3 x Great Grandmother
7th Generation
Born - 14th December 1871 - Carriden, Linlithgow
Died - 8th April 1956 - Buckhaven, Fife, Scotland
The first glimpse we have of Janet’s life she is a 9 year old scholar. Her father, William, was a coalminer. Her brother’s William (18) and Richard (16) were both Iron Moulders. Thomas (14) was a labourer in the local Iron Works. We could see from Janet’s birth certificate that her father couldn’t write his own name – this is very common for that generation of working class men. It could be the reason why Burnett is spelt differently too. They lived on Caddells land, This is land between Carriden and Kinnel (The Iron works were at Kinnel). It was owned by the Caddell family. They lived in Carriden House and owned a lot of the local land.
By the 1891 census Janet had lost her father, coalminer’s didn’t have a long life expectancy due to the conditions they worked in . Her mother was working as a housekeeper at one of the local houses and her elder brother Richard was still at home and still working as an Iron Moulder. Janet herself was a Pithead Worker, her younger brother Robert was a joiner and the youngest brother, Archibald, was an apprentice butcher at 14! Marion and Alice were still at school.
By 1901 Janet had been married to William for 10 years and had 5 children. She had married him in 1891, he was a coalminer and she was a pithead worker – romance at the coalmines! By the 1911 Janet had 4 more children. The census shows that she had given birth to 10 children in total, research found one had died in infancy. She had lost William at 14 months due to teething!
Yes the conclusion reached by medical professionals of the time was because the teething coincided process with the ages of high mortality, it was actually responsible for infant illness and death. According to accepted medical wisdom teething led to a number of afflictions and displayed a variety of symptoms including convulsions, diarrhoea, bronchitis, croup, vomiting, neck abscesses, insanity and meningitis. The teething phase was perceived as fraught with risk, a process to be dreaded -.babies died in infancy due to teething!
Janet was only 49 when her husband died in 1921. She had 3 of her children living at home, Richard was now 16 and a coalminer, William worked in the saw mill at 14 years old and May was only 12.
Many of Janet’s children settled close to her in either Buckhaven or Methil. Her daughters Janet, May and Annie all had their own families and lived in Buckhaven as did William. Jeannie and Archibald lived Methil with their families. Helen was the only one that stayed in Bo’ness and Andrew and Richard both emigrated to Pennsylvania. (The 1930 census below shows them living together). Most of the siblings travelled to the USA at some point to see their brother’s.
Andrew was first to emigrate, his wife had family that had already moved to the USA. Andrew however came back and lived in Auchterderran later in life.
Below is a picture of Janet with her son Richard and daughter May (not sure who the other man and woman is). Records indicate Richard was only 5ft 3, the man at the front of the photo. I also have his enlistment card for the US Army in WWII.
Janet lived to 84 years old, however in doing so she lived to see her daughter Jeannie die 1954. 84 is a fantastic age, however her sister Alison, who moved to Canada lived to 100! She was born August 1884 and died in September 1984. Janet died in Martin Street, Buckhaven – in a house the same as I grew up in. She was living with her daughter May Jack at the time.
Below are some of the documents I have found for her sister Alice (Alison).
This picture has Janet Ferguson with her sister Alison and, I think, her other sister Marion (I have no other picture of Marion to compare to). I also believe the photo was taken in Canada. The records above show that Alison travelled back to the UK on numerous occasions so it make sense that Janet visited Canada with her Sister Marion as Marion’s son emigrated and married in Canada.
Marion’s husband was an engineer for Shell and travelled the world! Below is a passenger list of him travelling to Singapore with work
This is a picture of her brother William Burnett with his own family. He married Janet Houston He lived his live in Boness.
Richard married Margaret and stayed in Scotland, they lived in Armadale.
To the left is a picture of her brother Thomas and his wife Annie and children. He lived in Bo’ness all his life.
Her brother Robert Burnett married Flora and emigrated to Ohio, this picture was taken in Ohio in 1910.
These are picture of Archibald, Archie moved to Ohio to live with his brother Robert, he then met his wife and travelled to Ontario, Canada where he settled and made a life for himself.
Marie's Genealogy 