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Hello Louise: great to hear from you!  You have actually supplied me with years of birth and death for John Allen that I didn't have.  I can't add much, I'm afraid, to John's story, except that according to the marriage record, he was a Shoemaker by trade and I would have thought they would've lived in town, rather than at Three Trees, but as you say, all seven kids were born at Three Trees. 

As you will have discovered, there are several Allen families in the district and there are also quite a few Weir families - many using the same given names generation by generation. As well as Rebecca, Margaret Allen, nee Weir (b. 31 Jan 1839 d. 19 May 1915 at Three Trees) also had a brother Robert Joseph b. 4 Jun 1853 - he never married and died on 8 Nov 1919 at Three Trees.

My great grandmother Rebecca b. 1 Jan 1848 married John Gallagher on 14 Feb 1878 at Greenbank Presbyterian Church, Muff Parish.  She died in Glasgow on 14 Jan 1902 of pneumonia; her husband John was the informant, and indicated that both her parents were deceased at that time. John married again in 1912 and died in 1928.

Rebecca & John Gallagher (m. 14 Feb 1878 at Greenbank Presbyterian Church)  had three children, all born in Ireland: two sons, Joseph (b. 10 Feb 1879, d. 18 Feb 1937), John, b.1884 d.1953 and Margaret Jane (my grandmother).  They went to Scotland, and all three children married in Scotland: Joseph to Margaret McLellan and John to Elizabeth McMillan.  Joseph and Margaret Gallagher had a son and two daughters; the two daughters never married and the son married but had no children: so that leaves my grandmother, Margaret Jane b.24 Dec 1888 d. 12 Jun 1974; she married John Anderson and had one daughter (my mother) and four sons, the last son dying either at birth or soon afterwards (they came to Australia in 1920).  John and Elizabeth Gallagher married in 1910 and went to the USA.  They had no living children (a daughter lived only two days). John died in 1953 and Elizabeth died in 1966.  So that means that my line is the only one left from the marriage of John Gallagher and Rebecca Weir.

I hadn't considered the James Weir of Three Trees that you found - as you say, he could be a brother to Joseph, father of Margaret Weir: certainly the name he gave his son seems consistent.

I do hope this is helpful and will be happy to share anything I have with you.  Regards Helen

I realise his name is a very common one, but I'm wondering if my great grandfather's eldest brother followed his father, also named John Anderson, Deep Sea Pilot, into the Merchant Navy.  I have found John Jnr in the 1851 & 1861 censuses, but nothing after that, except that his father registered his birth by sheriff's warrant in 1866, i.e. some 20 years after his birth  .  His mother's name was Elizabeth nee Milloy (her maiden surname is spelt about 8 different ways in the various records!) and on Family Search, I have found two deaths at sea of Merchant Marine servicemen named John Anderson with matching year of birth (1846), 17 Nov 1874 (aged 28) and 19 Oct 1886 (aged 40) and wondered if there was a way of checking these out: the reference ID given by FS is pt2sh1360pg106ln21. Any clues would be very much appreciated.    Helen

  Thanks so much - I was trying to see something much more complicated!  Cheers Helen

Wow: thanks Shelly!  I will explore further, now this has narrowed down the search for John's date of death to between 1942 and 1963, and presumably I should start looking at the same cemetery. 

I've just been given this photo post card by a cousin: on the back is "Chicago Photo Postal Studio, 5109 Ashland Ave." and by the look of the clothes, it might have been taken in the early years of last century.  Could this be John and Lizzie perhaps? (I don't know of any other family connection to Chicago).  Is there a way of finding the studio?