mother has written on the back of one of the photos: “Whitecrosses. Granny Harkness’s (Alex’s) parents. Orkney or Wick.” Thus, the information is simple. Using Paul Harkness’s family tree, I searched for the ‘missing’ relations on the ScotlandsPeople website.  

Whitecrosses

Isabella’s parents

Isabella’s parents,  James Whitecross and Margaret Picken were married in Edinburgh in 1845 (see the certificate in the Appendix: ‘ScotlandsPeople’). Thus, it seems ever more doubtful that I can locate the Whitecrosses in Wick or Orkney. 

I found the marriage certificate of Alexander Whitecross and Marion Nisbet in 1816 at St Cuthberts in Edinburgh (see the certificate in the Appendix: ‘ScotlandsPeople’). Thus, for the time being I will give up looking for the ‘Wick and Orkney’ connection, and perhaps leave it up to others, as there are many documents online.²

I will be sharing more of what I discovered from the family photos and my email exchanges with second cousin James in the next posts.

Notes

² In the email from my second cousin James Whitecross Harkness 28 October 2007 he proposes that the old couple could be William Harkness (born 1834 ) and Lillias Hunter (born 1838 (sic) –should be 1837). This is certainly one hypothesis, as Lillias was born in Lerwick, Shetland (not Orkney as written by my mother on the backside of the photo); but at least this is a neighbouring group of islands.  Moreover, the note made by my mother is perhaps confusing, it is written: “Whitecrosses – Granny Harkness’ (Alex’s) parents. Orkney or Wick.”

There are two problems with this hypothesis. First of all, the photo seems to have been taken outside an apartment – which judging from the door and walls seems to be an apartment built in the late 1800s or early 1900s in an urban area. 

The fact that the apartment did not have electric lighting might explain why the photo was taken OUTSIDE the apartment (Electric lighting in homes was not common in the late nineteenth and early nineteenth century). But the fact it is a tenement building also suggests that the photo was taken in an urban area such as Edinburgh and not in a rural area such as Orkney or Shetland.  However, popular photography was introduced in the late nineteenth century. 

The second objection to the hypothesis is that the Whitecrosses were not related to Lillias Hunter! (see Paul’s family tree). 

In other words, this is just a hypothesis, but not one which is very credible.  

But at least we have established something here – that the note on the backside of the photo should have said “ORIGINATING FROM Orkney or Wick” (as the photo seems to have been taken in an urban area). More credibility is given to the idea of my father’s connections with Wick regarding the fact that he moved to Wick with my mother, and brother Gavin, in the late 1960s.