This page contains the children of James McCartney and Mary Leitch. They appear in the ahnentafel with links to the respective portions of this page.
There has been a family discussion about the number of children James and Mary had. It has been suggested that they had seventeen (17). Of course, there are those who think seven (7) was the number. On the ahnentafel we have identified one possible and nine definite siblings. So seven is not correct, but we are still a long way away from seventeen.
Recently, we made contact with a second cousin who told us that James and Mary had 14 children. He will try to confirm this with his aunts in Glasgow.
Margaret McCartney (???? - ????)
Margaret became known to us through a letter written by the widow of one of the webmaster's uncles. Not a great deal of information was presented, but what there was follows:
Margie, as she was called in the letter, had been on the stage at some point in her life. She could have been an actress, a dancer, a musician or a singer. We don't know. She also had owned a nursing home in Massachusetts, USA. Again, the critical information, what town, was not in the letter. Finally, the letter mentioned that she went blind.
Most frustrating, is that the writer of the letter attended Margie's funeral, but no location or dates are given. If even a hint of the decade was given, we would have something to go on.
On another piece of paper we found a reference to Margaret with the name Brooks in parentheses. Whether Brooks was her name through marriage or was a stage name, we simply do not know.
Robert Leitch McCartney (1893 - 1970)
Robert Leitch was born in Portglenone, Co. Antrim, Ireland, in 1892, the son of James McCartney and Mary Leitch McCartney.
According to the 1901 Irish Census, Robert, age 9, and his brother, William John, age 14, resided in the Balmoral Industrial School, district Ballygomartin, townland Ballygammon, barony Belfast, parish Shankill. This was a boarding school of a particular kind: "Prisons and industrial schools across the city were home to offenders of various kinds." Both boys are listed as members of the Episcopalian Church, dispite the large number of Presbyterians at the school.
There was also a Thomas MCCartney, age 10, listed at the school. He was Presbyterian. Thomas is possibly a cousin of Robert and William John, but we have no confirmation.
We do not know what the boys did to be assigned to the industrial school. At that time it was possible to be sent to such places for what we would consider today to be a minor infraction. Something as simple as stealing an apple from a grocer could incurr sever punishment. That the brothers and Thomas were there together implies a soewhat more serious offence. We just do not know what they did.
On Friday, 29 January 1926, Robert married Grace Hardie Duncan. Robert was 33 years old and Grace was 35. Grace was a widow. Her first husband was David Kenyon. We do not know how David died.
Prior to the marriage Grace lived at 34 Mair Street, Govan, Glasgow. Robert lived at 68 Eaglesham Street, Govan, Glasgow. At one time, possibly right after they were married, they moved to 42 Mair Street, Govan, Glasgow, and were still at this address when Robert died in 1970. We learned of this address in a letter from the webmaster's aunt.
His occupation was listed on his marriage registration as journeyman shoemaker; a calling that is quite common in this family.
Grace died in Glasgow in 1986 at the age of 96, 16 years after Robert. This would put her birth year as 1890, which coincides with the marriage certificate giving her age as 35 in January 1926.
Rose Ann McCartney (3 May 1881 - ????)
Rose Ann was born in Portglenone, Ireland, on 3 May 1881.
In the 1901 Irish Census Rose was listed as 19 years old, single, living with her parents at 19 Tobergill Street, Shankill, Belfast. She was a reeler in a yarn mill. We don't know where Rose Ann married, but we do know that she married Thomas Herdman sometime between 1912 and 1920. In 1921 she and her husband, Thomas Herdman, while living in Texas, paid the passage for James and Mary, to come to the United States.
Rose was Herdman's second wife. He owned a building supply company in the Dallas/Galveston area of Texas, US.
We do not know when or where Rose or her husband died. Most probably they died in Texas. In a letter from the webmaster's aunt Emily McCartney, wife of James, she said that she and James had visited Herdman. Apparently, it was after Rose had passed away because Herdman told them that he would not leave any of his money to any McCartneys. It would all go to his children from his first marriage.
Unfortunately, we have not been able to find anything further about him. Neither he nor Rose appears in any of the U. S. census files we have been able to access. It is possible that these files are not complete and the pages we need are missing.
Thomas Andrew McCartney (4 May 1896 - 16 October 1976)
Thomas was born in Belfast on 4 May 1896. He died on 16 October 1976 in Glasgow, Scotland. During most of his life he used Andrew as his preferred name, using Thomas only for legal reasons.
He was married to Agnes McLean Alexander on 2 April 1914 in Glasgow, Scotland. They were both 19 years old. Aside from her age and estimating the year of her birth as 1896, we know nothing more about Agnes.
Though we have no dates for when they lived there, we have two addresses for Andrew and Agnes:
| 15 Moir Street | 15 Lancefield Court | |
| South Side | and | Flat 2 House 13 |
| Paisley Road | Bray | |
| Glasgow | Glasgow, SW1 |
The Moir Street address was listed by Andrew's father, James, on the ship's manifest when James traveled to the United States. The Lancefield Court address was listed in a letter the webmaster received from another relative.
We suspect that the Moir Street address should really be Mair Street. While Moir Street exists in Glasgow, it is not near Paisley Road. Mair Street is adjacent to Paisley Road. Also, Andrew's brother, Robert, resided at 42 Mair Street. This could be a spelling error or a handwriting problem on the manifest.
Thanks to one of Thomas Andrew’s grandsons, we know that the family consisted of six children; three daughters and three sons. Several of the children are still alive. Tragically, one of their children, a daughter, Agnes McLean Alexander McCartney, who was born in 1914, died on 21 December 1921 when she was only seven years old.
William John Black McCartney (1887 - ????)
William was born in Belfast, Ireland, in the spring of 1887.
In 1901 William was sent to the Balmoral Industrial School.=, as was explained in Robert's brief bio.
On 9 April 1913 William, at age 26, married Rachel Johnstone, age 23, at 119 Blackburn Street, Govan, Glasgow, "according to the forms of the Baptist Church".
The marriage registration form shows the Blackburn Street address as the usual residence of both William and Rachel. William's occupation is listed as a dock labourer.
Robert McCartney (c. 1861 - ????)
Robert was the son of Henry McCartney and Ann McCaw. He was born circa 1861.
Robert married Margaret Gilmour and they had one child that we know of. Their daughter Jane Gilmour McCartney was born in Belfast in 1888. On 20 February 1906 she married William Henry Seeley in Newton Massechusetts, USA. William Seeley was born in 1878.
