From New Lanark to Glasgow: Martha Baxter > Jeanie McFarlane > Martha Baxter McFarlane Sloss

My paternal Grandmother was Martha Baxter McFarlane Sloss - then Logan.

Her name shows that there was a strong desire not to lose the maternal line.  My great great grandparents were Martha Baxter (1856-1937) and Thomas McFarlane (1855-1936) married June 21 1875.

Martha Baxter was born in New Lanark in 1856.  Her children were born in Lesmahagow and the family later moved to Glasgow well technically Maryhill which was separate at the time.

The Baxters go far back in Lanark:
http://www.genealogy.com/forum/regional/countries/topics/scotland/63950/

The daughter of Martha and Thomas, Jeanie McFarlane (1879-1904) married David Sloss (1866-1923) in Glasgow in 1899. Unfortunately, poor Jeanie only lived 6 more years and lost her only son Thomas McFarlane Sloss when he was only two. Jeanie died just before her 25th birthday, and on her daughter Martha's 5th birthday.

Some years later, David Sloss married Catherine Rooney, who was an excellent step-mother to Martha and her sister Elizabeth.


Back two steps: Martha Baxter and Thomas McFarlane maintained connections in Lesmahagow and retired there, surviving together until the second half of the 1930s. One of Jeanie's brothers, Thomas, emigrated to Chicago in 1905 and was joined in 1906 by soon-to-be wife Susan Kilgour Cowan.

Jeanie's second brother James married Isabella Fraser and remained in north Glasgow.

Jeanie's sister Elizabeth Campbell McFarlane (named for her maternal grandmother) married  James Scoular Thomson.

An interesting social note: James who remained in Scotland began to use the "Mac" whereas Thomas who went to America  continued to use "Mc".

And forward again: The Sloss family remained in Maryhill. Martha Baxter McFarlane Sloss married James Carson Logan in 1924. James Carson Logan likely met Martha when he signed up for the HLI during WW1 as the barracks were located there. They moved to Fernie Street (of which there will be more later).