The Canadian Collection

Well, Everyone, it finally happened: On August 7th, 2001, in the middle of the longest heat wave in recent memory, Coubroughs and Cowbroughs from around the world converged on Kingston for the first ever International Coubrough/ Cowbrough Family Reunion. Descendants of three of the four main branches so far identified spent three days getting to know each other and figuring out how there could possibly be so many other people with their name. Nearly all those present had grown up admitting to some shadowy Scots ancestors in the vague, misty past--but they were also sure that they and their close kin were the only living bearers of their name. Astonishment was plain to be seen when they saw how many of us there really are--and that we don't all live in Scotland!

The Coubrough forebearers were a nomadic bunch. You have already heard how, in the 19th and 20th centuries, they moved to Australia, New Zealand, Uruguay, England, Canada, the United States, and South Africa. But did you know that there is also evidence of their having escaped to France in the mid-1700's, after Prince Charles Edward Stuart (Bonny Prince Charlie) made his last attempt at regaining the British throne? You would have if you had been at the reunion.

Back at the reunion hall, there were 49 of us for supper the first night. On the menu were barbecued chicken breasts and speeches. After an afternoon spent marvelling at meeting so many people with our very own name--and whose existence we had never suspected--we spent the evening taking formal group photographs and telling each other about ourselves. In the ancient tradition of Coubroughs, several of us are farmers (active and retired). Others of us have somewhat more modern means of supporting ourselves and our families. We are clerks, nurses, veterinarians, teachers, lawyers, businessmen and women, pilots, civil servants, personal-care givers, engineers, housewives, school children, accountants, janitors, and the odd military type (both active and retired).

We were from three of the four "big branches": English and Canadian descendants of Helen Stevenson & John Coubugh of Ellrig (married about 1682); New Zealand and Canadian descendants of Jean Buchanan and Malcolm Coubrough (married in 1796); and the largest group of all, American and Canadian descendants of James Cowbrough and Jean Muir (married about 1784). Thirty-one of us were Canadian, with nine from the US, six from New Zealand, and three from England. All in all, a pretty mixed bunch, but all "family" in a way few of us had considered before.

To help keep everyone straight, party-goers were issued name tags bearing coloured stripes. Anyone with a stripe the same colour as yours was from the same branch. Family tree books, bearing covers whose colours matched the name tag stripes, were available for study and seemed to be quite popular. There were lots of old photos and we were even able to put names to some of our mystery pictures.

I would like very much to thank the people who helped make the reunion a success. Without them keeping us all fed and cleaning up after us, it would have been a lot less fun. Thank you also to everyone who sent or brought pictures, contributed updates and/or corrections to the family trees, and identified the mystery people in some of the old pictures. I couldn't have done it without you.

It seems safe to say that everyone enjoyed themselves. Even several youngsters were seen poring over their family trees and examining the pictures of their ancestors.

If you were not able to join us, fear not: Several people have already mentioned a re-run. Nothing has been settled yet, of course, but proposed locations include England, Scotland, and Saskatchewan, with time-frames of two, three and five years bandied about. 

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Family: Matt and Jean (Allan) Coubrough

When we last visited Jean and Matt, in 1841, they lived in the village of Rutherglen, with their five children who ranged in age from 10-year-old Jim to one-year-old Annie. Matt was a calico printer by trade, and Jean was not only looking after five children and a boarder, but was probably also a piecework weaver or spinner in her spare time. It was common for married women to do this, and though at 1£, 1s. per week, calico printers were some of the best-paid ⁽¹⁾ cloth workers, extra income seldom comes amiss in any age. Only the engravers of the copper printing plates were paid more than the printers and that only slightly. The printers made about three times as much as a common labourer, though printers were responsible for paying their own tearers, ⁽²⁾ who were paid about 10 per cent of what the journeyman printer made. Thus we can see that, even if they didn't live on the same grand scale as the factory owners, printers were relatively well off.

A journeyman printer, that is, one who had finished his apprencticeship and was entitled to work for day wages, was a highly skilled worker, and they were paid according ly. But it was a long road to reach journeyman status. According to the 1799 Statistical Account for Campsie parish, "...although the wages of calico printers seem to be the highest of any in the country; no doubt, when the long apprenticeship is considered, along with the unwholesome nature of the work, the wages should perhaps be greater than of most other operative people;..." But if the wages were high, the hours were still very long to earn them. Earlier in the century, the workday had been shortened, by law, to only 12 hours, down from the 14-16 previously allowed. Some enlightened factory owners had even reduced the workday to an unheard-of 10 hours, but this was not the case in the Neilston mills where Matt and his children worked. Printers worked from 6 AM to 6 PM in the summer, with the children working the same hours as the men. Children under 18 were often apprentices in the skilled trades like printing, and some of the factories had schools attached. Children under 12 could go to school part-time, but it took twice as long to serve an apprenticeship that way. And the school was not always free, though some factories allowed the child to "work off" the price of his education.

In any town, in any time, where wages are high, prices will be also, but it must have been much harder for the low-end wage earners to make ends meet than for the highly skilled printers. According to the same Statistical Account, the average weekly wage paid masons, wrights, blacksmiths, weavers, tailors, shoemakers, saddlers and daily labourers was 12s, about half what a male printer made--and about twice what a woman was paid. ⁽³⁾

As an aside, Matt's father was a wright when the 1799 edition of the Statistical Account was published. The average wage of a wright at that time was about 12 shillings per week--exactly the same as a wright made a half-century later, which shows that Matt's father was not quite as well paid as his son would eventually be, but still better than the general labourers in the same mills who made only 7 shillings per week.

Now back to Matt and Jean: By the end of 1851, their family was complete. Matthew Gibb Coubrough, born December 25, 1851, in Little Dielston, Neilston parish, was the last of Jean Allan's 10 children. At the time of the 1851 census, which was supposed to record the state of the nation on the night of March 30, Matt and Jean lived in Grahamston Village, which seems to have been a sort of suburb of Barrhead, so they had perhaps moved house before little Matthew was born.

When we visited Matt and Jean in 1841, they had four living children. Matthew, born 1838, had died before his third birthday, and his older sister, Barbara, b.1836, had died before she was five. Possibly they had been taken by one of the recurring epidemics that took the lives of so many children in the days when open sewers flowed in the streets and raw sewage was dumped into the drinking water supply. Unfortunately, for little Matt and Barbara, the days of sanitation committees and public health departments were still fifty years in the future.

Or maybe they sucumbed to the whooping cough, bronchitis, or pneumonia so common in the damp, drafty tenement homes most workers were forced to live in. Eventually, public-minded citizens and the workers themselves began to demand wages high enough to allow them to send their children to school, instead of being forced to send them to work at the age of six. Indeed, some children as young as three and four were hired out to chimney sweeps. About 1832, a law was passed that made it illegal for children under ten to work.

Annie, born 1840, was the baby of the family for close to five years. Then, sometime in 1844 or 1845, twin sons, Malcolm and William joined the family. Margaret followed in about 1849. ⁽⁴⁾ By the time Matthew Gibb was born at Christmas, 1851, Jean was 40 years old and Matt was nearly 47. There may have been children between Annie and the twins (which would explain the long gap), but as yet I have found no indication of them.

Matt and Jean's 8 living children were not all at home in 1851: Jim, the oldest, had probably already joined the Army by then, and was possibly already married, though if he was, he must have been one of the lucky ones in his outfit. Normally, the commanding officer had to give permission for any of his officers or men to marry. This was partly because accomodation was limited, but also because the commander might be responsible for moving the families when his unit was posted to a new location.

At any rate, Jim was no longer living at home when the census taker came to call on April 20, 1851. Even though they were supposed to ask about the way things were on the night of March 30, there may be some room for interpretation of the answers he wrote down three weeks later. Unlike the 1841 version, when adults' ages were rounded down to the nearest five years, the 1851 census recorded their actual ages as of March 30.

According to the 1851 Neilston parish census (District 14, Barrhead, Grahamston village):

Matthew Coubrough and his family lived on Paisley Road, in what seems to have been a long series of rowhouses ⁽⁵⁾. These "workmen's cottages" were a long narrow building, divided into several separate homes, each having only two outside walls. Matt and Jean were the 187th household to be counted.

Matthew Coubrough, a 46 year-old married male Calico Printer, born in Thornliebank, Renfrew-shire was the head of the household.

Jane do, ⁽⁶⁾ his wife, was 40 years of age, also born in Thornliebank.

Robert do, unmarried male, 18 years old, son to the head of the family, was a Colour Mixer in a Printfield. He was born in Thornliebank too.

Jane do, unmarried 15-year-old female Power Loom Weaver, daughter to the head of the house. She had been born at Neilston, Renfrewshire.

Ann Coubrough, unmarried 12-year-old female Tearer. She had been born in Rutherglen, in Lanarkshire.

Malcolm do and William do, 6-year-old twin sons born Neilstion Renfrewshire.

Margaret do 2-year-old female, daughter, also born Rutherglen.

Alexander McNab was a 34-year-old male Lodger who had been born in Rutherglen, but no trade was given for him.

Young Annie may have been born as early as 1839: The census gave her age as 12, but other records put her birth at April 19, 1840. She would thus have been still only 10 by the date the census was supposed to record (March 31, 1851), though she would have had her 11th birthday before the actual count was done April 20th.

The census says Annie was employed as a "tearer" in the calico factory. It doesn't give the name of the printer she worked for, but her father being a calico printer who was responsible for finding and paying his own tearer, the odds are good that she was her father's assistant. And what better way to hang on to what you earned than to hire one of your kids? She probably had to go to work anyway, and this way, not only could Matt keep an eye on his daughter, she was also under his protection. And, there were women printers. Even though her father was not a master printer, and so not officially allowed to train apprentices, there was nothing to stop Annie from learning the trade from her father.

Jean, aged 40, was probably already expecting the second little Mathew by the time the census taker visited. We can only wonder what dreams she dreamed for the coming baby as she went about her daily routine of buying food, cleaning the house--or more likely--the one or two rooms they lived in, mending her family's clothes, washing them when possible, caring for and entertaining baby Maggie, and weaving cloth or spinning yarn for a merchant.

Would the baby grow up to work in the printfield too? Or would he magically become a great-landlord and own the factory that enslaved the rest of his family? Would she grow up beautiful? It would be so nice to have another little girl. Or was she just worried about how they would feed another mouth? And how long would the poor little thing survive?

At age 6, the twins, Malcolm and William went to school. Either the church or the state paid a schoolmaster to teach them how to read. Their father being fairly well off, compared to some of his neighbours, perhaps could afford to pay for them to learn how to write as well.

For children whose families did not need them to work almost as soon as they could walk, the parish of Neilston had a total of 13 schools, one of which was run by the parish. The parochial school taught English, writing, arithmetic, mathematics, geography, Latin, Greek, and French. There were others where all but Greek and French were taught, but the factory schools gave only the most basic education: reading, writing and arithmetic. Girls did not attend the same schools as their brothers, and the parish had "...four female schools where the common branches of education, with needle-work are taught." ⁽⁷⁾

Jean's family was growing up so fast. Jim had already left home and would soon be on his way to New Brunswick, with his wife in tow. Why he would want to go way out there, instead of taking the high wages the factory offered, and where he could settle down and raise his own family near by? When would she ever see her grandchildren if they lived on the other side of the world?

At 18, Robert had his eye on pretty little Agnes Morton, but it would still be a few years before he could afford to support a wife and a family. Little Janey, her grandmother's namesake, was 15 already and she, too, was beginning to think of marrying. Even her darling Annie was out in the world, adding to the family's well-being. At least Annie would still be hers for a while yet.

Matt's and Jean's parents were all gone by this time--on to a better world than the one their children occupied. Who knew what was going to happen next! Even the church, the infallible mother, had been torn in two only a few years back. The Disruption had caused friends and families alike to turn against each other--perhaps that was why her little Jimmy ⁽⁸⁾ had gone away. Matt and Jean followed the old ways of the Established Church, as had their parents and grandparents but Jimmy had chosen to follow the wrong-headed Free Church doctrine, turning his back on all they had taught him. It was so hard to keep children on the right path!

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Neighbours

In the spring of 1851, Jean and Matt live in Enumeration District 14, in the Quoad Sacra Parish of Barrhead, which had formerly been a part of Neilston parish. Also in District 14 are John Coubrough, Power Loom Tenter, and his wife, Catherine. The census says Catherine had been born in the parish of Mearns, in Renfrewshire, and that she is 47 years old. John was born in Stirlingshire, but no town is given. I couldn't make out his age, though it looks like it might be 48. Their son Matthew, a 24-year-old Calico Printer, is still at home--but not for long. They had already called the banns and he would soon be married to Margaret Duncan. ⁽⁹⁾

There is a possibility that these are John and Katherine (Andrew) Coubrough, though if it is them, John, born in 1789, should have been about 61 or 62 by the spring of 1851. John and Catherine (Andrew) Coubrough are known to have been living in Barrhead at about this time, and I have not so far found any other John Coubrough married to a Catherine, so if John was not the brother of Jean Allan's husband, I have not figured out who he is.

Practically next door to Matt and Jean, in household #180, live the newly-weds, David and Barbara Aitkenhead. David, the head of the house, is a 22-year-old Calico Printer, born in Kilbarchen, Renfrewshire. His 21-year-old wife, the former Barbara Coubrough, was born in Eastwood parish. They have two children, both born in Neilston parish: William, who is about to turn 2, and Catherine, aged 9 months. I believe that Barbara is Matt's niece or his cousin. She may have been the daughter of John Coubrough and Katherine Andrew: Barbara named her first daughter Catherine, so it was probably also the name of Barbara's own mother, and Katherine Andrew seems to be the only one around to fit the bill.

About 20 houses down the road from Matt and Jean, in the same series of row houses, lives another "mystery Coubrough." James Coubrough, a 34-year-old Calico Printer, lives with his wife Janet, 31, their three children: Janet, 15, Margaret, 5, and James, 3; and Janet's mother, Janet Stewart, a widowed pensioner of 73 years. James and his daughter Janet had been born in Eastwood parish, while his wife and the other two children were born in Neilston parish.

James was probably the son of one of Matt's brothers, but I don't know which one. Matt's older brother, John, had a son named James, but he would have been about ten years too old to be Janet's husband. Young Janet may have been from an earlier marriage of one of her parents, or there may have been other children who did not survive, which would account for the large age difference between Janet and little Margaret. Either way, by the time of the census, young Janet was earning a living as a weaver in a cotton factory. Grandmother Janet was listed as an annuitant. This generally meant that even though she was living with relatives, the parish contributed something towards her living expenses, not unlike today's assisted independant living, rather than the English style of forcing poor people to the workhouse. If her husband had been a member of a craft guild, ⁽¹⁰⁾ she might have been in receipt of a small pension from them. In either case, the amount would not be enough to enable her to live in any great style, but would certainly help the family keep the wolf from the door.

At the other end of the same Paisley Road as Matt and Jean, lives one John Coubrough, a 29-year-old Cloth Lapper, who had been born in Thornliebank. Also in the house are his wife, Mary, and their children: Catherine, 9; John, 2; and newborn Mary, who was noted as being "under 1 month." Catherine, born in Dumbartonshire, goes to school. The other children, both born in Neilston parish, are of course too young for school. John's wife is most likely Mary McIntyre, and John may have been another of Matt's nephews, since this branch seems to be the only one who living in Neilston parish or Thornliebank, but I can't say for sure. John and Mary McIntyre had been married in Glasgow in 1838, so there may have been other children before Catherine and between her and John.

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More Family: Our men of the C.E.F.

In the spring of this year (2001), I made a trip to the National Archives of Canada, in Ottawa. There obtained copies of the service records of all of the Coubroughs who were in the Canadian Expeditionary Force (C.E.F.) in the First World War. The files are all subject to the "Privacy Act," but there were still some interesting tidbits in them. The files include attestation papers, pay records, medical reports, and casualty forms.

The attestation papers ⁽¹¹⁾ give physical descriptions of eye, hair, and complection colour of men who we have only seen in black and white photographs, if at all. The casualty forms tell what jobs the men did in the Army, when/where they were transferred, when they were wounded, what hospitals they were at, and what ships they traveled on. Pay sheets are exactly that: They tell how much the man was paid, how much he sent home and to whom he sent it. I have extracted some bits about the men directly conncected to our branch: Matt and Liz's sons, John, Simon, Del, and Harve; and the sons of David and Mary (Smith) Coubrough: Andrew, Charles and David.

Canadian Expeditionary Force ⁽¹²⁾ troops were paid $1 per day, plus a dime's field pay for every day they were in the field (i.e., not at a base in England or Canada). Their ten cents' field pay was a higher percentage of the regular wage than we get today, though the absolute numbers are much higher now. ⁽¹³⁾ A dollar a day doesn't sound like much today, but for many servicemen in 1914, it was the most cash money they had ever seen, let alone earned. The Canadian rural economy of the day was mainly based on barter: You bought on credit at the store and paid when you hauled grain in the fall. Or you traded butter, eggs, milk, labour, meat, chickens, or whatever for what you needed.

The Army also made men send money home. A part of their pay (usually a third to a half) was set aside for the designated next of kin, and the Army sent the money directly to that person. This cash infusion enabled many families to live better than ever before, even though the main bread-winner was not at home. All of our Coubroughs in the C.E.F. were privates, so they all made $30 cash a month, and $33 when they were in the field. None of them were married at the time so they all sent their money to their parents.

Many men had better dental and medical care in the Army than they had ever imagined possible: Most of the men who joined could not afford to pay for a doctor or dentist except in an emergency--and maybe not even then. In the Army these were free and many men took full advantage of them. There were, in fact, records of men who joined to get the dental care they needed!

As previously noted, John and Simon joined up together on January 4, 1916 in Weyburn, Simon standing in line front of his brother. They survived basic training at Camp Hughes together, and shipped out from Halifax, Nova Scotia aboard the S.S. Missanabe on October 3, 1916. Ten days later, they were in Liverpool, England, where they spent six weeks. On the 29th of November, 1916, they arrived in France together, where they were both assigned as infantrymen to "D" Company of the 5th Battalion. They seem not to have been separated for any length of time until May 2, 1917, when Simon died at #30 C.C.S. ⁽¹⁴⁾, of a gun shot wound to the chest, received in the fighting at Vimy Ridge. After all that time so close to his brother, it must have been very difficult for John to carry on until his own death in August, 1918.

Not all of the other men were lucky enough to be alongside a brother in such a turbulent time. Nor were all of them assigned to the infantry as "cannon fodder." Uncle Harve had gone to war the year before, signing up in Regina on April 6, 1915 and arrived in Camp Hughes for basic training on June 7th. Arriving in England on November 30, 1915, he spent more than three months there before leaving for France, where he landed in Boulogne on March 9, 1916. He was originally assigned as a driver to the 10th Canadian Mounted Rifles, but on March 10, 1916, transferred to the 9th Canadian Railway Troop, later known as the 1st Pioneer Battalion. No reason was given for the move, but he stayed with the Pioneers until his discharge on February 26, 1919. Pioneer Battalions were the men who laid bridges, and built railroads and airfields.

Delbert Laurier Coubrough, younger brother of Harve, John, and Simon, was too young to have a chance to volunteer for service: Along with thousands of others his age, he was called up under the 1917 "Military Service Act," which required every male over 18 to register for the draft. Previous to this new law, men were not expected to volunteer until they had reached the legal age of 21, but on May 21, 1918, six months before his 21st birthday, he was in Regina being signed up. Luckily, the war was over before they were finished their training and no Canadian conscripts were involved in the fighting. Like Del, though, many of them were kept on for some time, serving with ambulance and hospital units, helping their fellow soldiers get home. Harve was demobilized and released from the Army at Regina on February 26, 1919, but Del didn't get back to Regina until September 25th the same year.

Matt and Liz's sons were red-blooded Canadian boys. While their parents missed them at home, the boys were being boys. On February 11, 1917, Harve spent three days at #7 Field Ambulance ⁽¹⁵⁾ where he was treated for "pyrexia of unknown origin." He would be in the hospital again in the summer of 1918: On July 7, he was admitted to #3 C.C.S. with Influenza. Two days later, he was moved to the 1 Australian General Hospital at Rouen, where he spent 5 more days. On July 14, he moved to #2 Convalescent Depot in Rouen, and on July 18 to #11 Convalescent Depot at Buchy. He spent a month there, recovering, before being discharged to duty August 16.

On September 10, 1917, Harve had been awarded a "good conduct stripe" for managing to stay out of trouble. A year later, on September 17, 1918, he gave it back, along with a day's pay, for being involved in a brawl. On January 11, 1919, he was transferred to Kimmel Park, which was a sort waystation, where they sorted everyone out and put them on ships for home. Shipping was at times very hard to come by, and, depending on when they got there, some men spent months in these camps waiting for a ship home. Uncle Harve only spent a week there before boarding the HMS Aquitania, bound for Halifax, on January 18. In between, he managed to get "awarded" forteiture of a total of 12 days' pay and allowances for being Absent Without Leave! He arrived in Halifax on January 24, and was released from the Army at Regina on February 26, free at last to go home and marry his sweetheart.

Uncle Del was on his own, too. Having survived his basic training, on July 28, 1918 he left for England, arriving in Liverpool on August 15 and was assigned to the Canadian Army Medical Corps. His military career was cut short when, on the day before Hallowe'en, he was admitted to the Military Isolation ward of the hospital at Aldershott with mumps! It must have been there that he would have heard about the Armistice as he was not discharged from the hospital until November 18, 1918. On September 12, 1919, he boarded the S.S. Regina, bound for Halifax. Two weeks later, on September 25, he walked out of Dispersal Station "O", Military District No. 12, in Regina, Saskatchewan, a free man.

Uncle Simon managed not to bring himself to the attention of anyone who wanted his money, but Uncle John was not quite as nimble. June 20, 1917 found him at the 1st Army Rest Camp, where he spent two weeks, returning to duty on July 4th. On July 25th, he was fined "stoppage of pay 1/4 ⁽¹⁶⁾ for losing, by neglect, 1 mess tin." August 5, 1917, he was admitted to #1 C.C.S. with "contusions to R. shoulder and Back." They must have been some mighty bruises: He was not discharged from the hospital until August 23, and rejoined his unit on the 25th. November 22 sent him on his way to England for a 14-day leave, from which he returned just before Christmas. May 4, 1918 saw him transferred to the 1st Canadian Division, Arras Precinct, where he died in action on August 11, 1918.

Though there is no evidence that they were with the sons of Matt and Liz, there were other Coubroughs in the C.E.F., too. Four of David and Mary (Smith) Coubrough's five sons: David, Andrew, Charles, and John were there, as well as another of Matt's cousins, James Dowall Coubrough, a Malcolm Coubrough from Brantford, with his sons William and David, another Malcolm Coubrough, of Portage-la-Prairie, Manitoba, John Paterson Cowbrough of Welwyn, Saskatchwan, and Clifford Atwell, son of Matt's sister, Flora Jane.

There is a rather sad little note on John Paterson's pay sheet: The pay assignment to Mrs. Bridgette Cowbrough (wife), No. 16, Ashburnham Grove, Greenwich, London, effective August 1, 1917, was stopped September 1, 1918, due to the death of the assignee.

John was born in Saline parish, Fife, Scotland, the youngest son of Walter Cowbrough and Jane McFarlane. He farmed at Welwyn, before the war, but for some reason he had enlisted at Winnipeg. He died February 27, 1962, in the Veterans Pavillion, Regina.

James Dowall Coubrough, a sapper in the 10th Battalion of the Canadian Engineers, was the eldest surviving son of Margaret (Dowall) and Matthew Gibb Coubrough ⁽¹⁷⁾, youngest son of Matt and Jean (Allan) Coubrough. James, born 1875, had obviously emigrated to Canada some time before he joined the C.E.F. at Welland, Ontario in November 1915, but I don't have an exact date for him. On his enlistment papers he gave his place of residence as Vineland, Ontario. He had been a clerk before the war, and had served 8 years with the 44th Regiment of the 1st Lanark Rifles before moving to Canada. He also said he was single, and gave his father as his next of kin. He was described as 5'10" tall, with a ruddy complexion, blue eyes, and brown hair.

Hugh, eldest of the five surviving sons of David and Mary (Smith) Coubrough, was already married and so not expected to volunteer. Of his four brothers, Charles, a "wire drawer" by trade, was the first to enlist, on September 19, 1914 at Quebec City. He was followed by Andrew, a chauffeur, December 28, 1914; David, an iron worker, March 23, 1916; and John, a plumber's apprentice, August 30, 1917, all in Montreal.

Poor David, who died March 10, 1917, after being fatally wounded by a grenade, was the only one of the brothers taken by the fighting. His father was distraught and it must have been a terrible blow to his family for John to go off to war only a few months later. In fact, it seems that the family was so shaken that Andrew, who had been a driver with the 6th Field Ambulance of the Canadian Army Medical Corps since September 15, 1915, was sent on a 10-week leave in June, then given a compassionate discharge on September 18, 1917, to go home and look after his parents.

Charles, second youngest of the brothers, and only just turned 17, was the first to enlist. It seems to have taken him a while to adjust to the Army way of life: On February 11, 1915, he was absent from his place of duty, which little escapade cost him 10 days' pay and allowances; May 3, 1915, he "broke out of camp when defaulter," ⁽¹⁸⁾ which cost him five days' pay. Shortly after that, he embarked for Southampton, England, where on June 8th, he received 10 days' confinement to barracks ⁽¹⁹⁾ for being absent from a parade and refusing to obey an order. After that, he seems to have settled down, and on January 18, 1918, he was granted a good conduct badge.

After arriving in England, he was taken on strength of the No. 1 Canadian General Hospital on July 31, 1915, where he served until March 31, 1916, when he transferred to the 6th Field Ambulance. His older brother, Andrew, had already been with the same Field Amb since September the year before, so perhaps Charles had asked for the transfer. Charles remained in France until April 9, 1919, when he was sent back to England. There, he was forced to cool his heels until July 2 when he embarked at Southampton for the trip to Halifax. He was discharged at Montreal on July 11, 1919.

John, the youngest of Mary and David's sons, and the last to join, gave his age as 19 years 0 months on his attestation papers. After surviving basic training at the new camp in Valcartier, Quebec, he arrived in England aboard the S.S. Missanabie on February 16, 1918, 13 days after leaving Halifax. He spent a couple of weeks at Shorncliffe, which was the C.A.M.C.'s ⁽²⁰⁾ training and staging area, then on March 1, 1918, he was went to No. 11 Canadian General Hospital and remained there until June 15, when he went back to Shorncliffe on his way to France. He disembarked at Havre on September 11, 1918 and on the 21st arrived at the Canadian Corps Reinforcement Camp. There, reinforcements were sorted out and sent to the units that needed them. September 29th, 1918, found him in the 6th Field Amb, the same place as Charles, just in time for the war to be over. With thousands of his fellow soldiers, he lounged about at the demobilization camp at Whitley, England, waiting for a ship home. With little or nothing to do, it is not surprising that he, also like many of his fellows, managed to get himself crosswise of the Army while he waited. On April 29, 1919, he was "admonished and forfeited 3 days' pay and allowances for overstaying his leave from 22.00 o'clock 25.4.19 to 22.00 o'clock 28.4.19, 3 days." He certainly wasn't the only one to take himself an unauthorised holiday and unlike some others, at least he hadn't overstayed his leave (at least according to his paybook) because he was drunk!

When men are left to their own devices for long periods, as they were in the demobilization camps, they will find something to do and it won't always be something the authorities approve. So much shipping had been lost during the war, that the Army had a terrible time finding transport for the huge numbers of soliders waiting to go home to Canada. This left thousands of men with nothing to do but fret and fight with each other in the camps. In Kimmel Park, where Uncle Harve came through, several men died in the riots which broke out over the long wait.

At last, on May 13, John boarded H.M.T. Northland, whence he landed at Halifax on May 23. Finally, on May 24, Private John Coubrough, aged 20 years, and 8 months, entered Dispersal Station "F," Military District No. 4, and walked away as Mr. John Coubrough, a free man at last. In fact, he was home nearly 6 weeks before his brother, Charles, who had been in the same outfit.

All in all, the men of the C.E.F. were just ordinary men--before they went away. By the time they came home, though, they had little in common with the men who had stayed home. In France and elsewhere, they had walked with death--stared into the very mouth of Hell--and lived to tell about it. To families who were just relieved that life could now get back to normal, the men who came home were strangers. To themselves, they were strangers in a strange land. They had been a part of their communities when they left and they expected to take up where they had left off. 

Some of them did: Uncle Harve had saved money for his farm and married his darlin' soon after he got back. Others were not so lucky. The post-war economy had slowed almost to a halt. Jobs were scarce, and getting scarcer. Anybody who had one wasn't about to give it up for a veteran or anyone else. In the pre-war world, men worked to support their women, who looked after home and family. Imagine the shock to these men finding that not only were there no jobs for them, many of the jobs they should have had were filled by women in trousers(!) who weren't giving up that kind of freedom for the drudgery of cooking and cleaning for a man who took her for granted.

If the situation was grim for the able-bodied, it was worse for those who were physically disabled--and positively a nightmare for those who were mentally disabled. Battle fatigue and Post Traumatic Stress syndrome were not yet recognized as battle casualties. Because they looked to be whole and hale, they were considered to be just lazy louts if they couldn't work.

At the end of the war, the federal government felt that it would be encouraging idleness, to say nothing of creating a welfare mentality by giving disabled veterans a pension to live on. It was felt that even men who were missing an arm, a leg, or an eye, should still be able to work and support themselves and their families. It would never do to give those lazy ex-soldiers money for doing nothing. It doesn't seem to have occurred to the bureaucrats to wonder that if even able-bodied veterans were having trouble feeding themselves, what hope did the disabled have? Maybe they thought you could pitch hay with only one arm.

Eventually, the various veterans' organizations won decent pensions for some of the worst off, but even so, there was little compassion or concern for the men whose disabilities were hidden inside their minds and very little was done for them. It has been said that after the Great War, Canada had some of the most generous pensions in the world, but they were the hardest to get.

Regardless of whether they were in receipt of pensions, these men were survivors. All of the sons of Matt and Liz and all of the sons of David and Mary who made it home also made lives for themselves and raised families of their own. At 32, and the oldest of the five, Harve wasted no time. On April 19, 1919, only six weeks after he got home, Harve married May Cousins. John, youngest of the five, was the second to be married: to Beatrice Hiscock on March 17, 1922. Andrew married Jessie Cobb on June 21, 1924, and Del married Lena Bromberg April 7, 1926. Charles needed a little longer to find the right woman, but find her he did: he married Jessie Arba on October 2, 1937. These men served a government that may not have been properly grateful for their sacrifice of their youth, but they didn't lay down and feel sorry for themselves--lucky for us!

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Something old, something new: You may be amazed to learn that I have actually found the answers to some of my old questions. Trouble is, though, every answer seems to bring a whole herd of new questions with it. As always, I am happy to hear your ideas on these or any other family subject. If you don't speak up, though, the future will only have my version of history.

1. Having announced in the last issue that Annie MacDonald wasn't really a space alien, I am now not quite so sure. If she had parents, I think they must have been the aliens because there is no further trace of them. I do, however, have another theory which may bear invesitgation. Jim's cousin, Robert, was married to a woman named Margart Clark MacDonald in Eastwood parish, in 1840. Possibly Jim's wife, Annie MacDonald, was a relative of Margaret's?

2. Still looking for any information about Grampa Matt's sister, Barbara, who lived somewhere in the US, possibly in Minnesota.

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The months since the last issue have answered a few more of the old questions. Trouble is, every new answer seems to bring a whole new set of questions.

1. I still haven't identified the parents of Matthew Coubrough who married Margaret Duncan in 1851 and took her to Australia, but I have recently been in contact with one of their descendants. Still no big answers, but we are working on it.

2. Last time, I mentioned that I had found out that the Strathblane Coubroughs had once been the owners of a calico printing factory that had employed more than 500 people. This factory owner, Anthony Park Coubrough, seems to have been quite the community benefactor. He gave the village a bowling lawn and often let his factory hall, rent free, for concerts, speeches, etc. He also paid for a whole wing to be added to the local school shortly before he died in 1883. In recognition of this, his sons raised a marble plaque in the school in his honour. Several years ago, the school was renovated, and the plaque disappeared. Thanks to the efforts of Ms. Alison Dryden, secretary of the Strathblane Heritage Society, the plaque was re-installed in the school this past June. It was offiicially unveiled August 23, 2001, by Lord Gordon, of Strathblane, at a ceremony attended by the school children and several local dignitaries.

3. I recently had e-mail messages and letters two other people who have given us answers to bits of the Coubrough puzzle. One was from a granddaughter of a Malcolm Coubrough, who had lived in Brantford, Ontario, and his wife Isabella Hosie. Malcolm, it seems, was a descendant of Malcolm Coubrough and Jean Buchanan who were married in Killearn parish, Stirling, Scotland, on August 8, 1796.

Shortly before receiving that letter, I had also heard from another family whose grandparents, Malcolm and Isabella Coubrough, had also lived in Brantford. I had thought them to be the same couple, and I was somewhat confused.

Amazingly, though, two other strangers came to my rescue. An e-mail from a man in Wales not only told me that I had Isabella Hosie's husband connected to the wrong parents, but giving me the right parents, who he had troubled himself to look up when he went to Edinburgh.

Still confused, I gave Malcolm back to his proper parents, and was now at a loss as to who the other couple might have been. A few days later, another e-mail, this one from a woman in Brantford, Ontario, solved the mystery: her grandparents were Malcolm Coubrough and Isabella Markie. Thus, Isabella Markie's husband was descendant of the Ellrig line that begins with John Couburgh of Ellrig and Helen Stevenson. Their first son, another of the endless succession of John Coubroughs, was baptised in February, 1683, in Falkirk parish, Stirling, Scotland.

4. On a trip to Australia in 1999, I took the opportunity to try and identify the Coubroughs I found in Sydney. One of the Coubrough men I spoke to there owns a given name which i s fairly rare in the known Coubrough lines. Because of this, I thought he must be connected to the Strathblane Coubroughs, but could find no evidence to support my theory. I had also previously found a record of a James Coubrough who had arrived in Brisbane in 1883, with his wife and four children, but could find no further connections for him. There both lines rested.

Then, one night not long ago, while ego-surfing the Internet, I stumbled on a web page belonging to the Australian Vital Statistics office. And who should I find there, big as life, but James Coubrough and his wife and children? Better yet, James Wilberforce Coubrough, the man on the ship in 1883, was indeed a relative-a nephew in fact- of Anthony Park Coubrough, the Strathblane calico printer.

James Wilberforce Coubrough, born August 3, 1847, was the second son of James Hannah Park Coubrough and Christina Colquhoun. James Hannah just happens to have been the younger brother of Anthony Park, the factory owner. James Wilberforce was the one that landed at Brisbane, with his wife, Alice Paterson, and their four children: Helen, John Paterson Howard, James W. and Mary Sykes Coubrough.

5. And one last find: We have been hunting for quite some time for the parents of John MacDonald Coubrough, born about 1846, in Thornliebank, Refrew, Scotland. We have long thought that his parents must have been the Robert Coubrough and Margaret Clark MacDonald who were married in Eastwood parish in 1840. Even though we had no conclusive proof, what evidence there was all pointed in that direction. But we had no idea who Robert was, beyond the fact that he was a cloth lapper or cloth finisher, depending whether you were looking at Scots or English recorda, and even less idea who his parents were.

At the same time, we have known for even longer that Robert Coubrough, son of John and Katherine (Andrew) Coubrough, was the one who had married Mary Sandells and that he was the father of the David Coubrough who married Mary S. MacKay Smith. There was also some mystery attached to the identity of Mary Sandells, her name having been given as Sandles, Sandells, and Sandilands in various records. We knew that she had been married to Robert Coubrough on April 3, 1852, but what we didn't know was that she and Robert were both widowed and both had young children when they married each other!

In May of this year, I happened to be looking through the 1861 census for Eastwood parish. I found an entry for a Mary Coubrough, Widow, age 34, formerly Calico Bleacher, who was the head of her family. Her children were:

Margt Do, Daur in law, Un, 17, Bleacher, born Thornliebank

John Do, Son in law, Un, 15, Bleacher, born Thornliebank

James Do, Son in law, 13, Scholar, born Thornliebank

Isabella Gunn, Daur, 12, Scholar, born Thornliebank

Archibald Coubrough, Son, 8, Scholar, born Thornliebank

David Do, Son, 6, Scholar, born Renfrewshire, Thornliebank

Sarah Thornton, Boarder, Un, 21, Bleacher Calico, born Lanarkshire, Glasgow

Janet Hill, Boarder, Un, 22, Bleacher, Calico

Margt Carmichel, Visitor, Un, 34, General Serv, born Argyleshire

John do, Visitor, 2, b Renfrewshire, Killbarchan

This had to be the family of Robert Coubrough and Margaret MacDonald as well as that of Mary Sandells. The names and ages of the children are a perfect match for Margaret MacDonald's family, except for Robert, the eldest. He would have been about 19 or 20 in the spring of 1861 and might reasonably be expected to have been on his own by then. The fact that Margaret, John, and James were listed as Mary's daughter-in-law and sons-in-law is further proof, as this method was commonly used to identify step-children. It is not likely that John and James would both have the same name as the mother of their wives, so they must have been her husband's sons.

Moreover, this census record also showed that Mary had likely been the one whose 1847 marriage to William Gunn I had found last year. Since Mary's daughter Isabella was listed as Gunn, she must have been the daughter of Mary's first husband. She would likely have been known as Sandells or Coubrough if she had been born out of wedlock.

Another surprise here was that Robert and Mary had had three children. We had known from the start that they had children named David and Jean. Jean was born only a few months before her father died, and had herself died when she was about 2 years old. We had never heard of an Archibald before, and none of David's living descendants know anything about an "Uncle Archy." We think he must have also died quite young.

The biggest surprise of all was Mary's "son-in-law," John Coubrough, age 15. If he really was Margaret MacDonald's son (and it seemed pretty certain that he was) then his father, Robert Coubrough, had to be the same man as Robert Coubrough, father of David Coubrough m. Mary S. MacKay Smith, making John and David half-brothers of each other. Thus, John MacDonald Coubrough and his descendants are also descendants of James Coubrough and Jean Muir. James, born about 1750, is, of course, still a space alien, but who knows what we might find next?

1. Statistical Account for Scotland, Neilston Parish, 1845. In 1845, 1£ 1s = about $4.25 Canadian (1845 dollars). Back to text

2. Printers' helpers. Back to text

3. More recent statistics indicate the average wage for women is still only 75% of that for men. The difference is that in 1850 women were paid about half for the same work as men were doing, but today the difference is about 5% for the same work. Back to text

4. I have not been able to confirm the birthdates for these 3 children. Names & ages from the 1851 census. Back to text

5. Modern Canadian versions of these townhouses usually have only 4-6 homes in each building. Back to text

6. Ditto; i.e., the same surname as the previous entry. Back to text

7. Statistical Account, Neilston parish, 1845. Back to text

8. Jim married Annie MacDonald and raised a Canadian family. Back to text

9. Matt & Margaret had 8 children, the 4 youngest all born in Australia. Descendants of their son John still live there. Back to text

10. Craft guilds were professional societies of skilled workers. Forerunners of both unions and professional colleges (such as that of physicians and surgeons), they policed their members to ensure that standards were maintained and often looked after the widows and orphans of their members. Back to text

11. Attestation papers made the men members of the British Army, which is one of the reasons why the Canadian officers had such a hard time holding on to their men. The British Army tried to split them up as replacements for their own losses and it wasn't until 1917, that the Canadian Corps fought together under Canadian officers. This is why Vimy Ridge was so important to Canada as a nation: It marked the start of Canada's view of itself as an independant nation, rather than a mere British colony. Back to text

12. Similar figures for pay, etc. also applied to the Navy, but since all our men were in the Army, I have used only Army examples. The Royal Canadian Airforce did not exist before 1922, which is why they are not mentioned here. Back to text

13. Today, field pay is about 8.7%, compared to the 10% the C.E.F. men made. Back to text

14. Casualty Clearing Station--a sort of emergency first aid post, where men were patched up just enough to survive a trip to a hospital further back. Many of  the most severely wounded often never made it past the CCS. Back to text

15. Field Ambulance units had mobile hospitals which were set up in huge tents. The 1970s television show "M.A.S.H." portrayed an Korean War version. Pyrexia is a cough. Back to text

16. 1 shilling, 4 pence: about 30 cents. Back to text

17. This Matt and Margaret had four sons and a daughter. All but the oldest, another Matthew, grew up but that is a tale for another time. Back to text

18. Defaulters are soldiers confined to their quarters, and given extra work or drill, for minor infractions. Usually they are only allowed to go to work, to eat, and to church. Back to text

19. Punishment similar to defaulters, but usually without extra work or drill.  Back to text

20. Canadian Army Medical Corps. Back to text