Family Origins Research

 A Professional Priestley A photograph of T. Priestley and the Ireland team, pictured front, second from right. Source of photograph: Irish Football Association and John Duffy. Searching online for distant family members, I came across the son of my great great grand uncle who played football for Ireland.  Having previously written about my father-in-law's connection to Robert Leckie of Scotland fame in my From Killearn to the Scottish Cup Final  blog, it came as a surprise to find a footballer in my own family, namely a Tommy Priestly or Priestley. Tommy's father was a Thomas Dickie Priestley, who was the brother of my great great grandfather James Priestley. Thomas Dickie's Scottish birth certificate shows he was born in 1874 in Glasgow, the son of parents from County Antrim in what is now Northern Ireland as previously mentioned in A Maryhill Highlander . Thomas Dickie had five siblings with three dying before the age of three years old.  Looking at the death cert...

Family lore or fact? The final part of the story of my family in Maryhill. My grandfather Following on from A Maryhill Highlander , John Priestley's widow Jeannie remarried in 1920 and started a new family with her second husband.  This was a common occurance in the years after the First World War with so much loss of life. The close family unit of Jeannie and her children Isabella, James and Joseph was greatly impacted by the turmoil of the First World War and Jeannie's second husband did not want my grandfather as part of his family.  My grandfather's story now enters that familiar territory of family lore. Family lore states that my grandfather was banished from the home his mother shared with her new husband and was sent to Dublin to live with an aunt.  There is definitely an aunt of of my grandfather, John Priestley's younger sister Helen, living in Dubin in the 1930s, until her death in the 1980s, but whether my grandfather was looked after by her is uncertain....

 From Killearn to the Scottish Cup Final Robert Leckie, Queens Park FC, 1874. Source of photograph: Robertson, FHC (Ed.).   (1992).   The men with the educated feet: A statistical and pictorial history of Queen Park FC .  Queens Park Football Club. Talking to my father-in-law about his family history led to him mentioning a connection to a pioneer of Scottish and international footballing history, namely Robert Leckie of Queens Park FC and the Scotland national team. Robert was the brother of Grace Leckie who is my father-in-law's great grandmother, making Robert his great grand uncle.  Born in Killearn, Stirlingshire on October 19th, 1846, Robert was the son of farmer John Leckie and his wife Margaret McGregor.  Robert is listed in the 1861 Census in the Parish of Killearn aged 14 years and as a scholar living with his mother Margaret, brothers Alexander and John, and sisters Janet and Grace at Spittal Farm, Killearn, where Robert's mother Margaret farmed ...