Our Scottish Genealogy expert

Clare was fortunate to consult our Scottish genealogy expert, Chris Paton, on the perplexing matter of finding Janet McCray/McRae. Find this dilemma further explored on the main Buchan blog.

She explained that there was an absence of documents for Janet's marriage (to Robert Buchan) and birthing of her son (another Robert Buchan). Then she showed him the Monumental Inscription page of Buchan graves interspersed with Brown graves, one of whom was Jane McCree/McRae who had a sister Janet McCree/McRae just a few years younger than Robert (the husband of Janet). Untangle this development here.

This is a graphic of the relationships between all the people in the grave if they were so related.


Could the deceased wife of Robert Buchan (Janet McCray/McRae) be buried in these four adjacent grave plots, to 'entitle' her sister Jane McCree Brown, a granddaughter and another baby related by marriage, to join them? Chris thought it was possible... but just speculation. 

He suggested Clare check the Edinburgh burial records on Ancestry (done), contact the local family history society (done, and an article in their current newsletter about the family), contact Edinburgh City Archives (not done) and the National Scottish Family History Society in Edinburgh, in case anyone had already researched the family (not done). 

His first thought was that Janet may not have died in Scotland to explain the absence of a record on ScotlandsPeople. If Janet was married to Robert, then her death must have happened before he married in 1846. Most importantly she was not with Robert the father and Robert the son, then aged 7, on the 1841 census back in Newlandrig (the ancestral rural village, far from Edinburgh). So Clare feels strongly that she died before 1841, and the three possible places are Edinburgh, Newton (parish of Janet McCree's birth) or Newlandrig. Or maybe she really was a McRae from the highlands like 95% of all McRaes are - in which case she could be anywhere. But we both agree, she did not emigrate without her wee boy.

The search continues.

On another occasion we accosted Chris and his wife as they finished the Seal Bay self-tour. Too tired to decline, Sue quickly snapped this picture; and we got a video of Chris wishing the Scottish SIG a merry Xmas. Sadly they were not all that impressed.


 

Comments

  1. KPDecember 5, 2024 at 3:13 AM

    Well done Clare to corner (sorry, consult with) Chris Paton. Good he has given you a to-do list. Kelly.

    ReplyDelete

Post a Comment

Talk to us here

Popular posts from this blog

An early morning cuppa tea

Image
  Arrival time mid afternoon at the Overseas Terminal in Sydney, in the midst of five minutes of torrential downpour. All going well till we realised there is no kettle, no cups, no teabag, no fridge (but a very big safe instead). Aaargh, thanks for nothing Americanos. Sue and I are both cuppa tea first thing in the morning drinkers. Like 6.30am early. How could we cope? A thermos (to be bought in Hobart), nicked tea bags, milk in another thermos, maybe teabags bought in Hobart...... A cuppa in the top-deck cafe before our morning walk on the ship's Walking Track was our best solution. We were resigned to the double need. Luckily we met Wayan wrangling a big mattress out of another door. He is our Stateroom Attendant. He wanted to help us, he said. We need a kettle, cups, teabags and milk, we cried. "No problem" said Wayan, "you shall have them by tomorrow". Oh well, cuppa on Level 14 Oceanview Cafe (where the Walking Track is, see that post). In the meantime, w...
Read more

Captain Matt comes to meet us

Image
  We were surprised when Captain Matt interrupted last night's lecture to meet us. He asked us to not study too hard, and in doing so miss out on other activities of the cruise.  We were happy that he wished to be photographed with us: Vice-captain Igor, Clare, Captain Matt and Sue on Level 4 We were very impressed by Captain Matt. As well as his 9.45am report to all over the loud speaker, always interrupting the first lecture, he ended with quite memorable quotes - not that I can remember them. He gave a 90 minute live presentation and Q&A on the last sea day. He was the captain/mariner consultant on the design and production of the Celebrity Edge. He was very proud of it's 200 innovative features. It could even be plugged into powerpoints at a Northern Hemisphere port, but no such facilities exist in the Southern Hemisphere. They had permission to discharge waste in Alaskan ports because all waste water was so well treated!  Finally he stood at the end of the gangwa...
Read more