My husband’s Aunt Joanne
was an amazing woman; a mother, teacher, media specialist and avid family
history researcher. Over the years we’ve had many phone chats and emails
regarding the family history, and she was particularly interested in the
Mc/MacDonald/Soutar/Sutter (that story is a whole 'nother blog post!) line from
Scotland.
At her passing, her
children contacted us to see if we wanted her notebooks and other family
memorabilia. Of course we did! They offered to mail us a couple of boxes, but I
knew there was much more than a couple of boxes, so I (rather frantically!) contacted another
relative who lived not far away. She was willing to hold the boxes until we got
there, and the “couple of boxes” turned into five!
That summer, we drove to
Detroit to get them from Cousin Carol, stopping in Ohio to pick up a couple of
grandchildren. When we got back to Ohio, I couldn’t wait to see what was in the
boxes and could be found sitting in the back of the van rifling through them –
it was like winning the lottery - what a treasure trove!
One of the photographs
that spoke to me directly was this one:
It’s a fairly large photo,
about 11 x 13, mounted on stiff chipboard, and although worn around the edges,
the photograph itself is in very good condition in spite of its age, probably
right at the very early 1900s, as the youngest child in the photo was born in
1897 and looks to be around two or three years old.
I recognized from other
family photos the face of Annie McKenzie MacDonald and surmised that she was
standing with her parents and siblings. Annie was a nurse who worked in Scotland, Canada and Michigan and married Howard's grandmother's brother. They had no children. I scanned the photograph, did a little
research and constructed the family from records on familysearch and ancestry
and then posted the photograph on familysearch.
Not long after, I
received an email from Gillian in Scotland. One of the boys in the photograph
was her grandfather! I was thrilled to be able to make that connection and
wanted very much to give the photograph to Gillian, but I was reluctant to
trust this treasure to overseas mail! I had a friend who was a flight attendant
for a local airline, and we tried to make a connection to Glasgow, but it didn’t
work out. I was disappointed, put the photograph back in the box and hoped we
could work something out.
Fast forward to last
June, when one of our sons was transferred by his job to England. We determined
to spend Christmas with him and his family. We made a list of places we’d like
to go, and when he mentioned Scotland, the lightbulb finally went off in my
head! Why, Glasgow, of course!
Accordingly, we made
plans to meet up with Gillian. It was two days after Christmas and the day
after Boxing Day, a holiday nearly equal to Christmas in the United Kingdom.
The city of Glasgow was still decked out in holiday finery, with a huge
Christmas market at George Square in the center of the city.
After some wobbles, we found each other, and it seemed as we had always been friends! We talked all about family, family history, Scotland, holidays & etc… When the time came to hand her the photograph, my eyes were misting over. Gillian’s grandfather died before she was born, so she never knew him.
I knew we had made the
right choice to return the photograph back to its true home after over a century, where it will be
shared and treasured. What a blessing to have the kind of technology that
allows us to make these family connections, even across the ocean!
Since that time, I’ve
realized that there were other photographs taken in Inverness, where the
McKenzies were from. I had assumed that they were of the MacDonald/Soutar clan,
but now there’s a possibility that they might have been Annie’s photographs. So stay tuned!
