Wood / Neilson / Main family of Falkirk / Shieldhill

[andrew shanks]

Jessie Wood was born in 1825 and died in 1890 in Shieldhill near Polmont in Stirlingshire.  She was the daughter of William Wood and Mary Main and married William Neilson 22 February 1845 in Shieldhill.

I am seeking any information about siblings of Jessie Wood and also of her ancestors.

I would be grateful for any assistance. 

[apanderson]

Hi Coonwarra,

Have you thought about finding out where Jessie was buried? There are quite a number of graveyards/cemeteries local'ish to Shieldhill. You mentioned Polmont . . . there is Polmont Old Parish Church Graveyard and also Grand Sable Cemetery. If you have Jessie's exact date of death, the Cemetery records office in Camelon might be able to tell you where she is.

If you already know the date or can find it out, I live quite near so I could either go into the Records Office for you or/and then see if I can find her grave and take a photograph, if there is a stone. You can sometimes get lots of information about other members of the same family from MI's, some of which you didn't know even existed.

Anne

[andrew shanks]

Hi Anne

Thank you very much for your reply and your kind offer of assistance. 

Jessie Wood died 5 July 1890 in Shieldhill House, West Shieldhill, Polmont, Stirlingshire.  I believe that her husband William Neilson was a farmer in Shieldhill.

I have no idea where she was buried but I imagine that it would be in the Falkirk area somewhere as I have been told that her family owned Burnbrae House near Camelon at one time and her son William Wood Neilson was the provost of Falkirk - I believe that Neilson Street  in Falkirk is named after him.

I would be very grateful for any assistance that you can give.

[audrey]

Jessie Wood was born in 1825 and died in 1890 in Shieldhill near Polmont in Stirlingshire.  She was the daughter of William Wood and Mary Main and married William Neilson 22 February 1845 in Shieldhill.

I am seeking any information about siblings of Jessie Wood and also of her ancestors.

I would be grateful for any assistance. 



WOOD, James George   Bir   1818   Scot   Stir   Slaman
Fa:   William WOOD
Mo:   Mary MAIN
WOOD, Robert   Bir   1821   Scot   Stir   Slaman
Fa:   William WOOD
Mo:   Mary MAIN
WOOD, Janet   Bir   1823   Scot   Stir   Slaman
Fa:   William WOOD
Mo:   Mary MAIN
WOOD, Susanna   Bir   1826   Scot   Stir   Slaman
Fa:   William WOOD
Mo:   Mary MAIN
WOOD, William   Bir   1830   Scot   Stir   Slaman
Fa:   William WOOD
Mo:   Mary MAIN
WOOD, John   Bir   1833   Scot   Stir   Slaman
Fa:   William WOOD
Mo:   Mary MAIN
WOOD, William   Bir   1836   Scot   Stir   Slaman
Fa:   William WOOD
Mo:   Mary MAIN
WOOD, Thomas   Bir   1839   Scot   Stir   Slaman
Fa:   William WOOD
Mo:   Mary MAIN

i hope this lot helps


audrey

[apanderson]

Hi Coonwarra,

I've taken a note of all the details, hopefully I should have some good news by the end of the week!

Anne

[andrew shanks]

Audrey - thank you so much for this information.  However, I must admit that I am now a little confused!  The information that I was given previously was that William Wood & Mary Main had the following children:

James Wood b1818
Robert Wood b1818
Susan Wood b1823
Jessie Wood b1825
John Wood b1830
William Wood b1834
Thomas Wood b1837

Unfortunately, this data was received 2nd hand and did not come with birth places or sources so I cannot vouch for it's accuracy.  I am now wondering whether 'Jessie b1825' is correct.  This is certainly the name that she was known by and the date & location of death should be correct, so hopefully Anne will be able to identify more information.

Despite a few discrepancies with the siblings it does seem very likely that you have found the right family.

[apanderson]

Hi Coonwarra,

Went to the Records Office yesterday. Unfortunately they had no record of Jessie's death or place of burial which probably means she was buried in Polmont Old Parish Churchyard. The man in the records office told me that a lot of Polmon't records got lost in a fire a good number of years ago, he's unsure of what the time span was in these so that was a bit of a disappointment.

I'm going to look for some other people in this Graveyard in roughly two weeks time so I'll add Jessie to my list. If there is a headstone, I'll photograph it and copy the inscription just in case it's hard to make out from the photo.

The only other way forward after that would be to contact the Session Clerk of the Church and find out which exact records got lost.

Have you got more details of her son William? If he was provost it shouldn't be too difficult tracking him down.

Anne

[andrew shanks]

Hello Anne

Thank you very much for the time that you have spent on this.  I would be very interested in any details that you can find about Jessie Wood and her ancestors.

Her son William Wood Neilson was an interesting character - I have quite a lot of info on him - he was born in Greenwells farm in Shieldhill in 1853 and married Janet Allan 1877. 

He developed an aerated waters business which I believe was sold the Barrs soft drinks company.  He was also in charge of Falkirk Council's sanitation dept and the local fire brigade before becoming the town Provost.

William Wood Neilson died in 1915 and may be buried at Camelon Cemetary, although I am not sure about this.

The family history is quite complicated because his sister Jessie Wood Neilson who was my 2nd gr grandmother married Janet Allan's brother William (my 2nd gt grandfather).

Thanks once again

Andrew

[apanderson]

Andrew aka Coonwarra,

I finally managed to get to the library today and found lots of stuff on William Wood Neilson.

Among it is a very impressive obituary from The Falkirk Herald dated Wednesday May 15th 1907 which also mentions a bit about his mother. Did you know that his father was a poet and had letters from "the late Queen Victioria, the present King (which would have been Edward VII) and various Royal Personages".

I also copied various other bits and pieces from different publications - I got completely carried away!

I haven't had a chance to read through the articles yet so I don't know whether it says where he's buried but I WILL!!

I couldn't wait to tell you the good news!! If you could send me a personal message and give me your address, I'll send you all the stuff snail-mail.

Anne