From Orphanage to Westminister Abbey

[bobandbryony]

Andrew Ross 1849 -1925

Andrew Ross the hero of our story was born the son of a cartwright in Rosskeen in 1849, orphaned at six he became Ross Herald at the Court of the Lord Lyon in 1901, a solicitor to the Supreme Court and an a military author of some note.

He was the main person behind the collection and placing of the old regimental scottish colours in St Giles Cathedral, Edinburgh. He attended the coronation of the King in 1911 and during the post coronation visit by their majesties to Edinburgh that year carried the Sword of State in the procession from the castle to St Giles. His diary shows how a piece of the sword hilt "fell off" and how he had to race back to find it! He was also, because of his role at the Court, an early geneaologist and so it is fitting that we have followed in those footsteps with our searches on The Scotsman, Scotland's People, Ancestry and more recently Talking Scot.

We started our search a year ago when we discovered some "junk" in a trunk in the attic. At that time we knew virtually nothing about Andrew or his family. We found in the trunk his order of service from the coronation, a copy of his 1885 book called Old Scottish Regimental Colours, a medal awarded to his son Alastair for his part in the 1902 - 1904 Antarctic Expedition and the International Rugby cap won by another son (also called Andrew).

Our own voyage of discovery has (so far) taken us to Edinburgh and the Highlands. We donated the cap to Murrayfield and were given amazingly helpful assistance in tracking down pictues of Andrew (the son) and the sad details concerning his death in the trenches in WW1.

We were able to visit the museum where many of the bird and egg exhibits brought back by the Antarctic Expedition are held and with their help and that of Glasgow University (which has a E-book about the Voyage of the Scotia on it's website) track down photographs of Alastair and even a short film showing the glorious reception given to the returning members of the expedition in 1904 ( Scottish Screen Archives - a truly amazing and useful site to visit). For those intersted in "culinary" matters you may like to know that Alastair put ON nearly a stone in weight when he and 5 others were left alone for a year in the Antactic wasteland while their ship went back to Argentinia to recoal. As you may have guessed this is because they supplemented their meagre rations from, shall we say local free range, sources. How do we know this? Because we have postcards from some of his crewmates written to his sister. Ross Peaks in the Antarctic was named in 1987 for this young medical student who took on the role of Taxidermist, General Seaman and Hut Builder and the author of 100 ways to cook Penguin - not really!.

The dress uniform worn by Andrew at state events had been donated by his youngest son, Donald, to Dingwall Town council in 1938 which had been put in an unmarked box which was passed to to the Dingwall Museum many years later who didn't know whose it was. In the trunk in our attic we had found a newspaper clipping covering the original donation and with a little help from us the curators of the museum were able to put the uniform on display with the correct labelling. The museum is well worth a visit and contains an excellent collection of military memorabilia - Seaforth Highlanders, Major General Sir Hector MacDonald and much more.

The search for the family tree of Andrew and his family has been difficult not least because of certain missing birth OPRs from Rosskeen parish - probably because his family were members of a different kirk. As complete novices we went through all the usual mistakes like missing the first three children of Andrew's marriage because they sadly died in childhood during a whooping cough epidemic and the use of wildcard asterisks when searching for strange spellings of names. We are of course still amateurs but as you all know better than us still get a thrill when we discover a new fact. Only the other day we found out that the Andrew's brother; James Hector Ross had a son (Andrew MacKay) who was a maker of pipes and drums and that part of his collection are held in an Edinburgh Museum (another visit to Edinburgh is called for). That same brother had another son who on his marriage certificate is described as an "India Rubber Company - Warehouseman" - probably our most favourite occupation of all those we have read. Now I wonder what happened to him................?

Thank you for taking the time to read this - I know that I go on too much and bore people but we are very proud of this small man from Invergordon with such a big heart. A Highlander, fearcly proud of his roots who spent most of his life in Edinburgh - as he might have said - "Kilt or Trews" - but what is clear is the love he had for his family and that is I guess is why we all want to record these notes about our ancestors.


Bob and Bryony

[joette]

Great hunting you have done really well.What a fabulous ancestor.
It's amazing what unknown treasures could be lurking in our homes.
I have Ross's ancestors too & they have lots of mysteries which I haven't been able to solve YET.You have certainly given people hope in their searches.

[Anne H]

Great detective work, Bob and Bryony!

Sounds like you've had a fascinating journey starting with a trip up to your attic...what great finds!

We're all proud of our ancestors, but yours is special to you and you have every right to be proud of them.

From an orphanage to Westminister Abbey...what an interesting life and family.

Regards,
Anne H

[bobandbryony]

Hi everyone

Thank you all for your replies.

The success continues at least for us in that through a very kind lady at the ANESFHS in Aberdeen we have tracked down one of our missing great aunts to Elgin and to another (well potentialy) to Ohio in the USA. We would highly recommend the ANESFHS to anyone like us living outside Scotland who needs help with research.

The full Ross story is on a private tree on ancestry - it will be made public when we finish loading data and photographs. If anyone wants access now just send us an email.

Bbob and Bryony