STRONG ROOTS

Exactly 5 years ago I started researching my family tree, for no other reason than I had seen a special offer of 4 months search for £20 and I thought - well, why not?
I was brought up in Merseyside where my Dad came from. I left there in 1974 when I was 20 and moved to Germany where I married and had 3 children. We lived there for 10 years and then we fulfilled a dream I'd had since I was about 5 - influenced by my love of Andy Stewart! In 1984 we moved to Scotland and by pure chance we ended up in Dumfries and Galloway.
Now, fast forward to January 2013 and my Ancestry search.
I really didn't know where to begin but because I didn't know much about my Mum's side I put her name in. It took me a few days to find out that her Grandfather - John Stewart Patterson - was born in Rerrick , Kirkcudbrightshire. All his family lived and worked around that area, mainly Rerrick, Auchencairn and Dalbeattie. They were mainly quarry men but John Stewart Patterson and my Great Gt Grandfather were tailors - no wonder my Mum was a brilliant seamstress, and self taught at that!
My Great Gt Uncle Andrew was a granite hewer and stone mason and with his team of workers built many war memorials around Galloway. I had walked past the one in Dalbeattie park many times and never knew about the connection I had to it.
When I first discovered my ancestry I found it really hard to believe and really thought I was 'barking up the wrong tree'.
However it was all confirmed when I sent for the birth certificate of my Nana Nellie Patterson.
Last October we moved down to Yorkshire but Dumfries and Galloway will always have a special place in my heart - my roots are strong and deep. ❤️