DALZELL STEELWORKS in Motherwell, Scotland

My paternal grandfather worked at the Dalzell Steelworks in Motherwell, Lanarkshire, Scotland. His father worked at the steelworks. As I recall I had other relatives who also worked there. The other thing that ties all of them together is they all immigrated to California in the 1920s; not one of them ever returned to Scotland.

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My grandfather is in this photo. I'm not sure if any other relatives are in it. Within a few months my grandfather set off with a few of his brothers for North America. His father, mother, sister, and fiancé followed a year later. All of that would be unremarkable except for the fact that my grandfather's great-great-grandfather had arrived in North America almost exactly the same day one hundred years earlier settling in Canada. Until last year none of my family knew anything about this. I'm still fascinated to find that I had relatives arrive in 1821 and 1921.

As to the Dalzell Steelworks, I can say very little. I remember driving by it in the early 1970s on a trip to Scotland. By that time it had been open for a little over one hundred years. It was closed in 2015, but reopened in 2016.

David Colville & Sons, a Scottish iron and steel company, was founded in 1871 and it opened its Dalzell Steel and Iron Works at Motherwellin 1872. By the first World War, it was the largest steel works in Scotland and it continued to expanded afterwards taking over a number of other steel works in Cambuslang and Glengarnock.

Nationalised in 1951, it became part of the Iron and Steel Corporation of Great Britain. It was privatised in 1955 and the construction of Ravenscraig steelworks resulted in the closure of a number of its other works. It was renationalised in 1967, becoming part of British Steel Corporation. (Source: Wikipedia)

There was a rumor on my mother's side of the family that we had some sort of connection to Bethleham Steel in Pennsylvania. I've never been able to prove this.

I personally can't imagine working in a steel mill, but then I also can't imagine being a coal miner and I have many ancestors from Scotland who made their living in the mines. I relate more to the Scottish ancestors who worked looms and made hats. What on earth would any of these people think of the way I've made my living working for myself for all but one year of my professional life? I imagine they'd think me soft and lazy. They'd be right.

This is my submission for Sepia Saturday this week. I've been away for a long time.

BOY SCOUT TROOPS in Scotland

This weeks Sepia Saturday theme is scouting. Though I was in scouting for a few years as a Brownie and Girl Scout, by the time I was heading into junior high I got out of it. I have one photo, which I have misplaced, of me in my Brownie uniform with my troop, and my best friend, taken either aboard a submarine or a destroyer, I can't remember which. We visited both at different times in Pearl Harbor.

The following real photo post cards come from my paternal grandparents collection. My grandfather was a scout master in Motherwell, Scotland. He is not in either of the troop photos. I have no idea who any of the people are, though I've always laughed that the one short fellow in the back row of the first photo looks like a scared Roger Daltry.

To see more scouting ephemera visit my site Tattered and Lost Ephemera to see some pages from the 1960 American Boy Scout Handbook.

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IS SHE OR ISN'T SHE a little on the Royal side?

This real photo post card has languished in a box of old family photos, specifically the Scottish side of my family. I have two of them and have always wondered who these people are. It's a very nice, good quality card, but I have no idea how it relates to my family other than it was shot in Motherwell, Scotland.

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Looking at it last night I started to notice that the woman in the dark hat and clothing sort of looks like the Queen Mother, but then thought, "Nah, why would she have a portrait taken in Motherwell?" But I'm not convinced it isn't her with a group of crusters, far more upper crust than anyone in any of my family. This photo has always stood out from everything else.

So I'm wondering if this was perhaps a souvenir card of some sort featuring these upper crusties. Maybe the photographer didn't actually take it and simply did the printing. Perhaps someone somewhere will recognize someone and then let me know.

The photo was taken by T. Johnstone, 71 Brandon Street, Motherwell, Scotland. The only information I've found so far is from a genealogy site:

The firm of Thomas Johnstone was in Motherwell for over 50 years, very popular for weddings etc. There would have been thousands of photographs taken over the years and I very much doubt if any records were kept. It was quite common for people to pop in and have their picture taken on the spur of the moment. I can remember this studio, it was half-way down Brandon Street, on the left-hand side near the City Bakeries shop.

T_Johnstone.jpg

Whoever, whatever, these people are they look like characters out of

Upstairs, Downstairs. Surely they had their own Masterpiece Theater

show.