Welcome 2018. At long last I am publishing my first blog. It has been on my "to do" list for a few years. To dip my toes in the water I thought I would start by answering Jill Ball's New Year challenge."Accentuate the Positive" Jill has invited us to reflect on 2017 by responding to the following statements/questions making sure we accentuate the positive.
1. An elusive ancestor I found was a
Boer War Soldier by the name of Jack. I found a valuable historic letter from him among old Christmas cards and correspondence belonging to my husband's grandmother, Margaret Rae. It was addressed to her and signed from Jack. Who was this Jack? It was not my
husband's grandfather, he was Bill. My best sleuthing came
out! From clues from in the letter and with the help from Trove https://trove.nla.gov.au/newspaper/ I was able to
put the pieces of the puzzle together and work out that it was John Alexander McNabb (1879-1955). I will share my discoveries with you in future blogs.
2. A great newspaper article I
found was one written by my
third cousin in the Inverness Courier
It begins:
3. A geneajourney I took was to SCOTLAND in August 2017. We had the most amazing and unforgettable two weeks. Our cousins, discovered through the internet and author of the newspaper article (2), drove my husband, sister, brother-in-law and myself to the homes of our ancestors- see map. We stood in places where our ancestors had lived and worked hundreds of years ago. McDonalds from Islay, Morar, Isle of Skye. Grants from Isle of Skye. MacIntosh or McIntosh, Provost from : Knockbain, Ross-shire, and Inverness. Mann fromTain, Elder from : Glasgow. McLennan from Redcastle
It begins:
Armchair time travel with
the Melbourne McIntoshes
THE e-mail arrived in the other half's inbox out of the blue just before
Christmas.
"Are you a great-grandson of William Mann and Ann McIntosh?"
it asked.
Well. Got him bang to rights on that one. Though we've always thought of
her as Mackintosh, not McIntosh. That's the way it is in the family Bible and
on the gravestone in Kilmuir Churchyard.
The email was from Rob McIntosh and had flitted through the ether all
the way from Melbourne, Australia.
Thing is, we'd never heard of Rob McIntosh.
But it turns out Rob and my other half are third cousins. Rob's great
grandfather was Charles Mackintosh, a brother of Ann Mackintosh. Rob and my
husband have the same great, great grandparents, Charles Mackintosh and Anne
Gray who lived at Muirend farm on the Black Isle and were married in 1819. It
seems that Rob and one of his sisters, Dot, have made a bit of a hobby of
tracing the McIntosh family tree.
Continued:
http://www.inverness-courier.co.uk/Home/Armchair-time-travel-with-the-Melbourne-McIntoshes-5643320.htm Continued:
3. A geneajourney I took was to SCOTLAND in August 2017. We had the most amazing and unforgettable two weeks. Our cousins, discovered through the internet and author of the newspaper article (2), drove my husband, sister, brother-in-law and myself to the homes of our ancestors- see map. We stood in places where our ancestors had lived and worked hundreds of years ago. McDonalds from Islay, Morar, Isle of Skye. Grants from Isle of Skye. MacIntosh or McIntosh, Provost from : Knockbain, Ross-shire, and Inverness. Mann fromTain, Elder from : Glasgow. McLennan from Redcastle
4. An important record my sister and I found while in Scotland was a Knockbain Kirk record answering a long sort after question of where our 3x great grandfather John McDonald lived. The Highland Archive and Registration Centre at Inverness had sent us the record of our 3x great grandparents, Anne Provost and John McDonald widow of Douglas fronting the elders of the church to account for Anne's pregnancy. We could not find Douglas on any map. However on the next page Cathy and I found John McDonald being described as coming from Shantullich. We found Shantullich on the map close to where my brother Robert had placed Douglas. We visited Shantullich and a great feeling of excitement came over me when I looked up the paddocks and saw Ann Provost’s home of Muirends.
5. Our newly found family member, our Scottish third cousin, Ewen shared with us Aussies the exciting discovery of the gravestone of our mutual 4 x great grandparents in the Suddie Burial Grounds, Black Isle. Written on a slab hidden under long grass were the names of our 4 x great grandparents.
6. A geneasurprise I received was when my brother-in-law who had said he wasn’t interested in going near a cemetery on our two week tour of Scotland, not only visited lots of cemeteries but helped discover my 4x great grandparents' grave.
8. I made 2 new genimate, Janelle Collins and Hilary Lowden at the Orange Family History Conference. With our mutual friend Maria Northcote, Janelle downloaded on my iPad the “We’re Related App” and said that I had hit the jackpot when the first person that popped up was my ninth cousin Princess Diana!
9. A new piece of technology I mastered was Google Earth Pro thanks to Lisa Louise Cooke. I improved my ability to bookmark my ancestors homes, overlay historical maps, plot ancestors homesteads and create virtual tours on Google Earth with photos and video and information. I really agree with Lisa, geography and genealogy go hand in hand. It is fantastic now looking at the maps of Scotland that I created on Google Earth. Now that I have been there they mean so much more to me.
11. A genealogy event from which I learnt something new was the N.S.W. and A.C.T. Association of Family History Societies 2017 Conference in Orange. Heather Garnsey talked about the importance of Estate planning for our research and I was pleased to hear that the Society of Australian Genealogists (SAG) will look after your precious genealogy.
12. A blog post that taught me something new - was Pauleen Cass's "Graphing DNA" 30 July, 2017. She showed how her genimate Shelley from Twigs of Yore graphed or grouped her Ancestry DNA matches. ttps://cassmob.wordpress.com/
13. A DNA discovery I made was that my girlfriend’s grandfather was in fact her grandfather. Her mother always believed he wasn’t but by finding that her cousins, her grandfathers sibling grandchildren were in fact her DNA cousins
14. I taught a genimate how to download her DNA from Ancestry and upload it onto Gedmatch.
15. A brick wall I helped demolish was finding the home of our 3x great grandfather. See point 4.
Kirk Records that described John McDonald
coming from Shantullich. All the bricks fell down when I saw for myself the
closeness of the two farms.
17. A new
genealogy/history book I enjoyed was “Last
of the Free" by James Hunter, a history of the highlands of Scotland.
18. It was exciting to finally meet my Scottish third cousins, Lorraine and Ewen Mann. It was thrilling to at long last to come face to face on Glasgow Station.
18. It was exciting to finally meet my Scottish third cousins, Lorraine and Ewen Mann. It was thrilling to at long last to come face to face on Glasgow Station.
19. I
am excited for 2018 because I am
looking forward to meeting my dear genealogy friends at the 15th
Australasian Congress on Genealogy and Heraldry, and the Alaskan Unlock my past Cruise.
20. Another positive I would like to share is my gratitude for the friendships I have made through genealogy. It is lovely to share our explorations and discoveries.
20. Another positive I would like to share is my gratitude for the friendships I have made through genealogy. It is lovely to share our explorations and discoveries.
