From the Land Down Under to the Rising Sun

There are still a few more Japan missionary stories from Milton’s brief autobiography in Japan, and some interesting ancestry deep dives on both the Furner and Whan side. However, for this short post, in a blatant attempt to grow readership (lol), I am going to reveal one of the little scandals that ancestry research has uncovered.

 At first, I was a little hesitant to spill the beans as it involves Dad’s great grandfather Matthew Whan.  But then I remembered what a great sense of humor Dad had. If I told him this story, he would have at first feigned shock and dismay, and then his twinkling eyes would give way to laughter.

Clearly the guy pictured above has a great sense of humor! So here goes…

To give this story some context, great-grandfather Matthew was born in Scotland in 1824. He died in Sydney in 1900. In fact, in one of the most recent blog posts, there was an excerpt from a letter he wrote to his brother Andrew in Canada if you want to hear his own “voice”.

At the time of his death, he was living with daughter Mary’s Whan Hughan in Balmain.  Elliot Street to be exact. As I now look at google maps, it is right across the water from a shopping center, Birkenhead Point, where of all things I found myself just last month with Darelyn.   Less than 5 miles from Haberfield, (June and Milton’s last home). So, adding to my list of drive-by visits for “next time”. It looks like a nice set of apartments overlooking the bay now – unfortunately Mary left that spot ages ago.

You may also recall the post where Matthew’s son James came to Scotland and kept a diary and wrote letters to his wife so we had a window into the visit with Matthew. Not long after that visit, Matthew and Janet with their youngest, Mary emigrated to Australia in 1885. Sadly, Janet died just 3 years after they arrived in Australia.

Matthew and Janet had eight children while in Scotland. Pictured above (and circled in red) is the last place they lived in Creetown, Scotland.

Milton’s grandfather Andrew was right in the middle of that sequence, born in 1853. By the time Matthew came to Australia, three of his sons including Andrew were already living in New South Wales. 

That’s the context.

Last year via the Ancestry account,  Elaine received a direct message from someone who was referencing the Whans in Scotland so Elaine forwarded it to me to investigate. After exchanging some emails, it turns out she, Maggie, was the great-granddaughter of someone by the name of James Reid. James Reid was born in Wigtownshire, Scotland in 1853. She claimed that Matthew Whan was the father. 

I was dubious at first because I could see no DNA connection to her. Well after I stopped clutching my pearls, I asked Darelyn to check and sure enough, she had a small but undeniable match. In fact, since then, with more people doing DNA, now in 2022, I have two connections to other James Reid ancestors. Also others in the family who have done the DNA tests , have connections to several other James Reid ancestors. 

So, the scandal is real (haha) Maggie who is my half third cousin has done a ton of research and a family history of her own. In a nutshell here was her brief synopsis way back when she sent her message.

“James Reid’s grandfather, Richard Reid, lived in TorhouseMuir with his family in 1852. (This is less than 10 miles from where Matthew Whan was living). In 1852, one of his daughters Mary got pregnant. This was common, but it was expected that the couple would get married. If there was no marriage, the woman was shamed and the child bore a very bad stigma, even in the small community.

In Mary’s case, the father was married and the child, James took his mother’s maiden name, Reid. James wrote an autobiography but did not state if his mother knew the father was married until after the conception.  The family kept the name of the father quiet while in Scotland and it is unlikely the father’s wife knew about it. The father’s name was known to the Reid family as Matthew McWhan. That Matthew was from Creetown but had been crofting in Wigtonshire at the time.

After James was born, it was difficult for the Reids to continue to live in Wigtonshire where they had been part of the Church of Scotland (Presbyterian); and the church did not treat this well. They left for New York when James was a few years old. The mother, Mary, stayed in Scotland and eventually married another man. “

Months after those initial emails, Maggie finished her own personal family biography and she shared the pdf pages with me. What was interesting is that James’ grandparents who took care of him as their own had converted to the Mormon Church around 1851 in Scotland! This probably was part of their decision to leave Scotland with James and move to America. Yes – Mormons had come to Scotland as missionaries.

From Scotland, the Reids went to New York and then Missouri. James Reid ultimately was part of the early settlers of Utah, taking the “Mormon Trail” in 1863! In Utah, he married Harriett Valentine in 1877 and they would have 10 children. So, there are quite a few unexpected half-cousins in Utah and points beyond!

Putting it into the Whan timeline, James Reid was born to Mary Reid in April 1853, just four months before Milton’s grandfather Andrew was born in August. Andrew never knew he had a half-brother who was almost the same age.

James Reid

Andrew Whan

Another interesting fact is that Andrew’s younger sister Jane (born 1858) later would marry George Reid. Apparently, there is a family connection to James Reid – haven’t figured it out yet.

And there you have it – the shenanigans in Scotland in 1853.