Hi Ed
I got your pm but can't reply to it, so am posting a reply here. Yes, we’re very distantly related through Janet Strachan.
You can read about the early Ayrshire Strachans at my blog/web site at
http://judyfamhist.wordpress.comJanet was the 5th child of Peter Strachan, coal miner, and Ann Houston. Peter Strachan and Ann Houston married on 16 October 1829 at Kilmarnock. Ann Houston was the daughter of James Houston and Janet Mayne and was born 1811 in Kilmarnock.
Janet Strachan was born 13 September 1841 at Kilmrnock. in the 1851 ccensus at age 9 she’s with her parents and siblings at 2 Corsehill Square, Dreghorn. Her mother Ann Houston died in the early 1850s and her father remarried in 1856 at Riccarton to Elizabeth Clark.
Janet’s father Peter Strachan was the informant on the death registrstion of his nephew Robert Strachan, who died 9 November 1860 age 13 in a mining accident. The mine was at Hurlford and owened by Allan Gilmour, related to the Strachans by marriage, and where Peter Strachan’s brother Robert was the pit manager. Interestingly, in 1898 Robert Strachan won a prize given by a newspaper for being one of the oldest miners still working. He started his working life at the age or 7 or 8 at Moorfield Pit, which is no doubt how his brother Peter, father of Janet, started his mining life.
In 1861 Peter and Elizabeth Strachan were living in Loudon but daughter Janet isn’t with them. In 1871 they’re at New Cumnock and in 1881 at 32 Burnbank Row, Galston. Peter Strachan died 9 July 1881 at Burnbank Row, Galston age 71 years from congestion of the lungs.
Peter Strachan was born 31 December 1810 at Riccarton, the son of Peter Strachan, a coal miner, and Mary Monroe. The elder Peter Strachan was born 26 February 1784 in the parish of Irvine, son of Thomas Strachan and Susannah Alexander.
I’m descended from John Strachan, son of Thomas Strachan and Susannah Alexander. There’s more about them on my blog.
Regards,
Judy
