2. A letter from America
The Crightskamus Family
Jonas or Joseph Crightskum and his wife Agnes nee Roubus, aka Ruby, probably married around 1884 in Lithuania. Out of fourteen children, seven survived. They were as follows: Anne, Joseph, Charles, Peter, William, Millie and Olga.
After the birth of Anne, they went to Scotland and possibly stayed in or around Carfin, where Agnes had a married sister living. I don’t know her Christian name; it could have been Ona or Anne. The custom being to name the first daughter after the maternal grandmother and her second name after the paternal grandmother. Joe was born in Scotland at the end of 1898 or 1899. They then returned to Lithuania, where my father Charles was born in either Kaunas or Vilnius. Then they returned to Scotland. From what I’m told old man Crightskum had heart trouble (Heart Lazy). Peter, Willie, Millie and Olga, I presume were all born in Scotland.
They lived in Dundee in the early 1900s, where the parents and Annie worked in a Mill. They lived in a haunted house (another story later) and I reckon from Dundee they emigrated to Canada. They possibly stayed in the Welland area of Ontario. In 1913 they took off for Scotland again leaving behind my father and possibly Joe. I know my father had got a job with a shipping company and they took off without him. He came back from where ever he had sailed to and found them gone. I presume they stayed in Scotland for a few years and moved back to Lithuania after Millie and Olga were born. There they stayed and Agnes died in 1924. My father blamed his father for his mother’s death and cut the old man out of his life. All he would ever tell me was that his father was a very hard and cruel man, and that he hated him. I believe Annie had married in Scotland. They took Peter, Willie, Millie and Olga back with them.
The family went to school in Scotland under the name of Lynn. Perhaps when they went to Canada they were given the name of Crichton by the immigration authorities. I don’t know. My father took the name of Craigen because he didn’t want to be associated with Peter Crichton, namewise. My father had saved and sent Peter the money for his fare back to Scotland. Peter was a very plausible man and a petty crook, hence my father distancing himself from Peter namewise.
Willie and Olga managed to leave Lithuania and came to Scotland at the start of World War II. Willie had married in Lithuania to Victoria and they had two sons and a daughter. Walter, Vas and Johanna. Victoria and the children were evacuated to Australia and settled in Brisbane. Millie wouldn’t leave Lithuania as she had fallen in love and didn’t want to leave her boyfriend. So Olga and Willie came home. Olga worked as a housekeeper in a Parrish House and Willie came to live in England with my patents. He got a job in the Merchant Navy and sailed with my father for a few years.
Olga is the best one really to tell the family history about my grandparents. It was hard as a child to learn anything by way of gossip as Lithuanian was spoken in front of children, and I never did learn the language. I understand some and can say the odd words, but that’s all.
Ron, I shall go through what I know of the offspring of the Crightskums, according to my memory and the rest is hearsay. I suppose I had better tell you what I knew of your grandmother and what my mother told me about her when I questioned her on the phone at different times over the last few months.
Annie Crichton
Born in Lithuania probably in 1895, died end of April or beginning of May, 1936, Lasswade, near Edinburgh of Dropsy and Heart Failure. She was a big woman. I remember photographs of her standing in the vegetable garden. She probably weighed about 250lbs, if not more. Remember she had oedema and this would be the cause of much of her weight. They didn’t have diuretics in those days.
Annie had married a man named George Brown before the First World War. They had one son named Joseph. George took off to fight either for or against Russia. My mother says it was for. He never came back, just stayed there. Annie then went to live with someone named Smith in Burnbank. With this chap Smith she had two sons and two daughters. This was your father’s family. (Perhaps this is true, perhaps not. There may indeed be a link, but my father was unaware of it – Ron.) I don’t know if he died or what, but, through the Ruby’s she met some one called Miller. She went and lived in Bellshill with this chap Miller and she had a son named Peter and a daughter named Annie. She as far as I am concerned deserted her children in Burnbank, and I believe Granny Smith raised the children as best she could. She moved to Lasswade and died there. That’s all I know about your grandmother. Peter or Paddy Miller was close to my family all his days. He changed his name to Brown before he married in about 1950. He married an Annie Peplowskis or something like that. Paddy and his wife Annie came to visit here in Canada in 1970 and stayed with us for a few days. They then I think went to visit Padd’s half brother Joe in Hamilton, Ontario. I never heard from them again. I believe they still live in Kirkaldy, Fife. Paddy worked in the mines in Fife. (I seem to recall my father talking about someone he knew from one of the pits in Fife – Ron.)
After old man Miller died, young Annie was moved from pillar to post. I remember asking why Annie couldn’t stay with one of the family. I believe Paddy paid for her keep until she was able to manage on her own. I remember when she stayed in Mossend with a nice elderly Lithuanian woman for a few years. Then she moved again and she came to visit us when she was about twenty. After that we didn’t see her again and we later learned that she had married and had emigrated to Sydney, Australia. I think her married name was McNeil.
Joe Brown also kept in touch with us until he and his wife Mary migrated to Canada in the 1960’s. I visited them in 1970 and Mary was dying. I think they had two children. Joe died later.
I asked my mother how come she didn’t have contact with your father’s family and she said, she didn’t care to know all that much about them. Olga had once asked her if she wanted to meet one of Annie’s daughters and my mother refused. My mother is like that. I apologise for her. We could all have been one happy family.
Joseph Crichton (Joe)
Joe was born in Scotland late 1898 or early 1899 - died during the early 1960s. Married to Kate possibly 1920. Had two sons Ian and Joe. I think Joe was the elder of the two. They both served in the army during world war two. We used to have photographs of the both in uniform and with their families in front of their homes in Port Colbourne, and Welland, Ontario. I don’t know whether they were lost or dumped when my mother came to Canada. I tried to trace them when I came here, but to no avail.
I met Joe senior when he came to Scotland in 1954. We met when I was home on leave from London, England. I was training to be a nurse at the time. We didn’t really hit it off at that time. He and my father were both celebrating his return and were sloshed. The jokes became filthier as the afternoon went on and I objected very strongly to their behaviour. Joe just looked at me and asked my father, if I was the rough diamond Peter Crichton had compared with Peter’s daughter Francess. Later that day my father had to return to the boat as he was sailing that night. I and Mum were left with Joe. When he started to sober up I spoke to him and told him never to tell any dirty jokes in front of me or any young person. If he had to tell any when young people were present, would he please tell them in Lithy, as none in our house spoke Lithy. It was the adult language in the family and the parents didn’t teach it to me or my sisters. I also informed him that he would be doing us a favour if he would refrain form getting drunk. My father gets drunk on two whiskeys and is not always very pleasant when he sobers up. I told him a few instances and he agreed with me. After that the two of us got on very well. I saw him a few times over the next year or so. The Peter Crichtons (when I refer to the Crichtons from now on, it’s Peter and his family) had by this time given him the cold shoulder, although it was Peter who persuaded him to come back and perhaps settle in Scotland. I do not know if there was trouble with him and Kate - I wouldn’t be letting my husband off the hook for almost two years.
Joe took a job at the McFarlane biscuit factory in Glasgow, got digs and started to try and save his fare home to Canada. At the end of November 1955, I was home for the weekend. My best friend was getting married so I came up by train on the Friday, attended the wedding on the Saturday and on the Sunday Joe came through. We had Sunday dinner 1.00pm, afterwards I asked him if he met the Buchanan family in Carfin. No he hadn’t. The Crichtons were more or less persona non grata in Carfin and I believe Peter had probably bad-mouthed them. Well, I said, I never leave for London without either staying there or going to see them, when I am home. Their home is my home. I love them dearly and they love me. He was a bit apprehensive but he agreed to come with me. He had the time of his life. He was almost in tears laughing at the banter that went back and forth between us. This is a family, I told him, there’s more love in this house than you’ll find anywhere. He was really chocked when I said I must leave to catch my train to London at 10.00pm. We said our farewells to the Buchanans and popped back home to pick up my suitcase, and he took me to the station in Motherwell. He apologised profusely for having preconceived ideas about me. He said he would be proud to have me as a daughter and I just had to come to Canada and meet Kate and their family. Someday maybe, but not now, I have to do Midwifery after I get my State Registration. He wanted to know if I needed any money. I told him my Dad had sent me money before I left London, so that I could come home for the wedding. My mother was rather tight with money. As a student living in the hospital I had about $10 a month to clothe, travel home and buy cigarettes. It wasn’t easy but I managed. I saw Joe for the last time in May 1956 just before he left for Canada. I had come home for good, having passed all my exams. I was now an SRN, Joe was so proud and he fair rubbed it into the Crichtons.
He wrote to Dad, until his death. I can’t believe I don’t remember the year. We had a lot of deaths in the family during the first five years of the 1960s.
Charles Joseph Craigen (Charlie)
My Dad was born in Lithuania on March 4th 1900 - Died Feb 3rd 1972. Married Martha Davidson (Divilinskas) on Feb 6th 1932. Lived in a single end in Bellshill, at 112 Main Street. They were broke. My mother had the impression Charlie was loaded. Ha! It was the brew (dole) for them. But the thirties were in a severe depression. There were hunger marches in the streets in Scotland. They survived, just. I was born on Feb 23rd 1933, and when I was ten months old, my father went back to sea. His port of call was Blyth, Northumberland, he had managed to get a job as a donkeyman on a coal ship, plying the ports around the North Sea and the West coast of England. The ship always reloaded at Blyth because of the coalmines in the area. Whenever the ship was in port my Mum and I were always on board ship. Sometimes we sailed with the ship to London. I remember going to Regent Park Zoo when I was about 3yrs old. When I was at school and the ship docked, my mother would come to get me on her bike, and we would go to the ship. I had birthday parties on board and all seemed well with us.
In 1939 my mother fell pregnant with Lena and we went to Scotland for the birth. My father wanted his son born in Scotland. We stayed with my mother’s older sister, Helen, and Lena was born Sept 7th 1939. I think my father was on Ocean liners at this time because my mother was sure he would be torpedoed. He came up for a flying visit saw mum and baby. I think Lena was cursed from birth, she was a terrible child and got more spiteful and jealous as she got older. She was Peter’s favourite, aye! It took one to know one.
Willie Lynn and Olga arrived from Lithuania. Olga stayed in Scotland and Willie got a job with my dad. He made our home in Blyth his home base. And he was my bed mate when he was on shore leave. I just loved uncle Willie. He was so even tempered and also very handy around the house. We needed someone like that, because Blyth was actually under sea level, and the house was infested with cockroaches. My mother got up during the night and nearly died. The floor was moving, there were thousands of them. Willie and my dad got red lead from the ship and puttied every crack and cranny. We didn’t have any after that. (I am quite paranoid about bugs, especially earwigs.)
My dad had had enough of plying the North Sea etc., so he obtained a position as a chief engineer on a barrage balloon boat, which serviced ships coming to the River Blyth, guiding them past the mine fields and the submarine nets. They also supplied the ships with barrage balloons.
During 1943 my mother wanted to return home to Scotland. It wasn’t much of a life for her stuck in Blyth on her own with two children. She had also had her fill of the Wine, Women & Song routine of my dad and Willie got up to when Willie was home on leave.
We returned to Mossend, Bellshill, and Mum and my Uncle Johnny (her sister’s husband) converted an empty fruit shop into a two room and kitchen house. We lived there from 1944 until August 1947 when we managed to do a three-way swap, and got a council house at 30 Unitas Road, Mossend. My parents remained there until my father’s death on February 3rd 1972. My mother then came to Canada.
Statistics
Magdalene Agnes, DOB 23 Feb 1933. Married: June 28th 1958 to Joseph Erdos, Mossend Holy Family Church. Three children: Marta Anne – April 17th 1960. Single. Magdalene Elizabeth DOB June 9th 1961. Single. Joanne Kathryn DOB Feb 3rd 1964. Married: Gary Rodgers DOB November 23rd 1961. Married June 1st 1985. No children, one cat, Maxie aka Boo Boo. I am not fond of cats but I tolerate this one.
Helena Anne DOB Sept 7th 1939. Married March 1958 to Daniel McNulty. Divorced 1969 or 1970. Three children: Brian - around Nov 1959. Susan – Aug 1960. Charles – 1963. Remarried to someone named Harding in 1972. Separated 1973 or 1974. I think she is still legally married to Harding. She is now living with someone named Stewart. She goes under the name of Helena Harding Stewart.
I don’t know anything about the children after the divorce from Dan. I only know he gave her grounds for divorce.
Mary Martha (May)
Born Jan 27th 1947. Married – Jan 13th 1968 in Canada to a former school mate James Baird, who had migrated here early 1967. He came back for a holiday met May and the rest is history. They got engaged before he returned to Canada and May emigrated Dec 23rd 1967. They have one son Craig born Feb 24th 1972.
Peter Crichton
Born probably 1902 – died Oct 1958. Married Esther 1927. Esther was nine years older than Peter. Two children: Francess born 1928. Victor around 1936.
Francess was married to Edward Chisholm 1955. They had two children, a daughter born 1957, and later a son. I never saw the son. Eddie Chisholm died around 1966 of a Coronary when he was forty years of age.
I won’t go into the Crichton history. In retrospect they were a sad bunch of people who had delusions of grandeur, when they were just ordinary working slobs like the rest of us.
I last spoke with Francess in 1968, she had phoned me from where she was living in England. Lena had been making a nuisance of herself and Francess didn’t know what to do. I told her to hang up the phone when Lena called and if necessary call the police if she arrived at the house. Francess had had her own hell with her father being an addict plus the bum that she had married.
The last I heard of Francess, she was personnel manager with Chrysler Motor Co. in Croyden, Surrey, England whether she remarried I do not know.
Victor I don’t know that much about after his father died. I believe he married and lived in East Kilbride, Glasgow. He did work at Olivetti, Hillington, Glasgow, when I last spoke to him at his father’s funeral.
Willie Lynn
I don’t know the year Willie was born, he was younger than Peter. Willie was married to Victoria in Lithuania. He and Olga came back to Scotland before the 2nd World War. Victoria and the three children were evacuated to Australia, and settled in Brisbane. The three children were Walter, Vas, and Johanna. Willie died around 1963.
Walter I know worked as a stockman, and he might be the one in Tasmania. Vas stayed in Brisbane. His profession being a statistician. Johanna married in the 1950s, and I don’t know anything about her.
After the war ended, Willie was unable to get back to Australia. Finally, maybe around 1950, my father got him a job on a ship, working his passage to Hong Kong, and Willie got another ship from there to Australia. He kept in touch and sent photographs, these are lost now. I remember one of Johanna’s wedding. And some other ones of the family. We had loads of photographs of the whole family both here, Canada and Australia. I know the ones my mother had were lost during transit, when her stuff was being shipped over here. But, I had an old album with photographs of Willie when he stayed with us.
Vas came for a visit in 1967. He had stayed with the Crichtons for a wee while, then Olga and then my parents. We lived just around the corner from my parents at this time, so we saw him quite a bit. In fact the girls still remember Uncle Vas playing soccer with them in the back garden.
Before he left, I threw a party for him. I invited some of the Buchanans and we had a great night. After the rest of the crowd went home. Joe had to go to work. So Vas and I sat talking half the night. He was so long at my house, that my mother walked around to my house to get him. She was worried what the neighbours might think, me having Vas there half the night and Joe at work. Heaven help us from over protective mothers. So Vas left with my mother at about 3.00am. And then came back round to the house at 8.00am to say a final goodbye to Joe, the kids and I. I never heard from him again. I wrote and sent Christmas Cards, but I heard nothing. So! If you contact him, please give him my address. Tell him we think about him and have wondered why the silence. I even sent cards from Canada and never a word back.
Olga Crichton or Craigen
Born Scotland 1916 or 1917. Olga can tell you her history herself. I remember when she married her first husband Frank Smith. He died of silent pneumonia, ill for two days and gone. They were married four months at the time. I can’t remember when she remarried. Francess was Olga’s favourite, at least I thought so. I don’t think Olga liked my mother very much. I got the impression that she thought my mum was not good enough for Charlie. Oh! Yes. If they had really known Charlie. But, that also must remain in the past.
Olga became closer to Joe, the kids and I later on, after we had bought a lovely semi detached turn of the century villa. We even went on holiday with her and her husband Joe. He had a new car and off we all went and toured the highlands of Scotland. She really enjoyed the kids as they were really perfectly behaved. I brought them up to behave themselves and they really have been a credit to Joe and I. Olga’s closeness depended on her mood at the time. She blew hot and cold. I never let it bother me.
Olga is quite close to my mother’s side of the family. They are all in the Lithuanian Club at Mossend. Olga and Joe live three miles from Mossend.
News filters back to us via my mother’s sister Nan, who writes to my mother.
The Buchanans
The Buchanans were my favourites. Together we tolerated the rest of the family. United we stood against the rest of the world. My father loved the Buchanans. He spent all his leaves with them when he was single and was sailing around the world. Charlie was their favourite nephew.
The Buchanan household in 1940, when I first remember meeting them consisted of Aunty Buchanan, (I think her name was Ona) I’m not sure. I always called her Granny Buchanan. I don’t remember all that much about her, except, that she was the matriarch of the family. She also thought my mother was not good enough for Charlie. I don’t ever remember Grandpa Buchanan.
Granny Buchanan had five children: Peter, Maggie, Annie, Tony, Theresa. They lived at 39 Motherwell Road, Carfin, Lanarkshire. That’s incorrect. Tony and Theresa were married and had started their own families.
Tony Buchanan had married an Irish girl in 1931 or 1932 (MacDevitt). They had three sons and a daughter. Johnny born Oct 1932, Hugh 1934, Peter 1936, and the daughter Marie born about 1937 – died 1940 or 41. Tony’s wife died 1941.
After Tony lost his wife and wee daughter, he moved back into the Buchanan household with his three sons. His sister Theresa moved into his house near Carfin Grotto.
So the Buchanan household now consisted of Granny, Maggie, Annie, Peter, Tony and his three sons. Maggie, Annie and Peter never married. They remained at No. 39 until they died.
Theresa Buchanan married Joseph Pavilonis about 1937. They had six children, John, Anna, Joseph, Peter, Margaret and Thomas. When I refer to them I will add P. after their names.
All I remember from meeting them in 1940, was being taken up to No 39, to play with Johnny and Hugh. I was up on holiday, staying with my cousin Eva, my Mother’s niece, who had married a Clem Smith from Carfin, and Clem and Eva lived with Mrs. Smith. Johnny and I were inseparable.
My mother, Lena and I went back up to Scotland for the funerals. Tony was devastated, after losing his wife and daughter within months of each other. So Granny, Maggie and Annie brought them up. They did a fine job. Johnny was 6ft 4-1/2in in height. Oh, boy was he handsome. Hugh was over 6ft, and Peter 6ft 1in. None of the three were alike. In fact Johnny and I resembled each other. He took after the Roubis side of the Family. Hugh was a Buchanan and like his father Tony, where as young Peter was like the Irish side of his mother.
Granny Buchanan died about Jan 1946. By this time we were living back in Mossend, and we could catch the bus to Carfin at our front door. My mother helped nurse her before she died.
Maggie Buchanan died suddenly of Peritonitis a few years after Granny Buchanan. It was around the 27th December and the doctor had diagnosed a stomach upset. We were devastated. Annie was now left alone to raise Tony’s sons.
Theresa by this time had a full house with her six children, so Annie took Anna P and Margaret P to live at No 39, leaving Theresa, Joe P with the four sons at their home, at the Grotto.
Peter Buchanan the elder was the best man at my fathers wedding. I don’t know why he never married. He helped support the family at No 39. He loved his garden and this was where you would find him when he finished work.
Annie Buchanan I loved with all my heart. She was a hunchback, stunted in growth because of a fall when she was a teenager. Annie had a wit as sharp as a rapier. She also could cut you in two with her tongue. I just bonded with Annie, and the two of us got on like a house on fire. Annie and Theresa were very close. Theresa would be up at No 39 two or three times a day. Theresa’s husband was a butcher at the meat market in Glasgow, and he kept the family well supplied with butcher meat etc.
During my teen years I was up at their house three times a week. Annie was very protective about Johnny, who was too good-looking for his own good. As far as Annie was concerned no one was good enough for him.
When I started nursing in a Geriatric Hospital in Cleland, three miles from their house, I would pop in every day when I was on early shift. My tea would be ready for me. Then I applied to a hospital in London, to start my training for State Registration, the guest bedroom was always the, ready for me coming to stay.
The years when the boys and I were away were lonely years for Annie. I was in London, Johnny had joined the RAF, Hugh the Army. I don’t know what young Peter joined. Conscription was in vogue and the boys all had to do two years in one of the armed services.
After Johnny was demobbed, he didn’t return to High School to get his highers. Hugh did, and became a teacher. Hugh ended up being the Dean of the High school. Johnny joined the police force. Young Peter went in for television repairs as a TV technician.
The sixties were tragic for the family. Annie and Theresa were anxiously awaiting the birth of my first child, due the first week of May. I was admitted to hospital because of antenatal complications. My parents came and told me Theresa had died suddenly. Her youngest son had found her on the kitchen floor unconscious. She died six hours later without regaining consciousness. We were all heartbroken. I believe it was a massive cerebral haemorrhage or Coronary. I am not sure. This was Jan 1960.
Three weeks later Hugh came to tell me that Annie had been found dead on the bathroom floor. You can imagine how this hit us so soon after losing Theresa. The Post Mortem disclosed that Annie had had Myocarditis (an inflammation of the heart muscle). The heart of the family was gone Feb 3rd 1960.
In 1966 tragedy struck again. Johnny had married and settled in England. He and his wife had had a baby daughter July 1963. Baby Lorraine died April 1966, she had cancer. The family went to pieces. John and his wife are now divorced. They had a son in either 1966 or 1967 named John. Tony Buchanan died in 1968.
Hugh married in either late 1968 or early 1969, I wasn’t invited to the wedding. His wife didn’t seem to want to mix with us. So I never saw or heard from Hugh again, although he was Magdalene’s Godfather and had been close to us.
John, Anna, Margaret and later Peter Pavalonis emigrated to Canada. I did my best to keep lines open with them and did manage to keep in touch with Margaret and her husband Paul Van Weiringer. We visited them in Toronto, and they came and stayed with us in London. Then they went to Queensland, Australia, near the Barrier Reef. They stayed there for two or three years. We lost touch and only found them again in 1983. We also found Peter living in London. Then Margaret moved beside Peter. I became so ill and never heard from them. Both have moved from the city.
Agnes and Ona Roubis (Ruby) must have had a brother living in Scotland, as I remember a couple of second cousins by that name, but I really didn’t know them at all.
Well Ron, I hope the preceding has satisfied your curiosity about the Crightskum family. There was nothing that special about them. I don’t think they had very happy childhoods being shifted from pillar to post. I think the only interesting saga, would be before Joseph and Agnes left Lithuania in the 1890s.
Going over the preceding has made me rather sad and I have shed a few tears, remembering the good and the not so good, but these memories won’t be printed. Let the dead rest in peace.
Marge Erdos
Note: In reference to the spelling of Crightskamus or Crightskum as used my Marge, there may be a variation. In a letter from May Baird, she referred to the name Joseph Kraickama, but was uncertain as to whether the correct spelling included an 's' as in Kraiskama. I suspect Kraiskama is more likely as there is a phonetic similarity between this and Crightskum, particularly if the first and third 'a' are pronounced softly, or not at all. It's possible that Crightskum was an attempt to Anglicise the name.
|
