Biographical notes

Flora was one of the children of Elizabeth Downie and John Pettigrew who married and, in the Census of 1841, are living in Content Street, Wallacetown. There is a record of Flora's marriage in 1820 to John Pollock in the St Quivox Parish Register. The first snapshot of the family appears in the 1841 Census when they are living in Content Street.

The 1841 Census includes a male called John with a recorded age of 15, a Hand Loom Weaver. This is inferred to be another of John and Flora's children but is the only child where there there is no corresponding record of his birth in the Parish Registers. Other children (recorded in the St Quivox Parish Registers), include Alexander Pollock (13), Hand Loom Weaver, Flora (7), and Jane (1).

The St Quivox register also includes another son, Daniel Pollock, born in 1831. He is not living with the rest of the family in the 1841 Census but a ten-year-old Daniel Pollock is recorded as a Male Servant living in the Household of Alexander Pettigrew with Mary his wife also in Content Street, and also his grandmother Elizabeth Pettigrew. It seems very likely that Alexander Pettigrew was Daniel's Uncle.

In the 1851 Census, the Pollock family has moved round the corner to Elba Street. John is recorded as a Hand Loom Weaver - Cotton whilst his wife Flora is employed as a Pirn Winder (a Pirn is a bobbin as used in the weaving trade). Of the children only Alexander (unmarried, aged 23, Hand Loom Weaver - Cotton), Janet (unmarried, aged 17, a Hand Sewer), and Jane (aged 10) are living with their parents. The Census records that James Pollock has left home and married, but is still living in Content Street.