Pollock Family Ancestry

Blantyre People
5 Comments

Pam Potter Smith emailed me in December to say, “I’m related to John Pollock 1818-1893 m. Sarah Wheelan. John is the son of John Pollock 1781- who married Marion Robb 1797-1896. I have not been able to find Sarah Wheelan’s parents nor the parents of John Pollock and Marion Robb. Can you give me any direction. Love the web site, I just found it today while doing some research. My grandmother was Margaret Aiken Pollock 8-23-1900 Burnbank d 10-24-1934 Royal Oak, MI. Regards, Pam Smith-Potter”

Hi Pam – Thanks for your email. I’m always amazed at how many links there are to the Pollock family. I think this was rather a large family, if I have the right tree.

screen-shot-2016-12-10-at-23-16-30

I’ve not been able to find the parents of John b1781 or Marion  b1797, but I was interested to see they were married in Dalserf Church, which is where I was married in 2006. I think it was John who originally came from Dalserf. He would have been most interested as a young man to learn of Mills being built at Blantyre and New Lanark.
The Pollock family all noted in the attached tree (which I have mapped out here) all mostly settled in Blantyre in the 19th Century. They lived very close to each other at Cross Row, Mid Row, Waterloo Row and Front Row. These were the homes of the Monteith family who owned the mills and let the houses out to mill workers. They lived beside David Livingstone and indeed could have walked from their home to his in a minute or so. I’m sure would have followed the news about their famous explorer neighbour very closely as his life story unfolded.
Many of the Pollock family worked in the mills and there is a fairly large Pollock family still in Blantyre today. I hope this is of some interest and that some of this family tree makes sense to you.
On social media:
Sharon Morrison Doonin Sharon Longmuir x
Sharon Longmuir John Pollock,  Jim Pollock, Jean Nicoll, Alex Graham, Carol Pollock, Billy Tait. Any of you old ones know more than me 😂😂😂
Wendy Wilson I have an Agnes .Robb GG Granny from Dalserf – married John Scott

The Blantyre Project Pollock family is one of the oldest names I’ve found in Blantyre. I can easily track them to the 1600’s, and may have been here even before that!

In recent weeks I’ve been investigating some of the Pollock family going to America in the 1700s, (leaving Blantyre and setting sail to the New World at a time when there was only 500,000 colonists in America!) They went on to set up successful lives in Virginia, resulting in streets being named after them and had associations through marriage with presidential links. I’ve now looked at this in real detail and look forward to publishing in here soon in several parts. Despite their successes, it appears it was driven by Southern slave ownership and vast plantations were owned by Pollocks derived from Blantyre.

A derivative of Pollock is the name Polk. I should point out this is a separate story entirely to the Pollocks in this particular original article today, but they may have the same ancestry way back in the 1600s.

The Pollocks are one of the largest families i have ever encountered in Blantyre research. There must be literally thousands of them all over the world today descended from old Blantyre stock.

Sharon Longmuir Thank you so much for this. We understand that the name derived from Polk and associated with President John Polk. My cousin Alex Graham (mother May Pollock) knows the full history of this. I would be greatly interested if you find out anymore information. Thank you so much The Blantyre Project!
Elizabeth Siemens My maiden name is Pollock. We emigrated to Canada in 1968 from Hamilton. My father was Hugh McCallum Pollock, son of John Mowbray Pollock and Sarah McCallum. My mother is Elizabeth Izatt Leggate from Blantyre. I believe my maternal grandmother, Elizabeth Izatt, was born in Rutherglen in 1901. My grandfather was Thomas Leggate.
Norma Lawrence Marr We have the Pollock surname in our family line as well. Helen Pollock born in 1782 in Blantyre and died December 12, 1856, aged 74. She is my 4th great grandmother and was married to Robert Downie.

5 Comments

Add a Comment
  1. Elaine Wernsing
    Elaine Wernsing

    My gt grandfather, James Pollock, is recorded in the 1891 census as living in Cross Row with his parents, Andrew Pollock and Agnes (Leadbetter) and his siblings. I know he had other relatives living there but I’ve not yet made those connections. My gran told me that a relative of her father’s had donated a cream jug that had belonged to the Livingstone family to the museum. I don’t know if that’s true but sounds possible!

    Reply
  2. Val
    Val

    My family tree consists of Pollocks who were farmers in Kilbarchan. They also owned extensive properties and land in the surrounding area.

    Reply
  3. C7Vu6ZOEEX2jGpJJRWIaSB/gPB4k4ENfQpSsKheEI3Y=
    C7Vu6ZOEEX2jGpJJRWIaSB/gPB4k4ENfQpSsKheEI3Y=

    Thanks Paul. I’ve just seen a document with possibly Marion Firth being married to John Pollock and not Marion Robb. Do you have any Firth’s?

    Reply
  4. paulveverka
    paulveverka

    Hi Pam – if you click on the picture now, you should be able to open it larger. I’ve now made it more readable. Paul.

    Reply
  5. C7Vu6ZOEEX2jGpJJRWIaSB/gPB4k4ENfQpSsKheEI3Y=
    C7Vu6ZOEEX2jGpJJRWIaSB/gPB4k4ENfQpSsKheEI3Y=

    Is it possible to make this tree larger? I can’t read any name on it. Thanks
    Pam Smith-Potter

    Reply

Leave a Reply