The "new" church at Logie where William and Margaret were married

Across the valley from Stirling, and just behind the crag of the Wallace monument (our great-grandfather William was a stone mason and likely worked on this monument) is the parish church of Logie.  

The "new church" was built in 1800 after the Old Kirk of Logie became too decrepit to be used.  

William Gilmour and Margaret Robertson (our great-grandfather and great-grandmother) were married at Logie Church in 1878. The photos above were taken by Tom Henry and show the inside of the church and the churchyard.

Tom visited the Logie church in March, 2008; he also visited the Old Kirk and its graveyard. The Old Kirk lies a little ways up the road from the "new church". Read more about this in the post about his visit (Tom Henry's notes on his visit to Scotland) 

Shortly after they were married, William and Margaret's first child, Jean, was born (1878).  Nine children followed (including my grandfather James in 1882). Sadly, one child (Margaret, perhaps a twin to James?) died as an infant in 1882; another boy, David, died at six years of age in 1896.  

"During the late 1800s, thousands of children throughout Great Britain died of typhus, scarlet fever and cholera. In fact, it was only after 1914 that there was a great transition from the age-old pattern of very high mortality caused by infectious diseases, poor nutrition and heavy labour to our more contemporary experience of deaths associated with viral diseases, functional disorders or old age." (Benson, John, Working Class in England, 1875-1914).   

What must it have been like for Margaret and William to have 10 children? And then to have two die so young? It's hard to imagine a time when families were so large (ours was considered large, and we were only 5 kids!) and when it was just a commonplace that most families would lose at least one infant or child.