Places of Significance: Aberdeen Harbour, Aberdeen

On workday mornings, George Findlay, Ella's father, would ride his bicycle down to the Aberdeen Harbour, on the east side of Aberdeen looking out over the North Sea. This was where he worked as a shipwright (a ship's carpenter), repairing the trawler fishing boats.

George's livelihood was significant to the local economy, considering that fish was such a staple of the Aberdonian's diet - Ella particularly remembers eating haddock and herring. 

And his work was especially critical during World War II: There was severe rationing of imported goods, with fish being some of the food that was more easily available. It was thus imperative that the trawlers be repaired that were damaged by mines planted off the coast. And the work continued despite blackout conditions: George would sometimes finish work long after the sun had set, and he and his fellow shipwrights would have to crawl down the planks back to the dock in the pitch black darkness.

A trawler being tied up to the quay at 
Aberdeen Harbour, 1923
Image Source

We're not sure of the exact location in the harbour where George worked, and perhaps it's changed quite a bit in the last 70 years. But it was somewhere near here, working up until he and his family emigrated in 1948/49. 

The harbour today
Image Source

There aren't trawlers in this harbour anymore for the fish industry (maybe a few that are privately owned), so we're told by the staff at the Aberdeen Maritime Museum.

Thinking of you George!

Looking out at the harbour from a vantage point outside the Aberdeen Maritime Museum

30 Sept 2014

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Would love to know:

• At what age would George have started his apprenticeship as a shipwright? in his late teenage years, in the early 1920s?
• Would George have apprenticed somewhere at the harbour as well?
• What company did he work for? (Ella thinks it might have been called Strath/Straths/Strath's? A Google search on that name doesn't generate any clear leads.)
• Is there a specific type of trawler he worked on?
• Ella mentions that one of her uncles, one of George's brothers, was was a ship builder. Which one?
• Any photos of the harbour from the early 1920s to late 1940s, the time period when George worked here?

Places of Significance: 40 Merkland Road East, Aberdeen

40 Merkland Road East, Aberdeen: This is the home where Ella’s paternal grandparents lived, George and Charlesina Findlay, and where her father, George Findlay, grew up. And this is the street where her father likely learned to ride his bicycle. And where he lived until he got married. And just a block away (toward the east) is the Aberdeen Football Club (soccer) stadium where he and his brothers would go to watch “fitball” games on Saturdays (in "rain, shine, or snow, they'd be at that fitball game"). And not far from here (though we're not sure of the exact location), lived "Auntie Carrie", Charlesina's sister Caroline, whose home had a piano on which George Jr. learned to play.

Number 40 is at the end of the row, and today there are six units, two per floor (we assume as there are six doorbell buttons). We’re not sure which unit the family lived in.

We know that Ella’s father, George, grew up here and lived here until he was married in 1927.(1) He was the oldest of 11 children, the youngest being born in 1925; it’s likely that the other children were born here and living here as well. (2) I imagine they had some creative sleeping arrangements in this modest-sized flat!

KF's narrative. Filmed on location, 30 September 2014.

Ella's narrative. Filmed on location, 30 September 2014.

Notes:

(1) The marriage record for George and Ursula ("Kate") Findlay indicates this.

(2) George and Charlesina had 11 children (5 boys, 6 girls); however, 4 of them (2 boys, 2 girls) died at ages 2 years or younger, with 7 of the children growing to adulthood (3 boys, 4 girls).

Would love to research/know:

• Any census or other records that indicate how long George Sr. and Charlesina lived here? When did they move to their home on Ferrier Cresent in the Woodside area of Aberdeen?

Meet Robert Bruce of Burravoe (1827-1865)

Robert Bruce and Wilhilmina Inkster

Born 17 October 1827, Robert Bruce was the 4th of 11 children of Robert Bruce (1804-1852)  and Mary Young (1795-1842). Born in Edinburgh, he lived as an adult in the village of Burravoe on the south-east corner of the island of Yell, Shetland, in the Manor House. There, he was a laird, or a member of the landed gentry. 

How is it that he came to be born in Edinburgh? Records indicate that his parents were both born in Scotland, but his paternal grandparents were both Shetlanders (Robert Bruce, 1766-1844, and Ursilla Katherine Bruce, 1770-1808). And it's unclear how much of his youth he spent in Edinburgh - he was christened in Edinburgh, but according to the 1841 census, when he'd be about age 14, he was living in Burravoe. (Source)

When he was 27 years old, Robert married Wilhilmina Inkster (1835-1896)(1) on 1 May 1855at the Free Church of Scotland in Lerwick, on the main island of Shetland. She was 20 years old. Together, they had six children in their ten years of marriage. However, these were not the only children that Robert had: He had 6 children with 5 other women during this period of time, including one child born just two months after his marriage to Wilhilmina.

Christina's cottage is the one with the black roof, in the center
of the frame - Sept 2014

Christina Stove (1835-1919) was one of those mistresses, who (according to family lore) was a favored servant at the Manor House. And as the stories go, she was given a cottage on the hill in the village of Neapoback, overlooking the Manor House. Robert and Christina had two children together: Mary Jane and Laurence. It's Mary Jane who was "lost and found" by Ella and who is the great grandmother and great, great grandmother of our dear Shetland cousins.

A wider view of Christina's cottage, taken from the parking
lot by the Burravoe marina, near the fence surrounding
Robert's Manor House - Sept 2014

Robert died at the age of 37 on 16 August 1865 in Symbister House on the island of Whalsay, Shetland; the cause of his death being unknown, but Shetland Family History notes that he was "found dead in his bedroom" (Source). He was buried at the Kirk of Hamnavoe on the island of Yell - in an area partitioned off but in an unmarked grave.

Wilhilmina was 30 when he passed. She remarried at age 34 to Duncan Campbell (1847-bef 1896) on  24 February 1870 in Lerwick. 

..........

Questions:

• How did Robert and Wilhilmina meet? She was born in Tain, Scotland.
• What was the cause of Robert's death?
• Did Robert have the Manor House built? (According to the 1851 census, it looks like Robert's father was also living at the Manor House. Source.)
• Shetland Family History lists Robert's residence as 1 Shore, Burravoe in 1861. Is that the same as the Manor House?
• What additional stories about Robert have been passed on?

Notes:

1. Pronounced as "WILL-yum-EYE-na", there are many spelling variations in different records. For example: Wilhelmina, Williamina, Inster

On the Banks of the River Dee, Aberdeen

There was no warm-water baptismal font for those converting to the church in Aberdeen, Scotland, in the early to mid 1900’s. Instead, these soon-to-be Latter-day Saints were immersed in the waters of the River Dee, while supportive family and friends witnessed from the rocky banks.

The River Dee, with the Brig O' Dee in the background - Oct 2014 

This is where George Findlay and his wife Ursula were baptized in June 1932. (1) Grandma Ella was also baptized here in 1942 (age 8),(2) just south of the bridge Brig O’ Dee. Although her birthday is in January, she was baptized in September, a relatively much warmer time to be baptized in the river, but still chilly by most standards!

George Findlay's baptism in the
River Dee - June 1932

You could say that here, on the banks of the River Dee, is where their journey to America began. Now baptized, what was most important to them was their faith, as Mormonism was a relatively unknown Christian religion in Scotland at the time, and they wanted to be close to others who believed similarly. Also, there were not yet any temples in Europe; if they wanted the blessings of the temple, their only option at the time was to travel to America.

Wearing the daisy-chain crown that AG made her.
Grandma said she used to make daisy chains as a girl - Oct 2014

And this is where on our recent trip, I delivered a tribute speech to Grandma and her family, while Grandma, Grandpa, Mom, and AG listened from a bench overlooking the river and bridge.

Although I have grown up as and am an actively practicing Mormon, I am in awe and humbled by the sacrifices our ancestors made to more fully live what they believe. 

Selling virtually all that they owned and traveling essentially with the clothes on their backs, they waved goodbye to family as they boarded the train that took them to the ship harbor. Grandma was now 15 years old. The journey was so expensive and they had saved for so many years, they didn’t know if they’d ever return to their homeland. These were one-way tickets.

KF and AG at the River Dee - Sept 2006

America didn’t necessarily offer them greener pastures, either literally (they settled in Arizona, after all) or figuratively: It’s no small task to start a new life from scratch. And they were sometimes ridiculed for their accents, and they were often treated as second-class citizens. 

Why did they do all this? I think about this often. The conclusion that I have come to is that I believe they had a vision of the future, of how their sacrifices would benefit generations to come. We are now standing on their shoulders.

We have that same blood coursing through our veins. And we can tap into that same strength and determination. We too can trust in God, and that he has a plan for our lives and that he will direct us as we seek to know that plan. We can have courage in the face of hardships, as we ourselves face oceans and continents that separate us from our final destinations, and as we may sometimes find ourselves as strangers in a strange land. 

We too can do great things, GREAT THINGS, that will influence, for good, generations to come.

Notes:

1. It’s unconfirmed who baptized George and Ursula. Was it John Freestone, a missionary who was prominent in their conversion and fellowship and who sponsored their emigration to America? Or was it another missionary or member of the mission presidency? Also, familysearch.org has Ursula’s baptismal and confirmation dates as 11 and 12 June 1932, repsectively while George’s are both as 13 June 1932 - would she have been baptized and confirmed the day or two before George? Or is this a recording error?
2. Ella was baptized by the Scottish District President Andrew B. McGowan on Saturday, 26 September 1942, confirmed the next day (27 September 1942) at the Aberdeen Branch Conference. (Source: The Latter-Day Saint Millennial Star issue from Thursday, October 22, 1942; scanned copy here. See the right hand page, 2nd full paragraph in the right column. A couple paragraphs later, George Findlay is mentioned also. :)