Week 72 To Scotland!

Monday morning we were off to Scotland.  Absolutely beautiful drive.  On suggestion of our former supervisor and the Johnson's, we took a small detour to visit Bamburgh Castle.  As we drove into it, we were awed at its size and grandeur.  It sits on a hill near the ocean with white beaches below.

Bamburgh Castle from a distance

Outside the Bamburgh Castle
 overlooking the beach

Elder Smart and Castle guns

We entered Scotland on Monday afternoon.  It rained most of the way in.  We arrived at our Holiday Inn and we drove around downtown Edinburgh for a short while.

We were really in Scotland!   

We drove up to Pratt's Peak or Arther's Seat, as it is known by the Scots.  Pratt's Peak is where Orson Pratt climbed and dedicated the land of Scotland for the preaching of the gospel.

Pratt's Peak

We went to dinner with one of Elder Smart's long time friend, Jimmy Thompson.  He is a stalwart for the Church in Edinburgh and a long time genealogist.  After dinner we drove by the LDS church and mission home.  Paul and Jimmy had a lot of old memories to share.  Years ago Paul stayed with the Thompson's for a while during one of his trips to Scotland.

Paul and his friend Jimmy (age 80)

Tuesday we spent the morning walking the streets of Edinburgh.  We walked to the Castle and witnessed the guards and Scottish band.  For Annie's benefit, we window shopped in several of the tourist souvenir shops.

Annie likes the Scottish Men

Scott Monument

"Wanna Be" Guard

Edinburgh Castle

We tried to get into the records office to obtain records of Annie's Ferguson line.  The records are  now controlled by "ScotlandsPeople".  This organization works with the Scottish Archives as a commercial entity. However, they let a few people (supposed beginners) in each day without paying.  We were not one of the lucky ones and so we decided to just pay for Paul to go in and research and obtain the records.  He found many documents on the Ferguson line and Annie did what she does best and did more window shopping.

Wednesday we went to the National Library's Maps Library in Edinburgh and located a "Hillhead Farm". This is the name of the place that Alexander Ferguson, Annie's ancestor, and his family resided on the 1871 census and the address where Alexander lived when he died in 1880.

Elder Smart at Maps Library

We put the address in our SatNav and started for Holytown, Scotland.  We drove to where we thought the farm was. Local people directed us and drove with us to find the actual farm.  We could see it from where we thought it to be, but had to drive around (about 10 minutes around) to actually get to it. A kind Scottish historian was our guide and when we arrived at this place at the end of a small dirt road, we showed him a copy of the certificate that mentioned "Hillhead Farm"  He said that this farm was "Hillhead Farm" but not the one on the certificate.  It was listed in the district of Holytown and this was out of the district.  He sent us to the record office in Airdrie.

We arrived arrived  in Airdrie and were then told we had to go to the record office in Motherwell.  We had 45 minutes  before it closed.  It was a 25 minute drive.  We just hoped the SatNav would get us there with no errors or we would not make it.  We arrived with 15 minutes to find our farm on the map.  Thank goodness that the record keeper had been notified by the previous record office that we were coming.  She had found a "Hillhead  Farm"  on an 1870 map and compared it to the current map to find a high school built on that property.  Elder Smart asked about any cemetery indexes for Holytown.  She produced some and we found the cemetery  that Alexander Ferguson and his son George were buried in. Alexander was in a group ("common") grave and would not have a headstone but George did have one.

We drove to the cemetery and found it on the grounds of an old Parish Church.  We walked through and sure enough found the Head stone of George and his wife and two children and son in law.

Wrangholm Church Graveyard

Headstone for George Ferguson
 and family - died in 1889

We felt like our chase all over Scotland had paid off.  We found the church and graveyard of our ancestors. Then one more finding happened.  We passed a fairly new neighborhood close to the church and one of the streets was called "Hillhead Lane".  We feel quite confident that this is the "Hillhead" we had been looking for all day.  The housing development had been built on the farm.  It was right next to the church that some ancestors attended and were buried there.

We continued on to Chorley England. Arriving quite late, we went straight to bed at the temple accommodation center. The next morning we were on an ancestral track again.  Annie has been trying to find her ancestor, Fanny Rimmer, for quite some time.  We put together a big lead a couple of weeks ago when we visited this area.  We now had put more together and were searching for her records in Lathom.  This is about 15 miles from Chorley and the temple.  We had a meeting with the Ormskirk local history society chairman.  He was a great help and then suggested we go  to Preston for more research.  His assistant was also very helpful. In fact her knowledge of Annie's family was much more than we could have asked for.  We found she was a distant cousin.

Ormskirk Family History Society Cousin - Kate Hurst

Paul & Ormskirk Family History Society President
Bill Huyton

This meant that we needed to stay one more night, and so we did. Friday morning we headed to Preston and researched wills and what parish records that we could.  It helped some, but we are still trying to put a few things together.  Annie thinks she has her family found in  Lathom, but Fanny is not there.  This small parish church did not keep its own records, but periodically added their records to Ormskirk's.  There is a great chance that some of the births and marriages did not get safely recorded. We learned a lot and feel more sure of this family in Lathom being the probable family of Fanny Rimmer.

We really were there!

Lathom Chapel built early 1500s

After spending most of the day in Preston Record Office, we drove home Friday late afternoon, arriving about 7:30 p.m.  It was a very long, fun and fruitful 10 days.

We spent Saturday getting ready for future conferences and getting a hair cut, groceries, etc.  In the evening we went to another concert with Helen Baden and enjoyed the Jazz and the evening.  We shared a table with the Maytham's from the Staines Ward.  At any rate it was a great evening.

Sunday, today, we were back at church in Staines.  As usual, it was wonderful.  We sure love the people in our Ward.

We feel we are so blessed to be here and serve and learn.  Our last month here is booked solid with family history activities.  We love our work.  We love the Lord and feel so very blessed.  This is God's church and we are excited to feel that we are part of "Hastening the work.

Love,

Grandma and Grandpa, Mom and Dad, Paul and Annie, Elder and Sister Smart

Elder Smart entering
the Carvery

Our favorite eating place
near Chorely

Eating a "Scot Burger"