SOme local history

[rob murray]

Been doing some research into the family tree, tapped in the name of a long dead great grand uncle into google and got this site up http://www.wikitree.com/genealogy (http://www.wikitree.com/genealogy) where to my utmost astonishment I fould the part of my family tree that goes back from the 1840's in fact way back to the 16 century. ON investigation it seems that some lady in the US had undertaken research using some software etc and published the family tree........data : names dob's etc is spot on as I knew broadly names back to late 17thc entury which matched her reseacrh....I was gob smacked so if you want to see if your familiy tree has been researched go to this site. I was able to then go on genes reunited and pin point marriages, where people stayed etc and found that from a crofing background ( watten ! ) at least 2 members of my relatives ( my fathers, grandfather and his sisters and brothers ) had moved to London in the 1870's, quite coincidentally my grandfather was on the Lambeth census in 1901 living not far from where my son, his great grandson worked in London. I also found photos of my great grand uncle in the Johsnon collection on line...amazing !

[trinkie]

Fantastic, you must have been thrilled with that !

[rob murray]

Thanks I was thrilled, bit liking playing at being a detective...my forebearers were a few generations at Dunnet having moved from Watten then return to Watten in 1820's....so you try and work out why they moved...were they cleared to make way for sheep etc but nah all the men listed to 1840's are shepherds....I was able to trace my great gran uncle Dunbar Murray to London then to stockport then using google maps located the house he lived in in Hume Cheshire, searched the johnson collection and found his photos. Technology is a great thing and can bring family research to life !

[rob murray]

Heres some very interesting stuff that I found that refers to Badbea men who served in the army

http://www.badbeafamilies.com/Caithness%20Roll%20of%20Honour.htm

[cptdodger]

That is really interesting. Did you know all the dates of birth and deaths for your ancestors? I have been trying to find out information about my maternal Grandfather, I know when he died, but that's about it, I can't even gage his age, as when you are 4, everybody is ancient !!

[rob murray]

That is really interesting. Did you know all the dates of birth and deaths for your ancestors? I have been trying to find out information about my maternal Grandfather, I know when he died, but that's about it, I can't even gage his age, as when you are 4, everybody is ancient !!

Long story so here goes, I was playing about with the PC at home and went on the johnson collection, this is a database of photos taken by the one family in Wick between 1850 - 1970's all their photos were digitised and you can search the data base so I did a search on an ancestor and lo and behold I traced 3 photos of the guy and one of his wife taken 1875 and 1898 so I did another google search and found a site called this http://www.wikitree.com/genealogy (http://www.wikitree.com/genealogy) where I found that someone had researched my family tree starting in the 1840's working back wards, as thats when my great grand father was born. The tree goes back to late 1600.' so I e mailed the lady who was lsited as compiler and she replied saying that she got a lot of information from a lady in Australia who got her information from a murray relative in Australia...she also used parish records and stuff, my ancestors lived in Watten for 2 generations ( 1820's onwards to 1880's ) and prior to that lived in dunett for generations. The lady e mailed me and said that she had visited Watten and had taken photos of gravesotnes etc I have to research the 1840's children ( 5 ) as one was obviously my great father, which will lead me into what I know ie my granded his family down, to me and mine. I know one guy as Ive traced him even to where he lived ( Hume Cheshire ) know he was married but am trying to trace if he had any family. One of his brothers a Robert W Murray Ive traced to London ( 1870's ) and also found out where my grandad lived in London as he moved there for 7-10 years. Spookily he lived not far from where his great grandson...my son worked in London ( Lambeth ) until he moved offices to Shoreditch.....so Basically I have loads of info up to the children born in 1840's.. its post 1840's that I now have to focus on.

My Caithness roots go back to 1600's and 100% go back further................and to think that some idiot on here told me on a political tread to f off south....Im quite possibly more Caithness than any of them lol lol lol .........nah if you go back further Im descended from Picts...then....we are all Noahs children eh !!!!

[Bystander1]

Interesting to see one of my ancestors named in the Roll of Honour. I had managed to track his enlistment and discharge papers a while back and even traced the areas where he had fought with Wellington's Army. Anyone interested in that side of their ancestry can find details of the Peninsular War in Julian Paget's "Wellingon's Peninsular War, Battles & Battlefields."

[rob murray]

Interesting to see one of my ancestors named in the Roll of Honour. I had managed to track his enlistment and discharge papers a while back and even traced the areas where he had fought with Wellington's Army. Anyone interested in that side of their ancestry can find details of the Peninsular War in Julian Paget's "Wellingon's Peninsular War, Battles & Battlefields."

Fascinating...can you tell us the story.....ie where he fought etc would love to hear it

[cptdodger]

My goodness, how interesting, so is that lady in Australia a relative of yours then? It's funny your son lived so near to your grandfather, they say history repeats, although I doubt your grandfather was involved in the music industry! This is just an observation, but I find people born and raised in Caithness, may leave, but eventually return, I have not really found that anywhere else. I can't afford to live where I grew up !

I have not researched my maidenname (Black) but I have a funny feeling it is of English origin, so I think people here would be in their (somewhat deluded) rights to tell me where to go !!

[rob murray]

My goodness, how interesting, so is that lady in Australia a relative of yours then? It's funny your son lived so near to your grandfather, they say history repeats, although I doubt your grandfather was involved in the music industry! This is just an observation, but I find people born and raised in Caithness, may leave, but eventually return, I have not really found that anywhere else. I can't afford to live where I grew up !

I have not researched my maidenname (Black) but I have a funny feeling it is of English origin, so I think people here would be in their (somewhat deluded) rights to tell me where to go !!

Thanks the more I get into it the more hooked I am....my grandad was involved in the music biz (swell sorta )....he founded the Wick pipeband in 1919 lol lol , the lady in Oz must be related as her name is Janet Mowat Murray and she got the ancestory story from one of her relatives in Oz, need to find out who emigrated and when now. My grand dad returned home to marry, but the 2 others Ive traced didnt, one guy was a factory owner in Manchester area and I found his address from 2 censuses it was also listed as where he died, so I google mapped the street and found the house.....amazing eh ! The mannie was born in 1845 and died in 1927 so a fair age. A Black eh...I knew and worked with a Ewan Black he would be about 42 now he was from Dundee.......never mind the idiots telling you to go / english ancestry etc....we are all Noahs children...good statement that ...think I heard it read in Narnia stories.........

[cptdodger]

Thanks the more I get into it the more hooked I am....my grandad was involved in the music biz (swell sorta )....he founded the Wick pipeband in 1919 lol lol , the lady in Oz must be related as her name is Janet Mowat Murray and she got the ancestory story from one of her relatives in Oz, need to find out who emigrated and when now. My grand dad returned home to marry, but the 2 others Ive traced didnt, one guy was a factory owner in Manchester area and I found his address from 2 censuses it was also listed as where he died, so I google mapped the street and found the house.....amazing eh ! The mannie was born in 1845 and died in 1927 so a fair age. A Black eh...I knew and worked with a Ewan Black he would be about 42 now he was from Dundee.......never mind the idiots telling you to go / english ancestry etc....we are all Noahs children...good statement that ...think I heard it read in Narnia stories.........

It's just amazing what you can find on the internet. The music must be in your sons genes ! In my case it's just knowing where to start. Ewan might very well be a relation, but I would'nt know. My father was born in 1931, he was raised by (what he thought at the time was) his aunty. When he was ten, she told him she was his mother. If anybody had found out she would have been in a lot of trouble, she was a nurse and an unmarried mother, can you imagine ! It's actually quite frightening how little I know about my immediate family.

One drawback though of not knowing who my father's father was, when I was pregnant with my son I was told I was expecting twins, of course to my knowledge there was no twins in my family. My mother had one brother who had one child, my father was an only child, and I have a sister. In the end I did'nt have twins, but that's Whipps Cross Hospital (East London) for you !! And then I found out I had a hereditary illness, goodness only knows where that came from! My parents are healthier than I am, and they are in their 80's !