William Marshall Shaw

Joseph Shaw, son of James Shaw farming at Craighead, married Agnes Waugh from Crowbank, the adjacent farm.

Their son, James, (grandpa Shaw) was my great grandfather. His youngest brother was William Marshall Shaw who was born at Carrickstone, Cumbernauld in 1866. William was witness to his father's death in 1883 but beyond that I have been unable to trace him. Unfortunately William Shaw is too common a name and I could find no obvious 'candidates' in the Cumbernauld area so I had put him to one side.

Doing a web search I found a William Marshall Shaw who apparently came from Scotland and married an Australian, Ellen O'Grady, in 1891. She was born in 1866, the same year as 'my' William, so at least they were contemporary. The combination William Marshall must be fairly rare so could this be a possiblity? I also remembered that William's brother John and sister Janet married siblings from the Main family, who were farming next to Carrickstone. Two of the Main brothers emmigrated to Victoria, Australia, and after their mother's death most of the remaining family joined them. Could William have joined his in-laws?

I engaged the help of one of my Australian correspondents (Margaret Scala) and she turned up birth records for three children;

Robert Shaw born 1892 - died 1897 at Maryborough (town in Victoria) age 4

Donald Shaw born 1896 at Maryborough

Mary Amelia Shaw born 1909 at Williamstown, a suburb in Melbourne (capital of Victoria)

also she found a death record for William Marshall Shaw, 1948 in Kew Victoria (suburb of Melbourne) age 82, Parents William Shaw and unknown Waugh.

So we have a person of the right name, right age and mother with the maiden name Waugh. Given that William probably didn't have anyone living nearby who knew his parents it might be reasonable to assume that he shared the same name as his father.

Well done Margaret!