Allan family - Falkirk, Scotland to Canada

[Robneve]

Thank you once again J.J.  I have printed out the agriculture document to read later.

At first glance, I do not see anyone in the hall of fame but I need to look more carefully.

I also just remembered that my wife had an uncle or grand uncle who travelled to Western Canada by covered wagon, so that is another one for the Cattleman,s site.

I have a lot to learn about Canadian agriculture. From your description, it sounds a bit like Scotland. Almost all farms were rented, but there would be a mixture of cattle/crops in the lowlands. Up north, it was mostly sheep. My wifes father and his ancestors were sheep farmers in Glen Etive which is near Glencoe. There were hens for eggs and one cow for milk for the family.

Rob.

[J.J.]

My parents started out as farmers, so as children we all helped on the farm in summer.....& as a teen I got a real taste of it one full summer ...Hard work and long hours...2.00 a day for 2 months-and a quart oif cream for a bonus... ( they called it room and board, but I believe it was child labour while the woman of the home went off from dawn 'til dusk selling something or other...needed to get away from the litle ones is my guess)
I had to look after 2 children, start the day by cleaning the cream seperator ( dozens of discs) feed the husband and all his farm hands ( I could barely cook ) Take out the slop pails, do the laundry, get the cows from pasture...I had huge muscles, not too feminine!
 
The thing about our farms is that they are all miles apart, something that is usually commented on, as one can drive for hours before the next farm is in sight...& I'll bet your farms look nothing like ours do right now under all this snow J.J.

[Robneve]

Hi  J.J.

I thought you might like this. I'm not sure about size limitations so I'm going to send two separate messages.  This photgraph is Pirleyhill Farm where Alexander and John Allan were born.  This particlar photograph was taken in 2005 by an amateur genealogist in Falkirk who has also helped a great deal.

Cheers,
Rob.

[Robneve]

Hi J.J.

This is Tamfourhill Farm. The photgraph was taken in the early 60's and came from the Falkirk Museum.

This farm was in the Allan family from about 1740 to 1893. It is about 7/8 miles from Pirleyhill Farm.  Alexander and John must have been fascinated by the distances when they came to Canada.  I know I was!!

Rob.

[J.J.]

Hey, kiddo...what wonderful photos....beautiful countryside...shall reciprocate with
some snowbound photos...City gal now, so not very rangey...
When you put photos on rootschat, try to keep them about 500 to 600 pixels
wide..( less than 6" wide if you have meas. in your image. You can see that it
stretches the whole page out, otherwise...

Very glad that I found the Stockman's entry... as I found some information on
Elton in Nos racine...! John & Annie are in there...with quite an extensive
history...You will be pleased, as the daughter's husband's names are all in there!
YAY!  Interestingly enough, you'll see that there was a racetrack on the property...
and they are talking about building a racetrack in the r.m. of Elton...how exciting!
http://www.nosracines.ca/e/page.aspx?id=517682

( Elton is a rural area just outside of Brandon...so he never was in Dauphin...! )

[J.J.]

Now we can see why the sites varied in the range, meridian thing...by the
1906 census, (as Allen) he would have been in his very own home, on his
own property...A lot of work in those days!!!  I think you have the land
 information, right? Wish we could find something like this for Alexander... J.J.
 

[Robneve]

Wow.  As in  FANTASTIC.  Now I have to get my butt out there soon. But not until Summer. I also just remembered that when I was travelling Canada regularly ( early / mid 80's) I was once treated to Dinner at the Cattleman's Club in Winnipeg. Is it still there? If I had remembered that, I would not have been confused about farming on the prairies!!

Is it possible for you to get the full postal address for the  Thornton that the book says is still living there?

 I do have the land information but I,m having a hard time getting my head round all those numbers.

I will also try and watch the photograph thing. I always have some difficulty, but I am learning. My program tells me that the Tamfourhill Farm photograph is 5.18  X  3.17 inches and is 343.00 KB so I was sure it would be O.K. It doesn't look stretched at this end.  Having said that, I will make them smaller next time.

Did I also tell you that John was the only child out of 5 who lived past 2 years?  Alexander was from the second marriage. Two children died the same day. Yet another 3 days later. Three of them were 2years old, two were six months (twins)  Little wonder John left home!!  He was the eldest.

[J.J.]

I had a reply ready to post and it went South!!! arghh...here we go again...
The publication is likely an older one...didn't make note of the date will
have to go back to see when it was written
http://findaperson.canada411.ca/ has 2 ....J. Thorntons, both are in Brandon...
Not unusual for farmers to retire to town or the area they were in may have
been absorbed by the city....


I peeked back at the 1901 census and the Allans were listed in Brandon/Elton...

On the 1906 the area is given as
Section 7, Township 11, Range 18,  Meridian W

Live Stock - as listed on the 1906 census
Column 14 -  Horses, All Ages - he had 12
Column 15 -  Milk cows - he had 7
Column 16 -  Other horned or neat cattle, all ages - He had 7
Column 17 -  Sheep and lambs, all ages - none
Column 18 -  Hogs and pigs, all ages- He had 8

Use the split screen feature to see the extra information on all censuses...
http://automatedgenealogy.com

[J.J.]

http://www.ourroots.ca/e/toc.aspx?id=2482  You may want to read more about Elton in the publication...It was produced in 1973. J.J.