This is one in a series of blog posts about some old papers of the WALKER family, from Kirkliston, West Lothian, Scotland. See a list of these papers HERE.
Here are a few photos that I have, of members of my WALKER family. These are currently the oldest photos that I know about, of members of this branch of my family. I found this group of photos together inside a plain blue envelope, aprox- A6 sized. The images are all about 2⅛ x 3¾” (54 x 95mm).
Although the photos of James WALKER and Margaret JOHNSTON are not dated, the details on the back, naming the studio where they were taken, can give us some indication of a date range. It seems clear that these 3 photos were all taken at the same time, during the same studio sitting.
The backs of these 3 Photos are all labled “ROSS & THOMSON, PHOTOGRAPHERS, 90 Princes Street, Edniburgh”. Websites with information about early photographers (for example HERE) indicate that this studio opperated at this address between 1848 and 1864, which suggests that the photos must be from this date range. I suspect that they date from fairly soon after James and Margaret’s marriage, at Bathgate in February 1847 (so earlier rather than later in the possible date-range).
The 4th photo in this group is of James and Margaret’s oldest son; John Johnston WALKER. John was born in January 1848, and went to New Zealand in 1869 where he was manager of a large Sheep Station at Edendale until 1877, when he decided to start on his own, and took up a virgin block of land on the Otamakapua Block, North Island. He died at Feilding, Manawatu District, NZ, in November 1891.
The back of this photo is labled; “J Horsburgh, PHOTOGRAPHER, 131 Princes Street, Edinburgh”. This photograhper’s name, at this address, appears to suggest a date between 1868 and 1898 (not earlier than 1868) (see HERE). So the year written on the reverse, “1869”, is probably accurate, suggesting that the photo was taken shortly before John left Scotland, for New Zealand.
In the envelope, along with these photos, there is a hand-written list of all the members of this generation of the Walker family (including the children’s birth dates). (I have shared this note previously). This is on the back of an old envelope addressed to James and Margaret’s youngest son (and my Gt-Grandfather), Thomas George WALKER, in 1891. I believe this list to have been written down by Thomas George Walker.
Transcription of note (with added details);
James Walker b. 24/1/1818, d. 6/5/1881. and
Margaret Johnston b. btw. Apr & Sept. 1818, d. 15/9/1890. married
23rd Feb. 1847 at Bathgate.
| John Johnston | Walker, | born | 21st Jan. 1848 | d. 19/11/1891 – aged 43 – in N.Z. |
| Margaret Young | “ | “} and |
d. 13/ 5/1891 – aged 41. | |
| James (twins) | “ | “} | 19 Oct. 1849 | d. 4/ 5/1851 – aged 18 mths. |
| Isa(bella) Neill | “ | “ | 3 May 1852 | d. 8/11/1916 – aged 64. Married |
| Jemima Janet | “ | “ | 30 Mar 1854 | d. 24/12/1892 – aged 38. |
| Mary | “ | “ | 9 Feb 1856 | d. 25/ 6/1903 – aged 47. Married |
| Thomas George | “ | “ | 4 Mar 1858 | d. 19/10/1951 – aged 93. Married |
| Elizabeth Barron | “ | “ | 7 Oct 1860 | d. 14/10/1882 – aged 22 |
Note that several of these children have middle names which are the surnames of their Mother, Grandmothers, and Gt-Gt-Grandmother. This was common with many of the earliest recorded middle names, which can sometimes cause confusion knowing just who is being referred to. It is to avoid such confusion that on this site I tend to write SURNAMEs in CAPITALS, to distinguish actual Surnames from this kind of middle name.
Of these 8 children, only 2 have any descendants; Mary WALKER married John BRASH, and had 1 daughter. Thomas George WALKER married Helen Black CADZOW, and had 7 children.
For futher details please see A history of the WALKER family.
A Family History Blog 