Our Family Lost and Found - It Continues…

Several years ago, we shared on this blog how Ella got in touch with distant cousins she didn’t realize she had - these were relatives on her mother’s side who are living in Shetland. What’s really neat: We recently had a similar experience as we met for the first time cousins on Ella’s father’s side - the details are below.

As the generations continue on and families spread geographically, there’s something special about knowing that there’s kin elsewhere. And it’s even more uplifting to the soul when we can foster these relationships.

I’ve referenced our Bruce and Findlay cousins that we’ve connected with on Ella’s side, but I also wanted to give a shout-out to the McRae and Inglish cousins who have reached out as well, through this blog. We're glad to be in touch!

……….

It was perhaps about 2 years ago that I was asking Grandma Ella: Your father, George Findlay, was the oldest of 11 children (though just 7 of them lived to adulthood).(1) Where in the world did they all end up? And their children? I had heard about her father and one sister who had emigrated to America, and about the youngest brother who settled in New Zealand. But the others? We had cousins that we might not know about! And any still in Aberdeen?

Ella had emigrated from Aberdeen to the United States with her family in 1949 when she was 15, and at the time these were one-way boat tickets.(2). Now in America, even having a telephone in their home in Arizona in the late 1940s and early 1950s was such an unimaginable luxury, let alone calling overseas on one. I suppose there was letter writing, but Ella unfortunately fell out of touch with much of the extended family. And time passed on. Who would have thought that someday traveling would be what it is, and even that communication methods would advance so greatly?

As time passed on, it made sense that Ella’s father’s younger siblings would have children, that there would still family in her homeland as well as elsewhere in the world.

In the late 1990s, one of Ella’s first cousins visited them in Utah, coming from New Zealand. Cousin JF and his family! This was the first time they had ever met in person.

Then fast forward to early 2015: I received a message through this blog, a note from that same Cousin JF in New Zealand, which then kicked off an email correspondence that continues. He knew the answer to my question about where all the Findlay siblings and cousins ended up. And we were excited to hear that he was in touch with many of them!

On our May 2017 to Aberdeen, we finally met some of Ella's first cousins in person: We visited Cousin DD at her home, and Cousin CS joined us for dessert at our hotel’s restaurant. Upon that initial glance (at least for someone super sentimental, like myself!), it was as if they were instantly familiar. And we hugged as if we were reawakening a relationship that had simply been dormant. It was a mini family reunion!

Left Photo: KF, Cousin DD, BR, Ella; Right Photo: Ella and Cousin CS

As you can imagine, during our time together we showed photographs of our families, we shared some of Grandma Ella’s prominent memories of common ancestors, and we enjoyed getting to know each other a little bit more.

Ella's parents Kate and George (on the far right)
on their wedding day in 1927 with George's siblings (left to right, Carrie, Alec, Ethel)

George Findlay's siblings (left to right): Madge, Ethel, Jack, Lizzie, Carrie (we think!) (3)

Ella (bottom right) with older sister Ina
(bottom left) with their Aunt Madge (back right)
and a friend (back left)

Cousin CS said that our visit had prompted her to revisit and sort through some photographs and documents that she inherited when her older sister had passed away.(4)

Our breaths were taken away when she showed us the first photograph: Ella’s parents (Kate and George Findlay) holding Ralph and Ella’s twin babies Bruce and Bonnie, out in front of Ralph and Ella’s home in Wilmington, California, in 1953. Then a realization: I assume that it was Kate Findlay (Ursula Katherine Bruce Beattie) who was keeping in touch with this family so far away, sending letters with photographs, and sharing the joy of their first grandchildren and the first great grandchildren of the Findlay family (and the novelty of twins!).

Ella's parents, Kate and George Findlay,
holding twin grandchildren Bonnie (left) and Bruce (right),
Wilmington, California - 1954

This was likely a photograph that Kate Findlay sent to her in-laws, George and Charlesina Findlay, and perhaps she sent some to her husband’s siblings as well (was this particular photo sent to Cousin CS’s mother?) In fact, Cousin MM, also in Aberdeen but whom we didn’t meet in person on this trip as she was on holiday, mentioned over email that she remembers seeing photos of her relatives in America, shown to her by Grandpa George Findlay.

Ralph and Ella marveling at the photo of Ella's parents
with their twin babies

What a thrill to think that on the other side of the world, these relatives grew up with a vague awareness of their extended family. And now, Cousin CS was meeting one of the twins shown in that picture. (Note: Ella’s older sister, Ina, I learned, was in closer contact with some of the extended Findlay family, and Ella was in touch with some of the other cousins years ago. But it can be easy to fall out of touch!)

……….

As I reflect back on the interactions with these cousins, I'm amazed at how Ella’s mother made such an effort to keep in touch with family, even sending photos to the other side of the world. It seems that those family connections were so important to her.

We're grateful for new technology and for the internet that is reconnecting us.  We’re grateful for family stories that were told about these photos - for example: the photo of Kate and George holding the twins was unmarked, without names or dates on the back. And we’re grateful for mementos that were stashed away in a box and saved until a later time. In the current craze of minimalism and purging of belongings (or is this just a fad in America?), it’s significant to know that these items remain and that made for some meaningful icing on the cake for our visit.

We look forward to more family reunions, both virtual as well as face-to-face!

..........

Notes:

1. See footnote #3 for the list of all 11 children, here: http://greatflyingscots.blogspot.com/2016/09/meet-charlesina-smith-love-findlay-1883.html
2. Read more about their emigration story here: http://greatflyingscots.blogspot.com/2014/10/across-oceans-and-continents_27.html
3. Ella did her best to try to identify her aunts and uncles in the photos. Is what's listed in the photo captions correct?
4. For details of another document that Cousin CS shared with us, check out this blog post: http://greatflyingscots.blogspot.com/2017/05/john-mcdonald-and-ursilla-katherine.html

John McDonald and Ursilla Katherine Bruce Beattie - Final Resting Spot

On that windy, overcast morning in May, when we decided to visit the Allenvale Cemetery to find the unmarked(1) graves of Ella’s maternal grandparents, John McDonald Beattie and Ursilla Katherine Bruce Beattie (pronounced "Yer-SILL-a")(2), it seemed like it would be a fairly easy task, as we knew the cemetery section and plot number of the graves.(3) But as the events unfolded, it truly seemed that there was divine intervention to guide us in our efforts.

We had arrived in Aberdeen the afternoon on the previous day, and that evening at the hotel we met Ella’s first cousin CS for the first time.

After some introductions, she said that our visit had prompted her to revisit and sort through some documents that she inherited when her older sister had passed away. Included in these documents, which she unfolded so gently as some were quite delicate, were two hand-written receipts for Allenvale Cemetery, to George Findlay (Ella's father), dated 11 May 1936 and 8 February 1937.

Hand-written receipt to George Findlay for the payment
of a funeral plot at Allenvale Cemetery

In that moment, it didn’t make sense what those receipts would have been for. This was about 13 years before George and Kate Findlay (Ursula Katherine Bruce Beattie Findlay) and their family would emigrate and at that time they were just in their early 30s. Were they buying this plot to plan for their future?(4) We were planning on visiting that cemetery the next day, so we would do some further investigating while there.

The next morning, before we headed out for the day, I took another look at the receipts for the cemetery plots, and it hit me: The plot numbers listed there were for George Findlay’s in-laws, John McDonald and Ursilla Katherine Bruce Beattie. And the dates on the receipts were just days after they had both passed.(5) It now made sense: John and Ursilla had only one child, their daughter Kate, and thus after they passed, it would be Kate and her husband George who would provide for their burial.

……….

Allenvale Cemetery is such a beautiful cemetery, with tall trees and neat rows of headstones of various shapes and sizes. And it’s huge: it must have thousands and thousands of graves.

Allenvale Cemetery - thousands and thousands of graves!

We knew the grave location—section 2, lair/plot 278—but I was unable to find a cemetery map online, so we thought there might be some sort of sign or map at the cemetery itself. So we entered through the gates by Allenvale Road and Hardgate, and we walked in. Wow, was it overwhelming! With so many graves, how would we know where to begin?

The entrance to Allenvale Cemetery
off of Allenvale Road and Hardgate.

I ran ahead, looking for any plaques, maps, or markers, but I wasn’t  able to find anything. Instead, perhaps there might be an office, or a groundskeeper who could direct us?

After working my way through section after section of the cemetery, then across the street in yet another section, I saw a couple of chaps, and asked them whether they could help me find the plot. Sure! They were happy to help! They brushed their hands off on their overalls and apologized for the dirt - they were busy digging graves by hand that morning.

We entered into a small office on the side of a home in that part of the cemetery, and G, the energetic and friendly grave digger, pulled out a tattered map from a drawer. Wow, this office! It was not an “office” in the modern sense, but an unfinished room attached to a home, with a couple tables, perhaps a chair, and aged maps, barely being held together by threads, rolled up in the drawers. There was also a cabinet full of hand-written ledgers of burial records and loose papers, tucked onto the shelves. Nothing digitized - no wonder I couldn’t find this information online!

Confirming the location of the family plot.

Gathering around the map.

Hand-written ledgers of burial records.

G checked the map for the location I noted (section 2, lair/plot 278). The area we were interested in was right on a torn seam, so he was carefully rolling frayed pieces of the map down to try to piece it together. “Ah!” he says. “G. Findlay!” “Yes! That’s the one!” Why “G. Findlay” on the map? Because that’s who paid for the plot, even though he is not buried there. And because of the documents Cousin CS shared with us the night before, it was all making sense; there was no confusion about why G. Findlay’s name would be on the map.

"G. Findlay," located on that ripped seam.

Now that we had confirmed the general area, G grabbed the map and we headed out across the cemetery, with his fellow grave digger A following along.

We actually went back to the section of the cemetery near where we had parked our car and had initially walked in. We were so close already! G would energetically check the map, walk a few paces, check the map, get down on his hands and knees to check grave stones, removing his glasses, putting them back on, moving to the next spot with this ragged map billowing in the wind as he walked. Assuming that our family’s plot had no grave marker, we were checking the adjacent graves that had tomb stones, comparing them to the map. Our anticipation kept growing! We were on the verge of finding the plot!

Checking the map. So close now!

G and A thought they identified the spot, but there seemed to be another grave marker placed there - a loose one. As often happens, the stones might be moved for maintenance or groundskeeping work, and then erroneously placed back in the wrong spot. It appeared we had a squatter!

However, after closer inspection of the map, G confirmed that the grave we were looking for was right where we were standing, denoted by a small tin pot mostly submerged in the dirt (that perhaps held flowers at some time). We found it! What a thrilling treasure hunt! And how grateful we were for the help of these cheery grave diggers.

We were on the hunt! Found it!

The submerged tin pot in front of Ralph's left toe marks
the final resting place of John and Ursilla Beattie.

We lingered at the gravesite longer, marveling at the events of the day and so very grateful. Grandma Ella and I picked some of the tiny wildflowers that were growing in the lawn and laid a petite bouquet of wild daisies and dandelions on their graves.

A tiny bouquet, in remembrance.

……….

These are the graves of my great great grandparents, John McDonald Beattie and Ursilla Katherine Bruce Beattie. From what I’ve learned of them, life was not easy for them but they seem to have had strong characters. Both were deaf since childhood but that didn’t seem to hold them back. He was born in Aberdeen, an illegitimate child, his mother died when he was 9 and he grew up in an orphanage. She was born in Shetland. Her father died when she was 3 years old, and she spent 6 years at a boarding school for deaf students in Edinburgh. They married in their late 30s and had one child in their early 40s, whom they raised to be a strong, stalwart woman - Ursula Katherine Bruce Beattie Findlay (“Grandma Kate”), Ella’s mother. He worked in the Aberdeen iron foundry, dying of chronic bronchitis when he was 75. She was trained as a dressmaker and had worked for a time as a domestic servant as well. She died at age 74 of uterine cancer. Ella was just 2-3 when they died, so she doesn’t have any first-hand memories of them, though she heard much about them growing up.

……….

All coincidence perhaps, but I like to believe that the hand of God was helping orchestrate the day’s events, that through inspired thoughts and actions (including the receipts that Cousin CS shared and meeting the grave diggers), we were guided to answers, that so many little pieces and people came together to lead us to where our ancestors were laid to rest. Perhaps we would have found this information eventually regardless? But it all certainly came together in a way we couldn’t have anticipated.

What’s next? We are waiting to hear back from the burials office of Aberdeen City(6), as it’s time we have a proper gravestone marker put in place. “Until we meet again.”

……….

If you find yourself at Allenvale Cemetery in Aberdeen, Scotland, here are directions for how to find the (currently) unmarked graves of John McDonald Beattie and Ursilla Katherine Bruce Beattie.
………. Notes:

1. We weren’t 100 percent certain that the graves of John McDonald Beattie and Ursilla Katherine Bruce Beattie were unmarked, but we had vague memories of oral history recounting such.
2. Ella’s maternal grandparents, John and Ursilla Beattie, passed away when Ella was 2-3 years old. I wonder whether Ella had ever visited the graves with her parents before they emigrated?
3. The plot locations of John and Ursilla Beattie at Allenvale Cemetery were confirmed via email with a Bereavement Services Registrar at Marischal College on 5 Oct 2016.
4. It also isn't apparent why George’s sister would have been the caretaker of these receipts, which were then passed to her daughters (eventually to Cousin CS), as these were for plots for George’s in-laws, not related to the Findlays. But for whatever reason, we were glad they were preserved!
5. John McDonald Beattie: 12 November 1860 - 8 May 1936. Ursilla Katherine Bruce Beattie: 19 Feb 1862 - 6 Feb 1937.
6. When I called Aberdeen City to inquire about getting a proper gravestone for their graves, they asked who had paid for the plot. Ah-hah! “I’ve got the receipts for that: George Findlay.”

John and Ursilla Beattie are Ella's
maternal grandparents.

Meet Ursilla Katherine Bruce Beattie (1862-1937)

Ursilla Katherine Bruce and
John McDonald Beattie

Ursilla Katherine Bruce (pronounced Yer-SILL-a, sometimes spelled as Ursula), daughter of Robert Bruce and Wilhilmina Inkster, was born in Burravoe on the Island of Yell, Shetland, on 19 Feb 1862. She was the 4th of their 6 children,(1) and was born at the Manor House, her family’s residence in Burravoe. She is Ella’s maternal grandmother.

Ursilla was deaf since childhood. Whether at birth or because of an accident or illness, we're unsure. The details from family oral history are not certain, but the family story goes that Ursilla was born healthy, but Robert came home drunk one night and kicked Ursilla’s cradle, permanently damaging the infant baby’s hearing. However, according to school admittance records when she was 8, she was born deaf, though wasn't completely so - she "evince[d] sensations from loud noises." We may never know what really happened!

The Manor House in Burravoe,
where Ursilla was born

Ursilla’s father Robert passed away when she was 3 years old (in 1865), and her mother remarried when Ursilla was 7 years old, to Duncan Campbell (1847 - bef 1896) in 1870.

From a Bruce Family Register: Ursilla Katherine Bruce was
born at Burravoe on 19 February 1862, and was baptized at 
Burravoe [date?] October 1862 by [?] James Barclay
(Click to Enlarge)

Sometime in 1870 (at age 8 1/2), Ursilla was admitted to the Donaldson’s School in West Coates, Edinburgh, a residential and day school for children who were deaf or had communication difficulties.(2) She lived here and attended school until 1876, about age 14, where students studied such subjects as English, writing, and arithmetic; assisted with sweeping schoolrooms and passageways; and started and ended each day in the chapel singing a psalm, listening to a passage from the Old and New Testaments, and ending in prayer. (3) Meanwhile, her mother Wilhilmina and stepfather Duncan were living in Lerwick on the main island of Shetland with her 3 living brothers (according to the 1871 census and the Donaldson's School admission registry.)

The former Donaldson's School, in West Coates, Edinburgh

Admission Register to Donaldson's School
for Ursula Katherine Bruce
(Click to Enlarge)

As of the 1881 census (at about age 18 or 19), Ursilla was back in Shetland, living with her mother at 1 Crooked Lane, Lerwick.(4) At the 1891 census, she and her mother were then next door at 3 Crooked Lane, Lerwick. She was aged 28 or 29 at that time.

Ursilla was trained as a dressmaker, and she also worked as domestic servant.(5)

On 15 June 1900, she married John McDonald Beattie in Edinburgh, at Hope Park Hall.(6) She was 37; he was 39. At some point after they were married, they settled in Aberdeen, John’s hometown. John was an ironworker by profession.(7)

John was deaf as well, and according to family oral history he become so when he was playing as a child, maybe about 9 years old Ella speculates, when he was accidentally knocked down or kicked. Ella remembers being told that her grandmother Ursilla never really learned how to speak, though her grandfather John could understand and talk somewhat, and could communicate better verbally. Both Ursilla and John would communicate with each other using sign language.

Ursilla with her only child, daughter
"Kate." Image Source: Life History of
George and Katherine Findlay

When Ursilla was 42 and John 43, they had their only child, Ursula Katherine Bruce Beattie (pronounced ER-sill-a, but she went by Kate), born at 35 Broomhill Road, Aberdeen, on 31 October 1904. This is Ella’s mother.(8)

Ursilla and John's home later in their lives:
Off of Bank Street, down this alley/close, on the
right, is this little cottage. Number 26 1/2 is on the
 top floor, the far right window.
- Sept 2006, Sept 2014.

Being an older couple, and having only one child, Ella imagines they were very protective of their daughter. In fact, Ella recounts a family story that sometime when Kate was about 4 years old, a doctor who made a housecall noticed that young Kate wasn’t talking yet, though she would communicate using sign language. “You’ve got to let this child out,” said the doctor, so that the child could be exposed to more language and learn to talk. Ella says that they reluctantly let her go and “she never had any trouble [after that.] She always had plenty to say!” She never forgot the sign language - Ella remembers seeing her mother use it to communicate with other deaf people in the community.

John and Ursilla Beattie

Ursilla and John apparently lived in several homes throughout their lives. Did they ever live in Edinburgh, which is why they were married there? Their daughter Kate was born at 35 Broomhill Road - can we assume she was born at home? According to the 1911 census, they were living at 274 Hardgate. And Ella remembers them living at 26 1/2 Bank Street, with her mother and father (George and Kate Findlay) living with them and her sister Ina being born there.

Ursilla passed away on 11 Feb 1937 at the home of her daughter Kate at 10A Prospect Terrace, Aberdeen, just 2 weeks shy of her 75th birthday. The cause of her death was "carcinoma of uterus," a type of uterine cancer.(9) She was survived by her daughter Kate and son-in-law George Findlay, and granddaughters Ina and Ella; her husband John had passed away the year before in 1936. She’s buried in Allenvale Cemetery in Aberdeen.(10)

Ella was only 3 years old when her grandmother Ursilla passed away, so she doesn’t have many memories of her, but remembers some details that her older sister Ina (who was 5 ½ years older) would share.

……….

If I could ask Ursilla any questions, what would they be? Oh, I’d start with asking about Shetland. She’s the last in a long line of ancestors that herald from there. Where did she live after her mother Wilhilmina died (in 1896; Ursilla was 34)? Did she ever go back after she was married (after 1900, at age 37)? Her mother and all of her siblings (five blood siblings and two half siblings) seem to have passed away by 1897. What was the relationship between her mother and the rest of her father Robert Bruce’s family, especially after Robert had died? Where did she receive her dressmaker training? Did she make her wedding dress? Where did she meet her husband John? Did she feel isolated not being able to communicate with most around her, or did she have the support of close friends (all of her immediate family had passed away; her husband John was an only child from an illegitimate father and an orphan from age 9 when his mother passed away, so no in-laws either)? What did she draw strength from? What made her smile?

26 1/2 Bank Street, Aberdeen - Filmed September 2014

(Note that in the video I kept saying 28 1/2 Bank Street. Doh!)

………. Notes and Questions:

1. Ursilla’s mother, Wilhilmina Inkster, had 2 additional children with 2 different fathers; Ursilla's father, Robert Bruce, had 13 children with 7 different women.
2. More information about Donaldson’s School can be found here: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Donaldson's_School
3. Donaldson's School records are archived at the National Library of Scotland. I was able to able to request scans of relevant records. 
4. Was her stepfather, Duncan Campbell living with them as well? He’s not listed on the census info on here after 1871? (Source: http://www.bayanne.info/Shetland/getperson.php?personID=I10400&tree=ID1) His death date is also unknown? Her younger half brother Alexander Campbell was listed as living with Ursilla and her mother in 1881. (Source: http://www.bayanne.info/Shetland/getperson.php?personID=I10401&tree=ID1)
5. Source (under Notes): http://www.bayanne.info/Shetland/getperson.php?personID=I9215&tree=ID1. Where might she have received her dressmaker training?
6. Source: http://www.bayanne.info/Shetland/getperson.php?personID=I9215&tree=ID1. Is this the same as what was renamed Queen's Hall in Edinburgh? (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Queen's_Hall,_Edinburgh) Also mentions that they were “Married by W. J. Harwell, witnesses; Jane E. Bolt, William Low.” I wonder why they were married in Edinburgh? But first, how did they meet? Ella thought they might have met at Donaldson’s School, however, according to Donaldson’s records, there’s no record of him being a student there, nor at the other only deaf school in Edinburgh. In fact, according to this source http://www.bayanne.info/Shetland/getperson.php?personID=I145512&tree=ID1, he was placed in an orphanage at age 9, which would have been in 1869 or 1870, around the same time that Ursilla was at Donaldson’s. Additionally, they married while in their late 30s; does it make sense that they would have met as children and then married later? Which orphanage was he at? Are there records for this?
7. John McDonald Beattie's profession as an ironworker is listed on several documents, including the 1911 census, the birth register for their daughter Ursula Katherine Bruce Beattie ("Kate"), and the marriage certificate for their daughter Ursula Katherine Bruce Beattie to their son-in-law George Findlay.
8. Were Ursilla and John living at 35 Broomhill Road, and daughter Kate was born at home?
9. See a scan of the death register, below.
10. Burial place confirmed via email on 5 Oct 2016 by a Bereavement Services Registrar in the Bereavement Services Office, Marischal College, Aberdeen: Allenvale Cemetery, Section 2, Lair 278 (same as husband John).

Would love to find:

• Orphanage records for John Beattie (in Aberdeen?)
• Census records for Ursilla and John - for John before they got married then for both of them after they married (Found: 1911 Census, when Ursilla was 49, John 50, and daughter Ursula ("Kate") was 6.)
• Marriage record for Ursilla and John
• Trade guild/craft registry for ironworkers that would include John Beattie

……….

Ursilla is Ella's maternal grandmother

1911 Census - John MD. Beattie and Ursilla K. Beattie
(Click to Enlarge)

Death Register for Ursilla Katherine Beattie
(Click to Enlarge)