George Gordon Smith Munro 1840 -1914

George Gordon Smith Munro was a blacksmith. He grew up in Cromarty and moved down to Leith with his wife Janet Chapman and eldest son George Chapman Munro in 1865. They lived on Cannon Street (appropriately) near the Fort. GGSM was named after a local doctor in Cromarty who treated cholera.

Janet Chapman was born in Fife and strangely (but luckily for me) her family moved north when she was a teenager. Everyone else in the Highlands was moving south or emigrating to America/Canada/Australia but the Chapmans swam upstream against the current and lived for several years in the Black Isle before retiring back to Fife.

I’m not sure which of these fine lads is my ancestor George Chapman Munro. I found the photo on the Spirit of Leithers FB group. It’s an incredible resource for history, photographs, and stories about Leith.

GGSM is the patriarch and the children are (eldest to youngest): George Chapman Munro; John; William Chapman; Alexander; David Jackson; Janet Chapman; Peter; Robert McDonald; and Jemima Henry. The old lady is probably Elizabeth Thomson, Janet’s mother, which would date the photo to about 1890.

SAD FACT: Janet Chapman died of cancer of the vulva which is very rare. She had at least nine children (at least one died) and I wonder if she used an ointment that was carcinogenic? People in Leith had strange health habits. My nana would take the children to roadworks to smell the tar as a way of treating bronchial infections!