The Old Family
and how we got here
Allan Old was my great-grandad, born in 1875, and we actually met. Sadly, he died before I was two but that contact with my namesake was made and I feel good about it even if I was too young to remember anything about him.
He was born in Roslin Glen in the row of cottages beside the River North Esk and grew up there, becoming a coal miner before marrying Mary Beaton and starting a family. Actually that's not strictly true. He started a family then married. Worse than that, he had already started a family with her sister. See here for the story.
In 1900 he moved the family across to Kingscavil, just outside Linlithgow, to mine shale instead. The background to the housing at Kingscavil and Bridgend is given here.
When the work down the mines became too hard he kept a stretch of road to the east of Linlithgow between Kildimmery and Gateside clean and tidy.
He was a religious man, something which seemed at odds with the earlier revelations, but he once confessed to my father, Allan (1927), that he had "been a rascal" when he was younger and urged his grandson not to make the same mistakes.
I believe he could always be described as "dapper".
This is a lovely posed photograph of the family with my grandfather, Alexander, on the left. I believe the others in the back row are Rachel, Allan, John and Walter and with parents Allan and Mary are younger daughter Mary and youngest son William (Bill).
