A Story of Wills

A last will can sometimes be the only available source for what life was really like in the past life of a family at a certain time and place. The wills associated with the Pollock family are excellent examples of such revelation.

Descendants of Sarah Graham Pollock

Sarah Jane Graham was born in 1840 when her mother was about age 50. She was the youngest of the Graham sisters. Sarah married Andrew Pollock in 1858, when she was 18 years old. They had four children, 3 sons and a daughter. Their names and birth dates were as follows: William (1859), James Graham (1860), Andrew John (1868) and Bessie (1870).

The Wills

 

Sarah died in Londonderry, Ireland on Novermber 17, 1894 when she was 54 years old. She wrote her will in February of that same year, and had it witnessed by Margaret and Robert Hamilton her sister and brother-in-law. The will left all her meager assets (£20) to her daughter Bessie who was 24 years old at the time of her mother's death.

Will of Sarah Graham Pollock

Sarah's husband Andrew Pollock died at age 67 on July 4, 1898 in Castlederg near the farm he worked in Ballyfolliard Townland. Probably this is the Graham's Town location mentioned in his sister-in-law Ellen Graham's will.

In Andrew's will he left to his three surviving children (William had died in 1882) the following: James Graham (one shilling [a shilling was worth 1/20th of a pound]), Andrew John (one shilling), Bessie (one hundred pounds sterling, his watch and gold chain, and all his furniture, household goods and effects). The remainder of his estate, including the proceeds from sale of the farm, he left to his brother John James Pollock. His brother and another man were appointed to sell the farm, its implements and machinery with son Andrew John given first chance of buying "same at such valuation as may."

Will of Andrew Pollock

James and Bessie Pollock

Location of Castlederg and the former Graham's Town

Both James Graham Pollock and Bessie Pollock lived in Londonderry for the rest of their short lives.  On May 14, 1901, Bessie Pollock died at age 30 in Londonderry. She was unmarried and childless, willing an estate of £196 to her brother James. James died in Londonderry in December of 1901.

Eleven years before his death James had married Lucy Thompson. He and Lucy had five children, four girls and a boy, and lived at 17 Abercorn Road in Londonderry.

Bessie, the oldest daughter, and Sarah, the youngest, never married. Lucy married John Canning Mitchell in 1927. Rebecca married Joseph Caskey Williamson in 1926. The only son William married Annie Jane Boyd in 1926. No record was found of grandchildren.

Andrew John Pollock

An Andrew John Pollock, born in 1868,  is found in the 1901 and 1911 Irish Censuses to be living in the Artigarvan Townland in Leckpatrick Parish. Leckpatrick Parish adjoins Ardstraw Parish where the Ballyfolliard Townland, Graham's Town and the former family farm were located.

Artigarvan is about 14 miles from Castlederg where Andrew John Pollock was born and his father died. The former location of Graham's Town is between the two places, about 3 miles from Castlederg. Given the same name, year of birth and location of residence it is pretty definite that this man is our Andrew John Pollock. No record can be found of his death.

Children of Andrew John Pollock

Robert Pollock - 1918

Andrew John Pollock married Minnie Barnhill in December of 1894. The 1901 and 1911 Irish Censuses indicate that they were parents of 11 children born between 1896 and 1910.  There were 5 sons and 6 daughters.

The oldest child was Robert, born in 1896. He died in French Flanders from the effect of wounds suffered in battle during World War 1. Beside Robert, three of the remaining sons never married. Samuel, the only exception, married Letitia Townsley in 1933.

Among the daughters,  four never married. The two exceptions were Elizabeth and Margaret. Elizabeth married Alfred Roy in 1920. Margaret married Albert A. Hamilton in 1937 in Los Angeles, California.

Margaret and Albert seemed to travel together for some years in Canada and California. According to Albert's Naturalization form completed on March 5, 1936, he was married to the former Margaret Pollock and had a child named Margaret born in Aug 1, 1926.

To add confusion to this post, California Marriage Records indicate the marriage of Albert and Margaret occured on Apr 13, 1937 in Los Angeles, California.  Perhaps this was an attempt to facilitate the nationalization of both Margaret's as American citizens. Given the large families, it is strange that Margaret, the younger, appears to the only surviving Pollock descendant.

Thus ends the Pollock story unless new information becomes available.

Those Left Behind

Portion of the 1889 Will of Ellen Graham of Philadelphia

My last posting for this blog was in March 2017. At that time, I thought my story of grandmother Anna Love Graham and her family's migration to America had ended. I had no inkling that there was another story yet to tell; the lives of Graham relatives who did not join the passage across the Atlantic Ocean in the middle of the 19th Century.

Ellen's Will

My attitude changed when a new record crucial to the telling of this diaspora story came online. That record was the 1889 will of Ellen Graham, Anna's spinster great aunt who had lived in Philadelphia since 1850.

Old Derry Bridge

The will revealed a surprisingly large estate for a women at the end of the 19th Century who had worked as a dressmaker most of her life. It also revealed the names of three new family members of whose existence I had been completely ignorant and who had never left Ireland.

Two of those persons she identified as Ellen's sisters. Their names were Margaret Hamilton, resident in Londonderry, Ireland, and Sarah Pollock, resident in Graham's Town, Ireland. The third person was listed as William Ramsay, son of Eliza Graham deceased, and residing near Derry Bridge, Ireland.

Londonderry, today called Derry, is one of the largest cities in Northern, Ireland.  Derry Bridge is in Derry and is a modern structure spanning the River Foyle. The Derry Bridge neighborhood in Ellen's will is probably the area adjoining the previous bridge structure in the City of Derry.

Ardstraw Parish showing Listymore and Ballfolliard Townlands

Graham's Town no longer exists as an official population place in Ireland. However, it is shown on old Ulster maps as being located in the border area of Listymore and Ballyfolliard Townlands in Ardstraw Parish in County Tyrone. [See my prevous posting on 'Ancestral Irish Origins' for more detail about this area important to the 'Love' ancestors of Anna Love Graham.]

Eliza and the Ramsay Mystery

Who was Eliza Graham (deceased) with a son William Ramsay who was bequeathed $200?  My first guess was that she was a sister of Ellen's who had died leaving a son born out of wedlock. Or he could be the surviving son of an aunt who had died. There are a number of other logical possibilities. With this sketchy evidence, I made an attempt to further learn William's relationship to the family.

Bridge Street in old Derry

When was he born? Assuming he was the son of a sister, and knowing that all the children of Ellen's siblings were born between 1840 and 1870, I assumed a birth year within that range. Too many William Ramsays born in Ireland during this period. Tried mother's last name to narrow it down, but came up empty. Unless new information becomes available, William Ramsay living near Derry Bridge will remain a mystery.

Wills

The Hamilton and Pollock stories are enlivened through wills. The next posting discusses the contents of some of these end of life documents and their significant impact on the lives of descendants listed as heirs.