When Elizabeth Auld(m.s. Sutherland) died on the 19th July 1902 in Janetstown, Wick the informant on her Death Certificate was John Barnetson, her grandson, who was also living at the same address. There was no information on this grandson except that the 1901 Census shows him as a 21 year old 'Grocer's Shopkeeper' in Wick.
However, in March 2003, I received information from Angus Barnetson, who is undertaking a massive project to record the Barnetson name from the early 1600’s to the present day. He has confirmed that John Barnetson, was the illegitimate son of Margaret Auld, and he was also known as John Auld. He was born at Drumdry, near Wick on the 30th August 1879 .
It appears that in the 1891 census John Auld is now known as John Barnetson and still living with his mother and grandmother whose surnames are now shown as Oal again!
Ten years later in the 1901 Census all three are still at the same address. John is now a 21 year-old working as a ‘Grocer’s Storekeeper’. His mother and grandmother now have the surname of Auld.
On the 5th January 1904 John married Helen Ross Waters at her home at 14 Shore Lane, Wick. She was the daughter of George Waters, a journeyman cooper, and Alexanderina Waters (m.s. Oag). On the marriage certificate his father is shown as John Barnetson, farmer and ‘reputed father’, and mother as Margaret Auld, housekeeper.
In 1901, Helen, a 14 year old, was living with her parents, 21 year old sister, Isabella, a teacher; her 19 year old brother, Donald, a mason, and three younger brothers at 5 Shore Lane. She was working as a 'Draper's Assistant'.
John and Helen had two children who both died young. Alice Barnetson was born in 1904 and died on the 1st October 1910 of ‘Malignant Scarlatina’ and John Auld Barnetson who was born in late May 1906 but died one week later on the 4th June of ‘Debility from Birth’. Helen herself sadly died on the 12th October 1906 of ‘Acute Pulmonary Tuberculosis’ at the tender age of 21.
As a young man he apparantly served on board the Scrabster - Stromness ferry boat.
There is an entry in the London Gazette of December 1916, which shows John’s appointment to the Board of Trade, Employment Department, as a Male Clerk. He is recorded as John Barnetson, otherwise John Auld.
He was married for a second time on the 26th September 1917. His bride was Jane Murray, a 29-year-old schoolteacher, the daughter of William Murray, a 'General Merchant', and his wife Louisa, (m.s. McNee).
They were married in Edinburgh and he was described as a Labour Exchange Clerk. The certificate shows that they were both living in the centre of Dunfermline at the time. John’s father is now shown as James Barnetson, Farm Servant, and his mother as Margaret Barnetson, m.s. Auld. In fact it would appear that they never married as Margaret’s death certificate confirms that she was still single when she died.
John died in the Paisley Infirmary on the 25th March 1940, aged 60. His home address was shown as 5 Balgair Drive, Paisley. His son, Ian W. Barnetson, who gave the same home address, registered his death.
His second wife, Jane, died in the Royal Infirmary, Glasgow on the 13th January 1946. She had been living with their son, Ian, at 3, Underwood Road, Paisley.
It is not known if John had any more children.
John's mother, Margaret, died of ‘Old Age’ in Thrumster on the 25th March 1918, aged 71. Her death was registered as Margaret Oal, a single, retired Domestic Servant whose ‘usual residence’ was 2, Barbara Place, Wick. The informant was her sister Catherine’s husband, George Murray, of Kildonan, Sutherland.