Another McNab burial Dalbeth cemetery

[elaine447]

Hi Maggs
just a possibility if he died in Greenock
have you thought about contacting
Greenock Cemetery  burial department
as you know what date he died they should be able to
tell you if he was buried in Greenock and what cemetery he was buried in
not all the CPR for Greenock are on SP
Elaine

[gerryfarrell]

I'm pleased the archives have managed to help you out, but sadly not solve the puzzle. Just re reading the posts I do agree with Santci its strange that he is not in his own lair which appears to be a double lair and wasn't full at the time of his death, especially as his 2nd wife registered the death and is then buried there herself?? Does the lair location read 109 / 8 ES? or east side which would indicate the older part, or is it E section which would indicate St Peter's?

Gerry

[maggbill]

Hi Gerry, Sancti and Elaine

Thanks for all of your replies.

Have pm'd you Gerry - and thanks for that.
Elaine - good idea to email the Greenock Cemetery people, if i can find their info - will google that soon.
And yes, Sancti - it is really strange he wasn't buried in the lair - and "if only" we could find him or his parents.. at least we know how/where he died, whereas his parents Francis and Mary McNab only appear in the 1871 census in Glasgow, - and then the mother Mary is informant of her 35 year old daughter Jane's death in 1872 .... then both parents are never seen again (nor is their grandaughter Mary Kenney).... ?? returned to Ireland is our only thought at the moment.

But who knows, if we find the burial of Hugh - it could just give us some hints to his own parents deaths and burials?

[elaine447]

sorry I cant remember their email address
but you could contact them at this address

Burial Grounds/Registrar Greenock Crematorium 1 South Street Greenock PA16 8UG
I will pm you with the telephone number not sure if its allowed on here
Elaine

[maggbill]

Hi Gerry and Elaine,

It's a lovely sunny morning here in Adelaide - so am sending you both lots of Sunshine!

Yesterday I discovered the online Greenock BMD info on Watt Library Greenock website... but no luck with that.  I then emailed the Watt Library and had a result within a couple of hours from Betty, Senior Library Assistant.  She had checked with the Greenock Cemetery Records and had not found Hugh McNab, but had however found that "an unidentified man" had been buried at Greenock Cemetery in Common Ground on 5th March... no further amendments to his records.  And no other unidentified body pulled out of harbour at thaat time... so it has to be him!!!!  It looks like we have found our great grandfather (only took about 125 years!!!) Betty also included two newspaper articles about the drowning, which I had never seen, so she really has been of great help.

Thanks for the phone number Elaine, but it is a bit hard phoning from Australia!

Sad story that Hugh was buried and left in "Common Ground" having a family lair available.  His wife had a 27 year old brother who died a couple of weeks later, and children of her own including a toddler who had medical issues and died 2 months later.... All buried in the family lair !  Maybe once they discovered that the unidentified man was in fact her husband, it was in fact too late, he was buried within 2 days of the finding of the body.    Maybe one day I will get back to Glasgow to ?find the family lair and visit Greenock too!

Cheers
Maggs

[sancti]

Maggs it just adds more questions to the whole episode

What was he doing in Greenock?

How could his wife identify the body if he was already buried?

[elaine447]

Maggs
 does the article in the paper say that he fell in to the harbour in Greenock
because its possible if he fell into the water in Glasgow
the body could have been washed up in Greenock
the way the currents run in the river clyde a body could turn up
anywhere
Elaine

[maggbill]

Hi Elaine,

The body of Hugh McNab was found floating in the Harbour at Greenock, but no indication of where it originated, and agreed - he could have falled in somewhere in Glasgow and been swept down to Greenock.
We have never found anything at all which could have connected him to Greenock, so it sounds very feasible, - that he fell into the river in Glasgow.

Sancti - If the "Body of a Man" which Greenock Cemetery says was buried on 5th March, is in fact him, it is possible that his wife did in fact never see him - but an article in the local newspaper gave a very good description of his clothing, so maybe she in fact identified the clothing rather than him.

Thanks again everyone ...
Maggs

[gerryfarrell]

Maggs,

That could well be an explanation of how she identified him, it would also explain why there is no Coroners report or RCE to go with his death record.
I went to St Peter's today and located your family lair, sadly there is no headstone but i have sent you some photo's of its location.

Gerry