What a Week!

[tishgibbons]

I have to share this with people who will understand!!! My family think I'm daft - well the ones sharing this neck of the woods with me anyway.

I've bored you all whingeing about my Mitchells from Crathie/Strathdon, etc. Well, after finding a will on SP which unravelled a different problem, I decided to skim through all Aberdeenshire Mitchell wills - it's free so why not. I found the will of Mary Mitchell whom I had suspected to be connected to my g.g.g.grandfather William Mitchell. Sure enough she leaves him and her other HALF brothers and sister a few bob. Success no. 1 she is related. Success no. 2 she mentions a half brother Angus whom I had not found. Searched for his death certificate and yes he's 'mine'! Looked on IGI for Angus' descendants and success No. 3 someone else is researching him and though not related gave me chapter and verse on Angus' descendants!

By this time I had cracked open the champagne , when I decided to look again at Mary Mitchell's will. I saw that the loot she was leaving to her siblings was left to her by one James Abercrombie. This rang a bell and I went to have another read of Wendy McLeod's "Tales from the Glen" (read that book if you haven't already done so, published by ~ANESFHS) and there I found what I had half remembered, that the family included in those letters were Abercrombies with a housekeeper called Mary Mitchell - 'my' Mary Mitchell as it now turns out. Success no. 4 - this opened up numerous references to the family including an amusing tale regarding how Angus Mitchell came to marry his housekeeper Janet Cooper! These people are REAL!

Then I noticed the mention of William Bowman - but my g.g.g.g.g.grandfather was William Bowman too - to cut a long story short I think Wendy McLeod is my 5th cousin - and bless her she accepts it - until proven otherwise!

This is the first possible relative I have ever found on the Scottish side of the family - my cup overfloweth - I must open more champagne - does any of this make sense to any one at all???!!!

Tish

[LesleyB]

Hi Tish
What a wonderful story! Its great how one thing leads to another...
And what an incredible bonus to have "your" lot turning up in a book AND find a distant cousin to boot!

Best wishes
Lesley

[Tracey]

I know exactly how you are feeling right now. About a year ago my uncle handed me literally hundreds of letters dating from 1880,s which led me to avenues i would never have dreamed of searching. I was very greatful for them (and so should S/P be ! )as i was at a dry spot. I was cursing the fact that it took 3 days to put them in order then two weeks solid to scan on my pc - literally, thank god i had no work at the time otherwise i would have cancelled it, this was far more interesting ! - then another two to sort them out so i was happy with them. Every letter was at least 3 pages long and i have still not read through all of them.
For me having something in my hands that was written by my great x 2 grandmother was fantastic and reading all about the goings on and the hardships in Scotland with the fishing, War, ect. I put many post out to try and find non family mentioned in these letters but no response so far.
But right now my lot is as dry as a cracker so i do envy you

[DavidWW]

...much snipped ..........
This is the first possible relative I have ever found on the Scottish side of the family - my cup overfloweth - I must open more champagne - does any of this make sense to any one at all???!!!

Tish

Yes

But there is occasionally a downside .................

I was absolutely delighted some years ago to discover a 3rd cousin in Oz via the GRD directories...... especially as this was a side of the family where I had no photos. This cousin's parents had emigrated to Oz only in the 1950s, and my newly found cousin commented that he knew that his parents had had numerous photos of that side of the family, but that all these photos had been destroyed in Oz by damp !!

"Damp" in Oz , apparantly so in Perth

David