Helen Cheyne born Kintore 1886 ** birthday bumped post **

Looking for Scottish Ancestors

Moderator: Global Moderators

Post Reply
AnneM
Global Moderator
Posts: 1587
Joined: Sat Dec 11, 2004 6:51 pm
Location: Aberdeenshire

Post by AnneM » Fri Oct 31, 2008 7:10 pm

Annette, you are a star =D> =D> =D> =D> =D> . That's the trouble with relying so much on Ancestry. You tend to see one family in isolation.

Now Ian can get on with tracing his family backwards from Christina and her parents. Shout for help if you get stuck Ian!

Perhaps now we should all turn our attention to looking for James Cheyne. Tantivvy tantivvy, blow the horn and let the hounds go! The hunt is on!!

Anne

(Who is in fact not keen on blood sports!!)
Anne
Researching M(a)cKenzie, McCammond, McLachlan, Kerr, Assur, Renton, Redpath, Ferguson, Shedden, Also Oswald, Le/assels/Lascelles, Bonning just for starters

SarahND
Site Admin
Posts: 5631
Joined: Thu Apr 27, 2006 12:47 am
Location: France

Post by SarahND » Fri Oct 31, 2008 10:24 pm

\:D/ \:D/ Brilliant, Annette!! It is good when the pieces start falling into place! Now all we need is the link with Margaret Kennedy and Ian will have no choice but to believe it! :D

[cheers]
Sarah

AnneM
Global Moderator
Posts: 1587
Joined: Sat Dec 11, 2004 6:51 pm
Location: Aberdeenshire

Post by AnneM » Fri Oct 31, 2008 11:22 pm

Don't know. With tonight being Halloween maybe Auntie Maggie or even Christina will come back to persuade him of Annette's general brilliance. That would be even better than finding MK.

Anne
Anne
Researching M(a)cKenzie, McCammond, McLachlan, Kerr, Assur, Renton, Redpath, Ferguson, Shedden, Also Oswald, Le/assels/Lascelles, Bonning just for starters

AnneM
Global Moderator
Posts: 1587
Joined: Sat Dec 11, 2004 6:51 pm
Location: Aberdeenshire

Post by AnneM » Sat Nov 01, 2008 7:27 pm

Hi

I was giving a talk in Banff today and on the way back saw a turning off for Auchterless. I could not resist taking a wander down that way. Auchterless has a fine big church with a graveyard. Now, what would any of you have done. Needless to say I got out and had a wander about. There were no matches for any of the people we've been looking for here but there were a few Simpsons Chapmans etc. . All the sort of names which are around in this story. I did not expect to find Christina and co because they all died elsewhere . I then drove back via Rothienorman and Forgue. Not sure why except that I thought it might give me some inspiration. Certainly it proved to my satisfaction that all these places are pretty close together.

William, Christina, Nellie & Co lived among some very rural and beautiful countryside. Even now it is very sparsely populated.

Anne
Anne
Researching M(a)cKenzie, McCammond, McLachlan, Kerr, Assur, Renton, Redpath, Ferguson, Shedden, Also Oswald, Le/assels/Lascelles, Bonning just for starters

AnneM
Global Moderator
Posts: 1587
Joined: Sat Dec 11, 2004 6:51 pm
Location: Aberdeenshire

Post by AnneM » Sat Nov 01, 2008 8:14 pm

Well clearly I was walking around Auchterless Churchyard with my eyes shut because William and Christina Chapman i.e. wife 1 are there under stone 50 according to the online search at the Aberdeen & NE FHS. Next time I will look harder!!

Also there are a Jane Simpson no date given (presumably the Jane who died very young) and a William died May 1869 -- a son of William and Christina?

Anne
Anne
Researching M(a)cKenzie, McCammond, McLachlan, Kerr, Assur, Renton, Redpath, Ferguson, Shedden, Also Oswald, Le/assels/Lascelles, Bonning just for starters

AnneM
Global Moderator
Posts: 1587
Joined: Sat Dec 11, 2004 6:51 pm
Location: Aberdeenshire

Post by AnneM » Sat Nov 01, 2008 8:19 pm

Indeed William died 1869 was William aged 5 the son of William the meal miller and Christina Chapman. He died of Whooping Cough poor child in Forgue.

Anne
Anne
Researching M(a)cKenzie, McCammond, McLachlan, Kerr, Assur, Renton, Redpath, Ferguson, Shedden, Also Oswald, Le/assels/Lascelles, Bonning just for starters

imlincs
Posts: 52
Joined: Sat Sep 27, 2008 12:42 pm

Post by imlincs » Sun Nov 02, 2008 12:25 pm

Hello Alan, Anne, Annette, Lesley, Sarah, Susan

I’m sorry I haven’t responded more quickly to this exciting news. I have been otherwise engaged as vicarious worrier and taxi driver as Helen Cheyne’s first (and probably only) gg grandson was born yesterday.

Yes it’s quite clear now that William and Christina’s daughter Christina was Helen’s mother. When I was in the Rothienorman area earlier this year (albeit searching for the wrong Christina) I drove around Auchterless, Rothienorman, Logie Newton and Aulton, not realising how close I was to the epicentre. I even visited Fisherford School to see if there were records of Helen/Nellie having attended. It now seems clear that if she went to school, that would have been the one but I checked the Fisherford School records in Aberdeen but could find no trace.
I’ve also found the two places now called East Logie Aulton Farm and Littlemill right next door to each other on OS grid ref NJ 672 379 and 677 378as well as a photograph of East Logie Farm. I’m looking forward to visiting again, maybe in the spring, with all my newly acquired knowledge.

A large part of this for me is not merely filling in the gaps in the family tree, gratifying though that is, but putting flesh on the story being uncovered, treading the ground that my grandmother trod as a child.

Fantastic detective work by all of you - especially Annette - to take me through this fascinating journey, especially after my own false start.

Anne mentioned (Oct 12th) that “Old Father William dies at a goodly age in Aberdeen”. Do you have a date for that? Could he be the old man in the group photo (Oct 13th)? Probably not because by 1923 William would be 90. The seated lady would be about the right age for Eliza though. Also, interesting that William died in Aberdeen but was buried in Auchterless – would it have been common practice then to bring a body back from Aberdeen to a family grave a good way away?

Just by way of info, I’m still following up (with a lot of help) Margaret Kennedy. Her husband John Kennedy, from whom she was divorced, appears to have died in 1987 having been born in Newmains, Lanarkshire in 1902. Margaret’s surname is listed on the record as unknown. I have obtained the address of a relation of John Kennedy still alive in the US to whom I am writing to see if I can shed any more light on this link. Margaret herself was still alive in Vancouver in 1988 and someone is kindly checking out the divorce record to see if it gives a maiden name and also library records. I hope I’m closing in here – it would just finish off the picture for me. In response to Sarah’s question I haven’t anything indicating MK’s date of birth. It does appear however that John Kennedy had a son (initial J) the likelihood being that Margaret was the mother.

As Anne suggests, I would now like to track down James Cheyne if I can. Would it be helpful if I gave a resume of what I have so far (minus what I thought I had but didn’t!)?

Would it perhaps be better to return this topic to the separate thread about James Cheyne or is it OK to continue here?

The only info that I haven’t already posted is that there was a John Cheyne aged 19 born Millbrex 1862 living at St John’s Wells as a servant in 1881. I haven’t been able to link him to James Cheyne the policeman.

Thanks again to all of you for all your help with Helen/Nellie and Christina.

I will come back to William Simpson and Christina Chapman and the family further back, after getting as far as I can with James Cheyne and Margaret Kennedy. I am, after all a man, and therefore incapable of multitasking!

Best regards,

Ian
+++

AnneM
Global Moderator
Posts: 1587
Joined: Sat Dec 11, 2004 6:51 pm
Location: Aberdeenshire

Post by AnneM » Sun Nov 02, 2008 1:33 pm

Hi Ian

Is that a grandchild you have now?? Congratulations if that is the case. I've not got one of my own (yet) but am honorary Granny to my husband's two which is great fun.

I know it's much preferable to go oneself but would you like me to take a better :( look in Auchterless and take a photo of the gravestone of William and Christina senior. Am sure it would not be hard to find. I live not too far from there and spend much of my life scooting around Aberdeenshire so would be no hardship at all. Husband will enjoy exercising his photographic skills.

Hope you can get up to Scotland again soon. Did you check whether Helen/Nellie went to school in Kintore. She may not have returned to her family until she was able to work for whatever reason.

Anne
Anne
Researching M(a)cKenzie, McCammond, McLachlan, Kerr, Assur, Renton, Redpath, Ferguson, Shedden, Also Oswald, Le/assels/Lascelles, Bonning just for starters

imlincs
Posts: 52
Joined: Sat Sep 27, 2008 12:42 pm

Post by imlincs » Sun Nov 02, 2008 2:06 pm

Hello Anne

It would be great if you could e-mail a photo of the gravestone.

I didn't check Kintore schools - I realise I should have - because my grandmother always spoke of being from Rothienorman. Another item on my hit list when I'm next up there.

Yes it was my grandson born yesterday - fourth grandchild but first boy.

Regards

Ian
+++

AnneM
Global Moderator
Posts: 1587
Joined: Sat Dec 11, 2004 6:51 pm
Location: Aberdeenshire

Post by AnneM » Sun Nov 02, 2008 6:22 pm

Hi Ian

Congratulations again on the birth of your grandson. Hope baby and mother are both doing well. In my family it's mostly boys around. My mother has 6 grandsons and only one grand-daughter, my daughter. Even both of my husband's grandchildren are boys, one of whom is slumbering quietly in his buggy beside me now, otherwise I'd not be on TS; instead I'd be looking for pictures of tractors........and believe me there are lots of pictures of tractors around... or running after him and trying to protect my cats who just about trampled each other on the way out of the door when they realised he was in the house.

Back to business, William Simpson died on 7th September 1913 at 8 Summer Street, Woodside, Aberdeen. His age is given as 80 and his parents as William Simpson, mason, and Christina Simpson m.s. Johnstone. The informant is his son Robert Simpson. 34 Summerfield Terrace, Aberdeen. That is the same address as George Hossack gave as his address in UK when he was journeying back from the States.

I think that probably means that he can't be the old man in the group photo which looks to me as if it was taken in the 1920s.

I guess that he wanted to be buried beside his first wife and his children which is why the burial in Auchterless or at least the gravestone there.

I'll get a snap of that for you as soon as I can.

I'm assuming, possibly incorrectly, that you are in England somewhere, maybe the South. Hope you get another trip here soon. The weather in Spring is particularly good so that's the time to come if poss. Mind you at the moment the trees are lovely colours which, added to the early snow on the mountains, makes the countryside quite dramatic. It would have been a great day for a walk were I not still feeling half dead for some reason. Last Sunday celebrated my birthday with a walk up Bennachie.

It did occur to me re-reading this topic that you may feel that you had been mugged by a group of women. We mean it all for the best....honest. Part of my trouble is that I spend much of my working life assessing evidence so that has a tendency to spill over!!

Anne
Anne
Researching M(a)cKenzie, McCammond, McLachlan, Kerr, Assur, Renton, Redpath, Ferguson, Shedden, Also Oswald, Le/assels/Lascelles, Bonning just for starters

Post Reply