Ferguson Renwick, 1820-1889.
If you want to see a photo of the church in her home town go to:
and search "Ferguson".
Martha Gillespie, 1827-1904.
Elizabeth Kirkwood, 1855-1914.
This was the photo and the back of it that caused the confusion.
Here's the reason. Years ago the Colston's printed photo pedigree charts for us. Mother gave me this photo to use for Martha Gillespie. Then after the printing we realized we had used the wrong photo for Martha Gillespie and I wrote Eliz. Kirkwood on the back. Even so, Margaret and I both had fixed in our minds that this was the photo of Martha Gillespie.
Not till yesterday did I step back and analyze the photo. The first two are obviously from the same era of photography and fashion even though Ferguson and Martha's apparel are from two different social strata. Yet, the hats have a similarity. The third is from a different era, another generation.
Whenever I thought of the story my father used to tell from his childhood of his grandmother with her pipe in her mouth calling him to her privately and saying,"Wee Jimmie, how aboot runnin' doon the toon wi this copper to git yer granny a wee dram? Be swift laddie an dini tell a soul," I always pictured Ferguson. Some how the story fit better with the photo of Ferguson Renwick than with Elizabeth's photo.
My Great Grandmother Elizabeth Kirkwood without her pipe and copper for "a wee dram". Each of you has a copper. How many greats is she to you? The real Martha Gillespie.
My parent's remembrances of the difficulty identifying Martha Gillespie in their Edinburgh searches of old parochial registers and censuses fit more with the photo of Elizabeth in my mind. This posting is helping me to reprogram my brain.
After hours of searching and confusion among various Martha Gillespies they realized, Martha had been fudging on her age at each census and each new husband! Mother and Daddy loved that story. Martha's "memory" of her age made her live for them. Dear Martha was widowed twice.
Take a look at new.familysearch.org (you'll need your membership ID# and confirmation date to register from your ward clerk Sunday).
There is a story if you'll look at the dates of the history of Martha Gillespie's family. You'll learn more about Martha as you explore the options.
Why does her son John have the last name Ingram? Click on his name, then click on "details" and then "individual notes" at the bottom of his list of details.
You'll also see who is contributing to his information. We've got another relative that I've never heard of! You can write to him and ask him how you are related, where he lives.
How many children were there and what were their ages when their father, John, died in 1871?
When did Martha remarry? What do you think about the responsibility Robert undertook in marrying a widow with that many young children?
How old was her oldest son, our great grandfather, Thomas Gillespie Watson, when his father died, when his mother Martha remarried and when he married Elisabeth Kirkwood? How many greats of a grandfather is he to you?
How long were Robert and Martha married before she was widowed again? Who was Martha's third husband and did she outlive him?
Hearing my parents excitement of finding Martha Gillespie and the searching they did to do it is my first remembrance of having an interest in my ancestors. Since then I've been hooked. They have become real people to me--people I admire.
You can now write your history of Martha Gillespie Watson. You can search the Internet using place names for photos and social history about her times. That is how I found the description of Peesweep Row housing where some of our ancestors lived. It is very humbling to think of how they lived even into the next generation when some of my father's cousins were orphaned and the 17-year old took care of his brother and sisters till they could take care of themselves. His story is what has prompted me to send you birthday cards telling you of an inspiring relative.
When we moved to Moab and our first children were born my heart turned to genealogy. I took a BYU correspondence course. One of the assignments was to place an ad in a newspaper in the hometown of an ancestor. I had never seen such an ad in a newspaper before. Dutifully and by that assignment I placed an ad in a Lisburn, Ireland newspaper and one in a Worcester, Massachusetts paper.
I still recall the thrill of receiving three responses from the Worcester ad that eventually led to finding my great uncle's daughter, Agnes Hunter Smith. We corresponded until she died. I hadn't known I had a great uncle anywhere in the East until I studied my parents' genealogy charts and said to my mother, "I didn't know you had an uncle who lived in Massachusetts?"
At times as I searched old records on microfilm in Bozeman I felt the encouragement of my deceased father to keep looking, don't give up-- then finding name after name every week for week after week. I was finding so much information that I'm afraid my research notes aren't what they should be. New Family Search is helping me to get my records straightened out as well as adding to them.
Fortunately, I had contributed information to Ancestral File years ago in Bozeman. About the time I moved to Utah I made a mistake in migrating my files and lost some information. Now I'm finding it on NFS because I had submitted it to Ancestral File and because I'm going systematically through our pedigree and searching for duplicates just as is recommended.
Now you know what I've been doing many days since my stake gained access to NFS. A little bit each day has some times turned into most of a day. I can't quit!
Family history has blessed my life. Because of my many years of genealogical research I qualified to be a substitute librarian at Bozeman Public Library and filled a niche on the staff. I loved that job. I came to love the people of Bozeman even more.
The most wonderful thing to me is that as each of you has turned 12 and each of you can go to the temple you have been able to do things I'm not able to do by myself. I hope that as you do things for others that they can no longer do for themselves that you sense your heart turning to those who have walked this earth before us. Their hearts are also turned to us and caring for us.
1 comment:
The connection of our new-found relative to Martha Gillespie.
"Martha Gillespie was married three times, her last marriage was to a widower William Brownlie.
His first wife was a widow by the name of Margaret Hannah.
Margaret Hannah's first husband/partner was Thomas Ward and they had a child named Isabella Hannah.
Isabella Hannah married John McLuckie Henderson.
Their son, Thomas Brownlie Henderson married Agness McKay.
Agnes's Father was married three times, His first wife was Helen Izett.
Helen's grandfather John Izett is my wife's direct 3rd great-grandfather. "
Draw that one out and you'll see how very distantly we are related.
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