John Leathem was born in Scotland. He was a college coach and lived and died in Londonderry. His son John Gaston moved to Belfast where he was Head Cashier in the Northern Bank. His grandchildren were well educated and would include a physician, a doctor of science and educator, a certified public accountant, a minister, a banker and a governmental employee in the Indian Civil Service. Their various careers would take them and their families to different parts of the world and branches of the family can be found today in the United Kingdom, Canada, the United States and parts of South Africa.