Featuring:- ‘The Ulva Families of Shotts’ & ‘Mark McRoberts 1886-1925’

Part family memoir, part historical detective work, this publication is loosely based on the author’s research into his own ancestry. James McAnna discovers long forgotten stories about the former mining town of Shotts, Lanarkshire. Prior to the erection of Shotts Iron Works in 1802, the local population lived in isolated cottages and hamlets. As the foundry and its associated industry grew, people from far and wide were attracted to the area in search of work. Among their number were families from the small Hebridean island of Ulva (including John Black, ancestor of the author). What started as a genealogical search for the author’s Shotts ancestry, ended with the discovery of long-forgotten ties which once existed between Ulva and Shotts.
Part two of the book covers the author’s paternal grandfather’s family. The life and background of Mark McRoberts, a steelworker from a coal-mining family, is reconstructed using all sources of information available. In doing so a family mystery is investigated. Almost Dickensian in theme, it is a tale of the premature deaths of the author’s grandparents and the birth of a soon-to-be orphaned child (the author’s father) destined for an adult life in the coal mines of Shotts.
Meticulously researched over many years these TRUE STORIES will make you laugh and may even make you cry.