Janet Campbell

Biography contributed by Tony Garstang (great-great grandson)

Janet was born at Kirkapoll on the Scottish Hebridean island of Tiree, on 1 December 1831. Gaelic was the primary language. Many Islanders were forced by overpopulation, crop failures, high rents and economic downturn to leave their ancestral island.

The marriage register shows Janet McKinnon married Charles Campbell in the Free Church of Scotland in Govan (suburb of Glasgow) on 8 January 1861. They both signed the register with their marks. The Scotland census of 1871 records Janet, Charles and their four children at 20 Brown St. Glasgow.

Janet and Charles arrived from Glasgow at Port Chalmers Dunedin on 14 July 1874 on the ship Cartsburn, as assisted immigrants. With them their children – Lauchlan (13), Christina (10), Jessie (5) and Sara (3) (See 94 Sarah Snell).

Charles, and Janet, were members of the Dunedin Gaelic Society formed in 1881. They both sang Gaelic songs at the Society’s monthly meetings.

The Campbells resided continuously from 1878 to 1903 at Anderstons Road, Roslyn, a working–class Dunedin suburb largely occupied by immigrant mill workers. Janet and her daughter Jessie were two of several Anderstons Road residents to sign the petition, doing so with an orange pencil.

Janet became caregiver to her granddaughter Janet Sheila Campbell who was born to solo mother Jessie on 30 March 1892. The parentage was kept a family secret for some 70 years. DNA research now throws light on this mystery.

Janet died at home on 10 June 1903, leaving 11-year-old granddaughter Janet Sheila in the care of Charles. She had a Baptist funeral and was buried in Block 191A at Dunedin’s Northern Cemetery.

Sources

Family interviews and Ancestry research, Alexander Turnball Library

Image

From left: Janet’s granddaughter Sheila, her daughter Jessie and Janet herself at home at Anderstons Road, Dunedin around 1896. (Shona Paton)