Relatives Around The World

I ended a previous post about my long-lost great uncle Duncan with an unsolved riddle: did he know his wife back home in Scotland had divorced him, and did he marry the woman he had crossed the world to be with?

Well, the answer did come, from his relatives in Australia.  An email arrived with photos of divorce documents as well as his marriage certificate to his second wife, Ivy.  I was so pleased that their life had turned out the way they clearly hoped it would. They had two children of their own plus the five from Ivy’s first marriage, so family life would have been a full-time occupation.

Divorce Notification, 1952

In further antipodean family history developments, I received an email from MyHeritage alerting me to a tree posted from my father’s side of the family.  I recognised the tree owner’s surname immediately, as my parents and aunts had corresponded with this family of my dad’s brother Angus. He had emigrated to New Zealand as a young man, and occasional exchange visits took place between the family.  I recall meeting some of these relatives when they toured Scotland in the early 1970s.  They were visiting my father’s sister Kate, and when Dad arrived to meet them, they all immediately remarked on the striking resemblance between him and his elder brother in NZ.

As tourists from down under often did, they hired a camper van to see as much of the country as they could, although these were not nearly as common on the roads as they are today.  While staying in Glasgow to visit the numerous relatives who lived there, they did some sightseeing in the city.  They parked their van in George Square in the city centre, and a local child, being unfamiliar with the style of the vehicle, mistook it for an ice cream van and tried to buy a cone from them, much to everyone's bewilderment.

My Kiwi correspondent gladly shared copies of documents with me, including an extensive genealogy of Uncle Angus’s English wife – which surprised me by revealing that her ancestors were actually from Scotland. 

Then, in just the last month or so, I've learned of some younger relatives, on two separate maternal lines, who have taken an interest in their forebears. Both showed up as DNA matches on Ancestry, and had been posted on behalf of the family members concerned. With the first, I had kept in touch with the family in the USA, and they were able to confirm that my cousin’s teenage daughter was indeed the person represented by the small tree!  I offered to share anything she wanted to know about the family.

The other enquiry came from England via Ancestry, asking if I would be willing to share information they had been unable to trace about my relative’s parents.  I referred the enquirer to the relative’s father, knowing that he would share what he felt comfortable with, and she confirmed that they had set up a time to discuss the family’s history with him.  Again, I invited them to let me know if there was anything else I could share that would be of interest.

It's great to be in touch with family from around the world (and nearer home, too).  These experiences have highlighted to me how crucial it is to have my tree posted online, as well DNA results, for others to find.  In a post in the near future I’ll share the story of another recent contact, one which provided a spot of closure for me on the genealogy front.