Biographical notes

William was the first child of William Pettigrew and Elizabeth Kennedy and his birth is recorded in the St Quivox Parish Register. He appears in the 1841 Census, aged 14, living with his parents in Content Street, Wallacetown with the occupation of Shoemaker.

In the 1851 Census, he is lodging in Glasgow, aged 24 and described as an Apprentice Shoemaker. On the 5 May 1851 the Gorbals (Glasgow) Parish Register records his marriage to Margaret Mconomy. On the 13 October 1853, the Glasgow Parish Register records that Margaret gave birth to a son named William Kennedy Pettigrew (probably William after his grandfather's given name and Kennedy after his grandmother's maiden name).

The next reference we have to William is a letter written by his brother Andrew Pettigrew (Ref. 2006.008) on the 23 January 1855, to his fiance Agnes McLelland Pettigrew. The address is Guildry Court in Glasgow and the letter states

quote : I'm stop[p]ing with my brother and I can assure you both him and his wife pays every attention to me

In the 1861 Census William Kennedy Pettigrew is recorded as either visiting or living with his grandparents in Wallacetown, Ayr. The last reference (to William b. 1827), appears to be on the marriage register entry of James Pettigrew and Jane Taylor (3.12.1869), where he is recorded as a witnesss (he would have been 42, his son, William Kennedy Pettigrew aged 13 would have been too young to have acted as a witness).

William is recorded as deceased on the marriage certificate of his daughter who married James Robertson in 1878. No further record of William (Senior) has been discovered apart from William Kennedy's marriage certificate in 1884 which records his father as William Pettigrew, Shoemaker and Margaret Pettigrew as his mother although her maiden name is given as Kennedy, not Mconomy. A record of their names and William's occupation (Shoemaker) are given on the death certificate of their son (William Kennedy) in 1942.

The only other indirect reference is on the certificate of Margaret's second marriage to William Murray on 27 March 1891 which states that Margaret is a Widow.