Family remember the Falkirk area twins born 100 years ago

Isabella Allan was born in Skinflats, near Grangemouth, on September 19, 1921 with sister Susan and the twins went on to attend Bothkennar School.

Sadly Isabella died in the late 1930s when she was still a teenager, after she developed complications following the birth of her daughter Anna.

Susan, who died at the age of 54 in 1976, had a son Millar Crawford, who passed on the twins’ story to The Falkirk Herald this week.

Mr Crawford (67), from Hallglen, said: “They were actually born in a house in Skinflats all those years ago. Isabella gave birth to Anna, but she died seven months later and my mum Susan and her parents – my grandparents – took Anna in and brought her up."

Mr Crawford said Isabella’s grave plot in Grandsable old cemetery did not have a name, just a number, “281” and he and Anna, his cousin, would visit it.

Anna was in her early 80s when she passed away last year.

Her grave plot in the new Grandsable Cemetery did not have a name on it, just a number.

"The number was 281 – just like her mother’s in the old graveyard. It’s some coincidence,” said Mr Crawford, who initially struggled to find his aunt Isabella’s grave years earlier until he found out she had been married just before she died and her surname was Ferguson.

"My mum didn’t talk about it much,” he said.

Family members laid roses on both sisters’ graves this week.

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