Who Do You Think You Are - Lulu 17th Aug

[kiterunner]

On BBC1 at 8 p.m. and repeated next Wednesday at 11:45 p.m.

[Margaret in Burton]

Obviously she's very against being seen in glasses unless they are sunglasses. Otherwise it's a magnifying glass.

Oh! She's now wearing specs. Lol

[kiterunner]

I'll type the episode summary up tomorrow. But just wanted to say, the column heading which she found so upsetting, "How disposed of", was just a standard column heading on many kinds of forms in those days.

[kiterunner]

Lulu grew up in Glasgow, the eldest of four children. Her mother, Elizabeth Kennedy Cairns, was the only one of a family of seven children to be given away as a baby. Lulu believed that she had never met Elizabeth's birth parents.

Lulu's brother Billy and her son Jordan came to her house to help her get started on researching the family. They knew that Elizabeth was raised by the McDonald family, and that she got to know her birth family later, having found out at school at the age of about 13 or 14 that she was not a McDonald by birth.
Lulu went to Glasgow and looked at her mother's birth certificate, which showed she was born on the 25th Sep 1927 at Castle Street, Glasgow, the daughter of Hugh Cairns, steelworks labourer, and Helen Darling Cairns, MS Kennedy, who were married in Feb 1925 in Glasgow. Lulu also looked at Helen's death certificate, which showed that she died in 1935, age 31, with a long list of causes of death including peritonitis and ruptured appendicitis.

Lulu met up with her uncle Jim (James) Cairns and cousin Eleanor, the daughter of Elizabeth's sister Nelly. It was Nelly who visited Elizabeth at school and told her about her birth family. The other Cairns children were Colin, Hugh jr, Margaret, and David. Jim and Eleanor showed Lulu photos of the Cairns family, including a wedding group photo which included both Lulu as a young child, and Hugh sr, showing that she must have actually met him although she didn't remember. Jim and Eleanor told Lulu what they knew about the family: Hugh sr had a scar on his face and there were various stories about how he got it. He was a Catholic and Helen was Protestant. Hugh worked on the "Callie" (railway) at one time. The couple had a volatile, on-off relationship, and after Helen's death, Hugh was neglectful of the children, mostly leaving them to look after themselves.

Lulu went to Springburn Railway Depot and met an historian who showed her Hugh's employment records. He was born on the 1st Apr 1902 in Glasgow, and first started work for the railways on the 13th Sep 1916 as a foundry labourer, but was discharged after less than a year for bad timekeeping. After this, he had several short spells of employment there in various roles, leaving for the last time on the 11th Aug 1922 "of his own accord". The historian showed Lulu a certificate stating that Hugh was a good worker, issued for him to go abroad. Luly looked at passenger lists and found that Hugh arrived in Massachusetts in Aug 1922, intending to stay permanently, but then appeared as a seaman on a German crew list returning to Europe in Nov 1922. Lulu phoned Eleanor who explained that the family sent Hugh to America to get him away from Helen as they did not approve of the relationship, but that he missed her and worked his passage back.

Lulu went to Glasgow Green Winter Gardens to meet an historian who showed her the birth certificates of Hugh and Helen's first two children, born before their marriage: Colin McKill Cairns, born Oct 1923, and Hugh jr, born 31 Jan 1925. Hugh would have had to go with Helen to register the births as they were not married. His address on the certificates was Castle Street and hers Norman Street. Their marriage certificate dated 21 Feb 1925 showed that they married by warrant rather than in church. Nelly was born in 1926.

Lulu went to the Mitchell Library in Glasgow to look in the City Archives with an adoption expert. The Infant Life Protection Act Book showed that Elizabeth Cairns, daughter of Hugh Cairns, was fostered privately by a widow Jane McCoit for a few weeks, while Hugh Cairns was in prison, but apparently was sent back to her family because they didn't pay Mrs McCoit. She was then fostered by William and Helen McDonald from the 14th May 1928 onwards, with payments set at 8 shillings (presumably per month). The book documented official inspection visits about 4 or 5 times per year. It said that when Elizabeth was first placed with the couple, Hugh was in prison and Helen had "disappeared". In Sep 1928 the authorities wrote to Hugh about non-payment of fees, and in April 1930 they ruled that Elizabeth was not to be given back to her parents until full payment was made and until the authorities were satisfied that her parents would care for her properly. In 1932 Elizabeth started school. In 1935 her guardian was informed that Helen had died. Official inspection visits ended when Elizabeth was 9 years old, in Sep 1936.

Lulu then went to Old Glasgow Central Police Station to meet an historian who showed her Hugh's criminal records. He was first admitted to prison in 1918 for assault and robbery of £100 from a safe. Then in Apr 1924 he was fined 21 shillings for breach of the peace, with 10 days in jail if the fine was not paid. There followed several similar convictions and sentences, with the fine going up to 42 shillings / 20 days. In July 1926 his fine was paid on the day of conviction, which suggested that maybe he belonged to a gang. Glasgow gangs at that time used razors as weapons, which could explain the scar on Hugh's face. On the 17th Mar 1928 Hugh was sent to prison for assault. Altogether, he was in prison 10 times over the course of 10 years.

Lulu then went to the Orange Lodge in the East End of Glasgow and met an historian who showed her that Helen's mother Helen Orr Kennedy was first on the Register of the Ladies' Orange Lodge No. 52 dated Mar 1927-8 and described as "W.M.", i.e. "Worthy Mistress", in charge of the branch. The minute book from 1922 showed that she was W.M. then too. A report on the Ladies' Conference from 1929 showed that Helen Orr Kennedy was the chair of the conference - the first woman to chair the women's conference instead of a man.

The rules of the Women's Orange Lodges at that time stated that marrying a Catholic would be punished by expulsion. Helen sr was still involved in the Lodge until she died in 1943, age 17. Lulu went to visit her grave at Rutherglen Cemetery and found that Helen jr was buried in the same grave as Helen sr. A newspaper article from the Belfast Weekly News said that the Orange Lodge had held a minute's silence in sympathy with Mrs Kennedy on the death of her daughter.