Macnab of Glasgow

[kenneth cooke]

Thanks for your reply Peter.
So Lydia was my grandfather's cousin, your grandfather was my father's 2nd cousin, and your father was my third cousin. That makes you my 3rd cousin, once removed, to be exact.
I guess you live in Scotland. You could easily pop over to Dublin, and visit Sweny's chemist shop (museum) and present yourself as a descendant of the Swenys, in fact, your gr.gr. grandmother Thomasina Sweny was a first cousin of the chemist. By the way, they pronounce it as 'Swenny'.
Cheers for now,
Ken

[arch05071980]

Good Morning Ken,
Funnily enough I have pencilled in a visit to Dublin for Bloom's Day 2016 (can't go this year) to visit Frederick Sweny's chemist shop in Lincoln Place. My son Colin's partner is a beautiful Dublin girl...I wonder if family history will be repeated?!
My wife Jean (nee Cursiter...Orcadian roots!) and I, live in West Linton, an expanding village some fifteen miles south of Edinburgh (only ten miles if you're selling property!) and have done so for thirty-three years since we moved out from the capital.
My third post...what happens now?
Cheers,
Peter.

[kenneth cooke]

Hi Peter. Don't you mean Good Evening ? It's 5 pm here !
Congratulations on completing your third post. What you do now is send me a note via PMS- Personal Message System. You find one of my posts and on the left side at the bottom you'll see two small circles , one with a figure, head & shoulders, and the one on the right looks like a page with writing on it. You click on the right hand one, and a new page comes up, where you write your message. There's a box headed by "TO" with my name underneath. I think you're meant to just copy it into the box.
You can safely write your email address, or I can reply and give you mine. I have all my family histories on Word program, convenient to send by email.
Good luck !
Ken

[kenneth cooke]

After some correspondence with James Cooke Macnab's daughter and great nephew, I can add a few details to the story.
J.C.Macnab and his two brothers went off to fight in WW1, and all returned home safely. James was awarded the Military Cross for his actions at the Battle of the Somme in 1916.
He seems to have suffered from loss of hearing, and became totally deaf by 1942, but it was not recognised as a war-time injury.
He served in India after the war, training Indian soldiers, and learned to speak Urdu.
He never worked after 1934 and made a healthy income from investing on the stock market. He enjoyed an independent life-style and made several world cruises.
His medals were put up for sale by his family, and the proceeds were to go to a charity hospital for returned service-men.