De Schotse schrijver Archibald Joseph Cronin werd geboren op 19 juli 1896 in Cardross, Dunbartonshire. Zie ook mijn blog van 19 juli 2007 en ook mijn blog van 19 juli 2009 en ook mijn blog van 19 juli 2010

Uit: A. J.Cronin. TheMan Who Created DrFinlay (Biografie door Alan Savies)

“It is necessary to go back to the generation of Cronin’s greatgrandparents to understand the man himself, as well as to appreciate the meaning of certain key references in some of his books and unravel many of the claims made about his life and personality.
In the early- to mid-nineteenth century, the main characters inthe Cronin story were drawn to western Scotland from a widearea of the british Isles – County Armagh in Ireland, Edinburghand berwick-upon-Tweed in England – eventually converging onGlasgow, where the skilled and industrious could always find work.
As a result, Cronin’s genetic make-up was half Irish, three-eighthsScottish and one-eighth English.
On the paternal side, his grandfather Owen and his grandmotherbridget (née McShane), both staunch Catholics and founders of the Scottish dynasty – if that is not too grand a term – were born in Ireland in about 1826 and 1832 respectively. Owen Cronin’s origins have not been verified, since his parents never left Ireland.
However, his wife’s parents – McShane and Smith – are known to have hailed from Annaghmore in County Armagh. It is not known if Owen was from the same region, nor if he and bridget McShane knew each other before emigrating to Scotland. Owen’s surname, however, when he arrived in Scotland in about 1850, was Cronague, changed to Cronin in 1870. He married bridget McShane in Eastwood, Renfrewshire, in January 1851.
Their first child, James, was born in Glasgow in about 1854, and sometime after that date, but before 1861, the Cronagues set up business in Alexandria, north of Dumbarton. Initially hawkers – another name for rag-and-bone men – they were later described as “glass and china merchants” as they became more sophisticated and affluent.”