Robert Thompson reminded me recently of a query he was dealing with relating to a Jamison family. I telephoned one of the Jamison descendants and she was able to tell me that her grandparents, William Jamison and Elizabeth/Betty Cousins, had lived at Dulisk, near the Causeway, that their children had attended the local school, now a museum, and that some members of the family were buried in the graveyard at Billy Parish Church.
I spoke to Jeannie, a former pupil at the school, and she remembered her Jamison classmates as well as their parents. William had worn a supporting metal cage and this might have been linked to injuries he'd received as a soldier in WW I. He died in 1935 at the relatively young age of 37, just two years after his father, also called William.Jeannie then produced a postcard photo of William Jamison, snr. The following is written on the reverse: "William McDowell Jamison - Born 2nd November 1840 - (taken) 1st Sept 1927". The photo of William is supposedly taken outside the then toilet block at the Giant's Causeway.
The 1901 Census provided additional information. The Jamisons were living in a house labelled #19 in the townland of Ardihannon. They would appear not to be related to the Jamieson families linked to Ballintoy parish:- William snr, head of family, CoE, can read and write, aged 57, coachman, married and born in Co Down
- Annie, wife, CoE, can read and write, aged 29 and born in England
- Oswald, son, CoE, aged 5, scholar and born in England
- William, son, CoE, aged 2, infant and born in Belfast City
Oswald died in 1912; he was only 17.
Additional information about this family would be much appreciated.
Update
Dulisk is on the east side of the townland of Ardihannon and there were formerly two Jamison thatched cottages in the row of buildings that are now used by the National Trust as an education centre on the west side of their Innisfree offices on Causeway Road. Innisfree was the former home of the Mitchell family who had come to Dulisk from the Stranocum district circa 1949.
JAMISON - November 10, at his father's residence, Dulisk, Giant's Causeway, Oswald Hewer Jamison, aged 17 years - Deeply regretted
Ballymoney Free Press, December 5, 1912
Oswald Jamison, Dulisk, 11-11-1912, aged 17
Harriet Ann Jamison, Dulisk, 4-3-1924, aged 22
Annie Jamison, Dulisk, 13-4-1934, aged 62
William Jamison, Giants Causeway, 27-9-1935, aged 37
William Jamison, Giants Causeway, 10-5-1939, aged 99
Billy Parish Church Burial Records
