Thanks for the quick reply Annie.
We know very little about James Johnston. When he married in Australia, he said he was a member of the Presbyterian Church of Scotland, but no indication of where he was born or when. His house was called “Kelvin Grove” which I believe is a suburb of Glasgow, and this name was given to houses that some of James’ descendants lived in.
No death certificate has been found. There was a coroners inquest into his death, which simply says he was killed by a falling tree.
His occupation was variously given in newspaper articles and marriage certificate (both his and his daughter) as farrier, blacksmith, horse-shoer and possibly veterinarian surgeon (the last not proven as it is only someone else’s comment), possibly a farmer when he died.
Having said that, the symbol does not look to me to be a horse-shoe. It doesn not even look like the “collar” (don’t know its correct name) which goes round a horse’s neck when they were harnessed up to pull a wagon or some other heavy load?
Sorry, none of the above gives any clues – not to me, anyway – perhaps you can help please?
Jean
