Newly Found Cousins

Woo hoo ……what a great day. We were visited by some Scottish cousins we knew nothing about until the last couple of years. My paternal grandfather came out to New Zealand as the shanty man on a sailing ship at the very beginning of the twentieth century. He and his best friend jumped ship at Greymouth and after a series of adventures both settled with local girls in the Greymouth area. My grandfather Donald MacGilvray McMahon was tragically killed in the Brunner mine in 1914, leaving a widow with three small children.
We knew he had a brother, Hugh and a sister, Margaret but we knew nothing of their brother Sam who stayed in Scotland. Today we met Sam’s grandsons Robbie and Hugh McMahon and their partners Kathleen and Helen. What a wonderful time we had with them mainly around our kitchen table. It felt like we had known them all our lives. Robbie was an anesthetist so he and Keith had a lot in common. Hugh was a politician in Scotland and so he and I talked and talked politics. (I was on our Marlborough Council for 27 years.) Their ladies are truly lovely people too. Sadly they had to depart for Christchurch where they will be meeting up with the rest of our branch of the McMahon clan. Go well Robbie, Kathleen, Hugh and Helen. We are so pleased to have you in our family after so long.
My blip shows Hugh in navy on the left, Helen, Kathleen and Robbie in the All Blacks T Shirt on the right. Fergus the dog fell in love with Robbie and just had to be in the photo.