Your Ancestors

01/02/2026

31/01/2026

During the First World War, Glasgow played a crucial role as Scotland’s industrial powerhouse. It provided the Navy with ships and submarines, and met the constant demand for munitions.

The city’s population quickly expanded during this time. Workers moved into the area from all over the country. This rapid expansion meant a huge working class population faced cramped living conditions.

These worsening conditions, coupled with growing unionisation among workers, contributed to a rise in socialist interest in the West of Scotland.

Many felt the Liberal government of the time did not represent the working class. Workers protested throughout the war years, striking in factories, mines and shipyards.

At the same time, landlords increased rents despite housing shortages.

The Clydeside Rent Strike of 1915 saw organisations like the South Govan Housing Association (led by Mary Barbour and Helen Crawfurd) take action.

These strikes were backed by trade unions, the Labour Party, suffragettes and other left wing political groups.

The introduction of the Munitions of War Act in the same year added more discontentment.

The Act allowed lower skilled workers opportunities to perform work that would usually require someone with much higher skill. It allowed employers to increase working hours and cap wages.

Tensions between the government and Glasgow’s working class continued to grow throughout the war years, coming to a head soon after the Armistice.

The conclusion of the First World War saw thousands of troops return to Britain, flooding job markets.

In Glasgow, the trade union-led Clyde Workers’ Committee (CWC) wanted to help create jobs for returning soldiers by reducing the average working week for those already in employment from 54 to 40 hours.

They called for a “40 hours strike” and went to Glasgow City Chambers to present their case to the Lord Provost on Wednesday 29 January 1919. They were supported by thousands of striking workers outside in George Square.

On 31 January 1919, tens of thousands of demonstrators gathered in George Square to hear the Lord Provost’s reply to the CWC’s requests.

What began as a protest soon became a riot. Clashes broke out between the police and the striking workers. Fighting across the city continued throughout the night. 53 people were recorded as injured.

Within a week of the riot, a compromise was met and the working week was reduced to 47 hours.

Our digital Scran archive, which is currently being migrated into trove.scot, holds a wealth of information on Red Clydeside - and further research is still ongoing into the build-up and aftermath.

Image: CWC leader Davie Kirkwood lying on the ground after being batoned to the ground by police, reproduced on our blog at https://blog.historicenvironment.scot/2019/01/red-clydeside-battle-george-square/ (© Glasgow Trades Council Collection, The Mitchell Library)

31/01/2026

CORNKISTER: ‘A rollicking or sentimental song sung at gatherings of farmworkers’ (https://dsl.ac.uk/our-publications/scots-word-of-the-week/cornkister/).

The Dictionaries of the Scots Language (DSL) define this term as, “a rollicking (or sentimental) song sung at gatherings of farmworkers”. These songs earned their name because they were typically performed near the corn kist, a wooden box for holding the horses’ corn. Farmworkers would even sit on the corn kist whilst they sang.

The first citation in DSL is relatively late, coming from the Huntly Express in January 1936: “An’ syne there cam’ supper an’ a suppie o the brew; There wis speeches made, an’ cornkisters sung”.

Further research has uncovered an earlier mention of the term within the Edinburgh Evening News in April 1930, where programme listings refer to “The Corn-kister (Willie Kemp)”.

In 1952, John R Allan explained something of the culture in his North-East Lowlands of Scotland: “The lowland songs are in praise of some trade, or in complaint about it. Most of them are ploughmen's songs and therefore are called bothy ballads, after the bothy in which the unmarried ploughmen lived, or cornkisters after the corn kist in the stable where they often sat when singing”.

In October 1999, the Herald reported: “There were fiddles and mouth-organs, cornkisters, and stories, even a feet-washing - to confirm that the traditional talents of the land have by no means disappeared”.

The word still lives on in the collective memory, as seen in the Aberdeen Evening Express in March 2021: “I larned cornkisters [bothy ballads] frae ma granny jist as Jock wid hae dane frae his fowk”.

Scots Word of the Week comes from Dictionaries of the Scots Language and is illustrated by Bob Dewar. Visit DSL Online at https://dsl.ac.uk.

https://dsl.ac.uk/entry/snd/corn_n1

29/01/2026

29/01/2026

Have you traced your family tree back to the 18th century? We reveal the best websites for ancestry research in this turbulent century:

29/01/2026

Now in stock 📖 - Women of the Middle Ages

For too long, medieval women have been overshadowed by queens, saints and warriors. This book brings the focus back to the everyday women whose lives shaped the medieval world.

🌾 From those who worked the land and healed the sick to midwives, traders, nuns and the Beguines who defied convention, Women of the Middle Ages uncovers stories of resilience, faith and quiet determination.

✨ Meticulously researched and vividly told, it reveals the lived experiences of ordinary women – the women who made the Middle Ages work, even when history forgot their names.

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29/01/2026

29/01/2026

Looking for all children from a particular marriage?

Search birth records using the mother’s married surname, maiden name and a year range. Any siblings will appear together in your results.

29/01/2026

27/01/2026

Do you have Huguenot ancestors? We take a closer look at the French Protestants who came to Britain and other countries fleeing religious persecution:

24/01/2026

The children's ward at Barnhill Poorhouse, c1898
Archive ref: P9042

24/01/2026