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« on: Saturday 01 October 11 11:28 BST (UK) »
Dear Margaret,
I live in Glasgow and Archibald Dorries was my great grandfather. Coincidentally I had two of my cousins over to visit last night and we were looking at some old photographs of that branch of the family and talking about 'the bard of baillieston'. I decided to do a google search this morning to see if I could find any information and just happened to come across your posting.
My mother, who passed away in 1998, was Doris Thompson (nee Macnair), daughter of Margaret (Maggie) Macnair (nee Dorries) and Alexander Macnair.
Margaret Dorries was the daughter of Archibald Dorries and Janet Flanagan, and sister of Charlie (and several other brothers and sisters). I have a copy of her birth certificate which confirms that she was born on 12 Feb 1888 at 74 Stevenson Street, Glasgow. Her parents Archibald and Janet had been married on August 10, 1881 in Dennistoun, Glasgow which is where they lived at that time.
The spelling of the name seems to have changed over the years from Dorries to Dorris to Doris. My Mum's cousin was Dan Doris who for many years had a very successful and well known hairdressing business in Largs, Ayrshire where he also became Provost (mayor) for several years.
I'm also aware of the Harry Lauder connection and I have one or two of Archibald Dorries's songs/poems written for the family, as do my cousins. We all have photos of Archibald (Grandad Dorries as he was called) and Great Uncle Charlie with my grandmother and other memebrs of the family.
Charlie emigrated to Australia so there's another branch of the family out there, and although my mother kept in touch with her cousins in Australia and went out to visit them many years ago, that generation has all gone now. I didn't know that Charlie was a music hall singer.
I though Helen (Auntie Nellie) had emigrated to Australia too, but I'm not 100% sure about that.
All very interesting!
Linda
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