Pam Smith Potter messaged me saying, “Margaret Aiken Pollock is my grandmother. Now, I’m trying to fill in her tree and have a lot of blanks so I’m hoping you can help. She had several brothers and sisters where we can find no information. All dates are approximate so I’m hoping you can tell me if the they married or perhaps died young? John b. 1883, Annie b 1886, Sarah b 1888, Marion b. 1890, Grace b.1892, Alex b. 1895 and James b. 1898, Maggie b. 1900, Adam b. 1904 and Bella b. 1907. I know you said there were a lot of Pollocks still in the area.”
Margaret Aiken Pollock (Maggie) was born on 23rd August 1900 in Burnbank. Her parents were John Pollock (b1860 in Blantyre) and Grace Brown (b1861) from Mossend.
John and Grace married on 15th July 1881 at Crossrow, Blantyre Works in the Village. Both Johns family and Grace’s were dye workers at the Village. However, the 1880’s saw the mills close and their livelihood disappear almost overnight, with nobody interested in taking over Monteith’s Mills. The event signified a change in profession for John Pollock, turning to labouring at nearby Foundries.
Maggie was the 8th child from 10 to the couple. The first 5 children were all born in Blantyre, the others in Hamilton. As such it is highly probable the family moved from Blantyre to Hamilton between 1892 and 1895. In 1901 they lived in Foundry Rows, in Burnbank, just outside of Blantyre.
John Pollock Junior was born in 1883 and was a barman in 1901. His sister Annie was a dairymaid, aged 15. Sister Sarah was just 13 and working as a domestic servant girl in 1901. Little Maggie was only 7 months old in that census.
Staying with the Blantyre connections, this Pollock family lived at Stonefield in 1891.
Margaret Aiken Pollock married Andrew Smith in Canada on 26th June 1920. Daughter Lillias Grace was born in 1921 in Canada, a Son William Andrew Smith in 1924 in the USA, another daughter Dorothy Mae in 1926, son Ernest Gill in 1927 and another son Leonard John b1931 then Donald James b1932.
Margaret Aiken Pollock died on 24th October 1934 Royal Oak, Michigan, (a US suburb of Detroit) at the young age of only 34 during complications from a 5 month pregnancy.
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Margaret Chalmers Hubby could be related. His gran was Pollock