Since September 2021, I've been busy photographing, transcribing, and documenting the gravestones at my local churchyard, St Nicholas, Sutton Parish, Surrey (now Greater London). 👉 Here's a thread about 15 months spent in a #graveyard. [1/25] #AncestryHour This entire project started as an excuse to get outside and get some exercise. “Why not photograph a few gravestones and add them to @FindaGrave?” I said... [2/25] #AncestryHour

I often talk about using the #WikiTree website to record my #FamilyHistory research. Here’s a thread for #AncestryHour with some reasons why I ❤️ @WikiTreers. [1/17] I’ve spent hours researching my #FamilyHistory, but don’t have anyone to leave it too. #WikiTree provides a place to record information for others to read and critique (now and in the future). #AncestryHour [2/17]

I often talk about using the #WikiTree website to record my #FamilyHistory research. Here’s a thread for #AncestryHour with some reasons why I ❤️ @WikiTreers. [1/17] I’ve spent hours researching my #FamilyHistory, but don’t have anyone to leave it too. #WikiTree provides a place to record information for others to read and critique (now and in the future). #AncestryHour [2/17]

Reply from a @FindaGrave volunteer: “Not accurate - Their data conflicts with my data". OK, so the two contemporary newspaper reports about the deceased‘s fatal road accident giving the correct year of death that I sent ya not good enough, huh? findagrave.com/memorial/21448… In the interests of providing visitors to his @FindaGrave page with the *correct* information about John Smith Shireffs (1900-1955), I've added a picture of the press cuttings with dates, which just happen to match his entry in the statutory Register of Deaths. Images: @BNArchive

Yesterday I posted official extracts of my birth and adoption records to @HighlandCouncil with the hope that the burial lairs of my birth mother, grandparents and great grandparents in #Gairloch’s New Cemetery can be assigned to me, the only living descendant. [1/3] The graves concerned are the middle and right-hand ones in the photo above. I want to have the graves cleaned & the lettering re-done. When the time comes, I may join them there, as there is still space. [2/3]

Researching a C19th branch of my direct line from New Pitsligo in Aberdeenshire, who seem to have been extremely poor souls. Quite a few premature deaths from communicable diseases (mostly TB + 1xtyphoid). Very different to most of my middling (and usually long-living) relatives. None of my ancestors made it above the level of tenant farmer, apart from the ones who owned a small cargo ship, but is a rather sad to think about the hard-up lot in New Pitsligo. Impression is they seem to have been close, and looked after each other with what little they had.

Goodness, this is exciting! I know I have a 4th gt grandmother called Christian (Christina) Taylor née Mowat, but until now, that’s all I had. Think I’ve just found her. Now examining parish registers, valuation rolls & census records to see if the records show it’s really her. So, *if* I have found Christian, my 4th gt grandmother, she lived a long life as a widow, knitting stockings for a living until goimg blind. I’d also know who my 5th gt grandparents are on that line. The *circumstantial* evidence is good, but not enough to be confident, yet.

Ok, who are you, really, Jessie Mowat née Moggach (c.1903-1970)? No birth record & your 1927 marriage record to William John Mowat in the Fraserburgh statutory register names parents (Alexander Moggach & Ada Bentley) who I can’t find for the life of me. familysearch.org/tree/person/de… Ok, Jessie, so I have now found your father’s death in the Aberdeen Evening Express of 17 February 1953, page 10 and your mother is mentioned too (TY to @BNArchive). But where is your birth record?

On 1855 valuation roll for Parish of #Botriphnie, my 3x gt grandfather, Alexander Moggach Sr (1792-1861), is the tenant & occupier of Newburgh Farm on the #Drummuir Estate (rent value £35/yr). His mother, ‘Widow Forsyth’ (1770-1856) is at Croft of Old Lenoch (rent £1:13s) [1/2] This is the first time I’ve really looked at the valuation rolls. Thank you for the prompt from Alison Spring (@FrugalFH) at #RootsTechLondon - I now see what I have been missing. [2/2]

https://twitter.com/daviddobie2/status/1188021071045369858?s=21

Is this the grave of my 4th gt grandparents? I photographed Roderick Fraser (c.1768-1857) & Mary MacLean’s (c.1783-1869) grave last week, as part of my #MyGairlochFamilyHistory trip. Let's see what we can find out… [1/] This grave is just a short distance from where my 3x gt grandparents, Margaret Fraser (c.1811-1852) & Alexander MacIntyre (c.1808-1872), are buried in Gairloch’s Old Burial Ground. It’s not conclusive, but that *could* suggest a family relationship. [2/]

My 2C2Rs, the McIver sisters, must have been an interesting bunch. A #Gairloch family, their father was in the Hong Kong Police (late 1880s), before various jobs in Lanarkshire. 6 of 8 sisters are buried in same plot in Gairloch with 3 headstones #MyGairlochFamilyHistory [1/3] The sisters are: Jessie Ross McIver (c1892-1964), Catherine Mary (Rena) McIver (c1908-1965), Annie Ross McIver (1899-1985), Marjory (May) Finlayson née McIver (1870-1964), Murdina Ross (Dina) MacDougall née McIver (1901-1969), May Alexandra Sellar née McIver (c1895-1968) [2/3]