Eliza Jane Heaney
Eliza Jane Heaney was born at 3.30am on Monday, 24 February 1896, at 130 Glasgow Road, Hamilton, Lanarkshire. Her father registered her birth when he registered her mother’s death - 16 March 1896 (her mother, Mary Ann (nee Mulholland) having died on 14 March 1896 from complications of the birth).
Eliza Jane spent all of her young life in Hamilton, Lanarkshire, where she met her future husband. She married John McDonald on Friday, 10 May 1918, at 21 Hope Street, Glasgow, by Warrant of Sheriff of Lanarkshire. Eliza Jane was 22 of 63 Beckford Street, Hamilton. John was 23, and a Wood Sawyer, the son of Thomas (a Bottle Blower, deceased) and Elizabeth McDonald (nee Steel). Both John and Eliza Jane were single.
John's back story was a little complicated. He was born at 34 Stevenson Street, Trongate, Glasgow on the 6th of September 1894. . The street runs within the boundaries of the famous Glasgow Barra's Market
John's father died when he was young and his mother Elizabeth married for a 2nd time. Hugh Stewart, her new husband, was previously her neighbour. He lived at 3 Comely Park Place, Gallowgate and she lived at number 5. The couple enjoyed over 20 years of marriage before Elizabeth died of heart failure on the 17th October 1919 at 82 Townhead Street, Hamilton. Hugh remarried in 1921. He tied the knot with Helen Meiklejohn (nee Thomson) at 21 Hope Street, Glasgow - John McDonald and Eliza Heaney were the witnesses.
After they married in 1918 John & Eliza set up home at number 8 Holmes Street in Hamilton. They would live there for many years. The street no longer exists as it was bulldozed to make way for the new Marks & Spencer store being built in Hamilton as part of the Regent Way shopping centre in 1967.
Together they had 2 daughters and 1 son:
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- Mary Ann McDonald (named after Eliza's mother) was born 26th August 1920 at 8 Holmes Street, Hamilton. She died of bronchitis the following February.
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- John Philip McDonald was born the 9th February 1922 at 8 Holmes Street, Hamilton.
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- Martha McDonald was born 26th January 1924 at 8 Holmes Street, Hamilton. She married Leonard Axon on the 10th of July 1943 at the Registry Office, Rhu, Dumbarton, Scotland. He was a Dock Labourer & she was a Bus Conductress. Witnesses J McMahon, Hastings House Barrow on Furnace, Lancashire and Janet Kerr, Greenfields Farm, Rhu, Shandon. Shandon - a small hamlet just outside of Dumbarton was in the 1960s eventually completely taken over by the Royal Navy and became Faslane
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They had one son Leonard Axon born in Salford, Greater Manchester in 1946. He married Lorraine Youd in Salford in 1972 and they had two children Stewart Axon and Claire Axon. Leonard Junior died in Manchester, England in 2004.
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John Philip McDonald Senior died on the 21st of November 1925 at 8 Holmes Street, Hamilton from Flu. He was 31 years old. His youngest daughter Martha was only 10 months old. Eliza was now a widow at 29 years with three young children.
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By 1929 Eliza was living at 36 George Street, Hamilton with her new partner Thomas Hunter. They had one daughter together Margaret Allen Hunter born on the 4th of September 1929 at 71 Beckford Street, Hamilton.
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In 1939 Eliza adopted a baby girl, Elizabeth McGregor Johnston. Elizabeth was born on the 20th of July 1937 at Beckford Lodge, Beckford Street, Hamilton. No Father listed, her mother was Jessie Johnston, a shop assistant, who lived at North Balder Cottage, Bellshill.
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Eliza was close to her sister, Mary, and they visited each other often. Eliza died aged 81 at 10pm on Friday, 15 July 1977, at the Vale of Leven Hospital, Alexandria, Dumbarton. Her home address was 5 Kirton Road, Cardross. Cause of death was “Congestive Heart Disease and Degenerative Heart Disease” certified by James Buchanan. Her daughter, Elizabeth Johnston, registered the death on 19 July 1977. The death certificate records Eliza as the widow of John McDonald.