Searching ....

Summary

A day spend tracking down a Gaelic Speaking Teacher from Perthshire lead to a walk to Moulin Graveyard

Full details below for those with an interest in the ups and downs of geneology

In Full 


I had decided to follow up my research into Lady Evelyn Stewart Murray and her sisters but looking at the lives of other women who grew up on the Atholl Estates. I thought I would start with a teacher on Harris who had won one of the Gaelic prizes in the annual competitions run by the Duke of Atholl, Lady Evelyn's father.  An account of a visit to Western Isles in 1891by Lady Evelyn and her father mentions they were pleased to meet her.

A search of the cenus revealled her to be a Jessie C McLaren born about 1868 in Dull, Perthshire. So far so good but tracking her birth proved elusive with two possible contenders explored but ultimately found not to be my teacher. 

I then tried to track her in later censuses and found her teaching in Blair Atholl between 1901 and 1922 and living with her mother, Charlotte Stewart McLaren before her mother died in 1912.  I found various cousins and aunts that Jessie and her mother stayed with but no record  of Jessie's birth or death, although she appears to have visited the US in later years. 

I did find that one cousin whom she stayed with was buried in Moulin, just up the road, and so I decided to go and have look at the grave. I hadn't realised so much of the day had passed by the time I went out - it was quarter to six but still light or more accurately not yet dark.  The picture is of another grave nearby. 

Reflections

I'd forgotten how much I enjoy family tree searching, even if it is not my family - it can be total absorbing. However I must now put Jessie away until next weekend and do some Gaelic and get ready for the week ahead.  Looking forward to Bookgroup in Edinburgh tomorrow.