LIKELY ORIGIN OF "SHARP" MIDDLE NAME

 6 Thread Street, Paisley (1917–1921) is where Annie Sharp Cumming lived prior tom emigration at the age of three. 

In 1921, 6 Thread Street was part of a bustling, stone tenement block built right in the industrial heart of Paisley's Seedhill district, with the street itself intersecting directly with the river. Your grandmother grew up here as the youngest of 11 children in a tight-knit tenement community, spending her earliest childhood playing right at the corner of this block.

Workers outside Anchor Mills in Paisley

### The Block Layout & Corner

While the building directly adjacent to No. 6 shared the exact block corner and intersection, there was no officially named municipal "Sharp Street" on that specific block at the time. Instead, property records from 1917 to 1921 reveal the following layout details:

Free Church of Scotland, Tarbat

Free Church of Scotland, Tarbat

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In Paisley, Scotland

Christina Cumming with her son, Malcolm, by her first marriage to William Davidson. He was also the first grandchild of William and Margaret Cumming. This must have been taken just before they left for North America about 1921.


Margaret Cumming (Harvey) possibly in the same park or church yard as the other photo however, I believe this is an older photo. She was born in 1872 and I think she looks too young for this to be taken the same day as the other picture. I would guess that she made this coat herself by hand.

Kitty and Victor

Aunt Kitty (Catherine) with her German Shepherd "Victor" and a beautiful new convertible. I think this was taken near Westbrook Maine about 1950. The window decals would suggest she had taken a number of trips in this car.

I managed to determine the car was a 1947 or 1948 Buick Roadmaster Coupe.
Below are some photos of a restored model.

Christina Kenney nee Cumming

I just got these photos from Christina's oldest granddaughter. I have never had photos of her before this. Thanks Penny.

Christina and her daughter Roxie Ella about 1930.

This is also from 1930. Taken near Westbrook Maine. Left to right, unknown woman (I think she is Catherine aka Kitty), Malcolm (Davidson) Kenney (Christina's son from her first marriage), Christina, Roxie Ella Kenney.

Malcolm perished in the West Loch Disaster in Honolulu in May, 1944.

At Old Orchard Beach

Granny and Grampy Cumming, Margaret (Harvey) and William, probably at Old Orchard Beach, Maine. 1930's?


Annie, the youngest, with brother Malcolm Cumming, the oldest child. Probably about 1933 and likely at Old Orchard Beach, Maine.

Annie Sharp Cumming

Annie Sharp Cumming. Probably 1940's, married to Donald Nosworthy.

In The 1940s

Mabel and Donald Cumming with daughters Donalda and Christina ("Bonnie")

William Cumming and wife Agnes (Branagan).

William and Donald Cumming. Verdun, 1940's.

Donald Cumming, Annie Nosworthy (Cumming), William Cumming, Verdun, Quebec, 1940's.

Westbrook House

Margaret and William Cumming at their home at 274 Saco St. in Westbrook, Maine. It looks like it was just completed. It has since burned and a different structure stands on the old foundation. Probably early 1940's.

Cumming Children In Paisley

The Cumming children when they were still in Paisley, Scotland. This would have been taken about 1915.
back row: Jean, Kitty (Catherine), Billy. front row: George, Donald, Diane (Dollina).

The three oldest children, Malcolm, Christina, and Peg (Margaret), are not present. Perhaps they were working as their ages would have been 20, 17, 16 years old. Rose died five years earlier and Annie, the youngest, was born two years later.

Maine Outing

These photos were probably taken somewhere near Westbrook and Old Orchard Beach.


Cumming family in Maine circa 1925. Sitting left to right, Diane (Dollina), Jean, Granny (Margaret), Peg (Margaret) with her daughters Dollina Taylor Miller in her lap and Margaret Harvey Miller at her side, Donald. Lying on the ground, Annie, George.

Cumming family in Maine circa 1925. Standing behind the rock: Grampy (William), Peg, unknown, unknown, sitting: Donald, George, Margaret (daughter of Peg), Annie, Dollina (daughter of Peg). Standing in front: Jean, Diane, Granny (Margaret).

Malcolm and Christina Cumming

Malcolm Cumming age 41 and Christina Cumming (her maiden name was Cumming as well) age 32. Marriage 16 October 1874 at Portmahomack, Tarbat, Ross & Cromarty, Scotland. Malcolm was a fisherman likely working for a nearby wealthy landowner who would typically rent a house to the people in their employ.

They were parents of William Cumming born October 1876. To add to the confusion they had just one other child who was also named William. He was born October 1875 and he must have died shortly after birth. It was very common to reuse a name in this situation in this era.


I visited Portmahomack a few years ago. It is a very picturesque village right on the ocean and was noted for commercial fishing in the days the Cumming family lived there. Today there is no longer any fishing in the area and most of the current residents commute to Inverness to work. There is some sheep farming and small local business but little else.

This is the ruins of all that remains of a house of the type they would have lived in. There would have been a gabled chimney at each end and a thatched roof. A very primitive affair in an area that no doubt has brutal winters with nothing to break the wind coming off the North Sea. This is a very flat treeless spot.

William Cumming and Margaret (Harvey) Cumming

These photos were copied from their naturalization papers. The originals were a little more than an inch square. Considering that I think they came out quite well.

William Cumming

Patriarch William Cumming taken the summer of 1953 in Maine. His daughter Annie Nosworthy was visiting with her family from Kansas City and you can see her peeking around in the background.

Here are some thoughts about this trip from my Uncle Donald Nosworthy who was eleven years old at the time:

I remember meeting Grandpa Cumming in 1953 just a few years before he passed away. It was at his lake cabin near Old Orchard Beach, Maine and not far from the Westbrooke house on Saco Street there pictured in the photo where he and your Grandma Cumming are standing. I was just twelve then and he was a very unique interesting character mustache and all. He was very much of the Old World early 19th Century Scottish variety of Country Gentleman. He had a heavy Scottish brogue which made it fascinating to talk to him. He used a cane and wore very conservative tweed type clothes with suspenders. I distinctly remember spending several warm summer days boating and fishing with him there in the Maine sunshine. And we caught a few fish too. I have a very sharp midsummer memory of my mother, your Grandma Nosworthy, sitting in the dining room there on Sutton Street in Kansas City crying uncontrollably over a letter she had just received informing her of her father’s (Grandpa Cumming) death. My heart went out to her and even today it brings tears to my eyes. He was such a wonderful gentle old guy. He was the ideal Grandfather at an ideal time in my life. I was old enough to realize then that he was gone forever and to feel the loss she was feeling. But I felt some comfort in the fact that I had the opportunity to meet and be with him at that house at Westbrooke during that summer trip in 1953. We were driving our new 1953 two-tone light blue and dark blue DeSoto automatic automobile and it was terrific just being along for the trip with your Grandpa Nosworthy, Grandma Nosworthy and your mother, Peggy (only fifteen at the time). The summer of 1953 and we had the world by the tail.

Malcolm Cumming

Malcolm was the oldest of the children. Here he is in his dress uniform of the Royal Canadian Naval Reserve.

He was lost at sea during World War II serving aboard the Canadian minesweeping ship Bras d'Or in 1940 at the age of 45. The ship was patrolling the Saint Lawrence River at the time it was sunk.

In 2013 an entry for The Bras d'Or was added to Wikipedia.

Malcolm's biography.

Detailed history of his ship The Bras d'Or.

Memorial for the ship and crew

Annie Sharp Cumming

My grandmother, Annie Cumming, as a toddler. She was born November 16, 1917, the youngest child of eleven. This was probably taken in Paisley, Scotland not long before she crossed the Atlantic aboard the HMSS Saturnia from Glasgow with her mother landing 12 April 1921, at Portland, Cumberland, Maine, United States. They were the last of the family to make the voyage.