ANCESTORS ( not mine though)

My daughter and her husband are on holiday at the moment in Aberdeenshire.  Last evening she texted asking " Do you know where the Cairncrosses lived ".   The Cairncross family are ancestors of my husband Douglas.  His maternal Grandfather was William Cairncross who was born and lived in Scotland before moving down to East Sussex

I had no idea where the Cairncross family were from in Scotland so I started " squiffling " around on the internet.  As its not my own family I had little info but in the end I did quite well in tracing them.  Luckily someone else had done a lot of research and it was all there on the web.

Turns out Becky's great grandad William Cairncross was born in 1867 in Fordoun, Kincardineshire - now Aberdeenshire.  In fact only 25 or so miles from where she is staying.  There was a family farm there - Crookieden Farm.  William's father was called Alexander Cairncross and I found out that there is a family grave in the churchyard in Marykirk. ( Lots of the family were called Alexander and it got very confusing at times )

It was so lucky that the family came from the area where she is staying.  Spent a lot of time researching last evening and this morning - she kept asking more and more questions.  Wish she had thought of asking before she went and I would have had more time to spare. She has never really been interested in family history before but I think being in Scotland and knowing she had Scottish roots must have fired her imagination.

So I told her what  I had found out and this morning she went to see the farm in Fordoun and went to Marykirk to see the grave.  

Anyway whilst looking at someone else's research I found this lovely old photograph which shows the family including Alexander - Becky's great great grandfather and his wife Jessie -  and William her great grandfather.   William is at the front on the left.  Its better LARGE

This evening I'm off to visit my brother.... armed with a bottle of white wine.  I hate buying wine as I don't drink it myself so I have no idea what sort to get.  Hope its OK.   Probably won't get round to commenting on blips today.  Will play catch up tomorrow.