glasgow children boarded out in tomintoul, tomnavoulin - Family background

[MonicaL]

I am still looking for John(born in Lurgan, Ireland, 1/11/1879) and Sarah (born in Bellshill, 3/10/85) Mullen as well.

Mmmm...I wonder. Could Sarah Mullen also have been sent off to Banff as a boarder? Have you found anything that might help on the poor relief notes?

There is this entry for example in 1901:

Alexander Reach 45 Butcher
Kate Reach 37
Jessie Ellis 8 stepdaughter
Kate Riach 1
Sarah Mullen 15 boarder b. Glasgow
James Boyle 23 boarder b. Glasgow

Address: 34 Main St Tomintoul Banff

John Mullen much older for 1901, likely independent by then. There are up to at least 5 entries in 1901 for a John Mullen b. Ireland in his age group, showing as boarding.

Monica

[Forfarian]

"The old school at Tombae, known as St Mary's, was built in 1829, about the same time as the adjoining beautiful Roman Catholic church. The teacher for long was Miss Smith, now of Craighead. She cemae head teacher about half a century ago and remained until Miss Gordon took charge in 1879. She retired in 1922 .... [after] her work as head teacher and choir mistress for the long period of 43 years .... In 1903 a new school was built, very much larger, the old school having only one room. Miss Gordon then had an assistant teacher as the numbers of the roll increased considerably, and they have steadily increased since. Miss Angler, who has succeeded her as headmistress, has maintained in an admirable way all the fine traditions of the school." [From William Barclay, The Schools and Schoolmasters of Banffshire, 1925] The bits I have omitted are mostly what was said to and by Miss Gordon at her retirement presentation.

[fiftywinds]

I am still looking for John(born in Lurgan, Ireland, 1/11/1879) and Sarah (born in Bellshill, 3/10/85) Mullen as well.

Mmmm...I wonder. Could Sarah Mullen also have been sent off to Banff as a boarder? Have you found anything that might help on the poor relief notes?

There is this entry for example in 1901:

Alexander Reach 45 Butcher
Kate Reach 37
Jessie Ellis 8 stepdaughter
Kate Riach 1
Sarah Mullen 15 boarder b. Glasgow
James Boyle 23 boarder b. Glasgow

Address: 34 Main St Tomintoul Banff

John Mullen much older for 1901, likely independent by then. There are up to at least 5 entries in 1901 for a John Mullen b. Ireland in his age group, showing as boarding.

Monica

Hi Monica,
I will spend a bit of time in the Mitchell Library and on SP to see if we can find anything else. You are so correct when you say there are a lot of Mullins.
Many thanks for your help so far. It has been very, very useful,

Frances

[allymcguigan]

hi sorry about the delay in the haven't been doing much research since that last post i sent. the reason most of the Glasgow children were sent there was because the church wanted to maintain the young people's catholic identity and this area was one of the few areas that still had a distinctive catholic community post reformation. the added bonus for the poor relief was that it was away from the 'corrupting' influence of the slums and the rural lifestyle was seen as a way of developing them into young people with good character. i found out about all this stuff by looking at the parish poor records in the Mitchell archive too. inspectors from the parish poor board were sent up at regular intervals to check on the young people in the care of the families (unfortunately i can't remember the name given to these reports in the Mitchell) but i remember seeing my grampa and other young people's names mentioned (my grampa kept running away and 'needed taking in hand'). it would be interesting to read local newspapers from the area at the time to see what local people thought of this influx of young orphans what relationships were like between them and the local children as at any time there must have been a noticeable number of these young people boarded out from Glasgow and other Scottish towns. hope this posts in at the right bit of the conversation as i am not very good at these forum things

[MonicaL]

Ally, thank you  That is a really good description of what the reasons were for the exodus from Glasgow to Tomintoul! I have wondered what the precise thinking was, although guessing at the overall motivation.

Monica

[allymcguigan]

if you find out anymore info on the area between 1898 and 1908 and the boarders i would be interested to hear. i often wonder if the boarders were viewed as a source of income as the parish poor relief would have paid the famliies who took in the boardersis brother in kilts and the young people would have supplied labour on the farms. though i suppose the experience of the young people would be similar to perhaps evacuees during the second world war in that some would have had positive experiences and some unfortunately not. my grampa died when my dad was a boy but i have heard that him and his brother would often go hillwaking and i have a picture of him and his brother in kilts, perhaps this was a a result of their experience of the culture in tomintoul at the time.

[fiftywinds]

i often wonder if the boarders were viewed as a source of income as the parish poor relief would have paid the famliies who took in the boardersis brother in kilts and the young people would have supplied labour on the farms.

Hi Ally,
I was wondering this too. In my great grandmother's case, and when I think of all the terrible things that she went through(losing her father, drunken stepfather, poorhouse, finally losing her mother at a young age) she was boarded(fostered?) and eventually adopted into the Kearney family in Rutherglen and she was wanted and loved by them. They also adopted another little girl, Kate McCleary that became her 'sister'. She refused to marry unless she could bring her adopted father with her. She never discussed this with anyone until the end of her life when she asked my dad to help find her siblings. Impossible them but luckily we have more tools at our disposal now. I would love to know if you find any more information.
F

[sheilapirie]

Hi Frances ive just come across your chat while searching my Papa`s address he was born at 155 Blackburn St Govan . My Papa was William Kelly and his sister was Catherine .
Their parents etc names are all correct re your information to Monica.
A few years ago i searched for Williams birth certificate i found lots of new info on his family.
This week my sister finally solved the missing piece of the puzzle (birth certificate for Papa ) as we believed he had been adopted .
I would be interested in hearing from you
Sheila

[rowanali]

Just a snippet of info about how the boarded out kids may have been treated.  A year or so ago I met and chatted with an old man in Tomintoul who had been boarded out from Glasgow as a child.  He had been sent to a farm a few miles out of Tomintoul.  He had said that he was treated extremely well and welcomed as part of the family.  It was nice to hear.  I have a property just south of Tomintoul and the families of this house (and it's near neighbour) both boarded children from Glasgow.  Very often they were siblings, but I haven't yet managed to trace what happened to them - did they stay and integrate, or did they move back to Glasgow?