My maternal grandparents were from
the Glasgow area of Scotland. They came to
this country after 1913 and settled in Clearfield County, Pennsylvania, later
moving to Washington County, PA. The men were coal miners in Scotland.
The men in my mother’s family continued to work the coal mines of western
Pennsylvania until the last generation.
Before immigrating the members of this family lived in Bathgate, Busby, Old Monkland, Holytown, Bellshill, and Bothwell which are towns in the vicinity Glasgow.
Some of the members of this family were members of the Free Church of Scotland. This church was formed in 1843 from the Church of Scotland, a Presbyterian church. The Freee Church retained the basic tenets of the Church of Scotland but it aspired to unfetter itself from Civil Government. The family in the U. S. are Presbyterian and Methodist.
The *Scottish surnames on my mother’s side
include:
ALLAN
HUMES
MARSHALL
MARTIN
MUIR
NEILSON / NELSON
SMELLIE
TAIT
TELL
Some allied lines are :
CAMERON
DOUGAN
GRAY
ROXBOROUGH
WOTHERSPOON
YUILE
* “Scotch” is an alcoholic
beverage. The word “Scots” or "Scottish" defines something or someone from
Scotland, as in “She has Scots ancestry” or, “Her surname is Scottish.”
Alexander NEILSON was born about 1816.
He was from Gartsherrie, Lanark, Scotland. On 4 December 1841
in Old Monkland, Lanark, Scotland, he married Janet ALLAN.
Their son William Allan NEILSON was born
about 1858 in Scotland. He was a coalminer. On 8 Jun 1880 he
married Elizabeth Tait MARTIN, born about 1856 in Scotland. They were
married at Holytown, Lanark, Scotland.
They had four children - two sons and two
daughters. Their son John Phillips NELSON was born 24 December 1886 in
Bellshill, Lanark, Scotland. John “Jock” NELSON was an amateur boxer,
and a coal miner. It is on his birth certificate that the surname NEILSON
becomes NELSON. The father is listed as NEILSON on the record, and the
child is listed as NELSON.
John Phillips NELSON married Elizabeth GREIG
in 1913.
Elizabeth GREIG was the daughter of Robert
GREIG and Annie Davidson MUIR. Elizabeth was born 1 Dec 1888 in the Busby,
Renfrew, Scotland. Her father, Robert GREIG, was a journeyman
calico printer. He was the son of William GREIG and Elizabeth HUMES.
John Phillips “Jock” Nelson and
Elizabeth Greig were my maternal grandparents. John died in 1970 and
Elizabeth died in 1984. They are buried at Horn Cemetery, Marianna, Washington County, PA.
Only a few members of these families
emigrated from Scotland to America. The majority of these lines and their
descendants remain in Scotland.
