WEDDING WEDNESDAY ~ Archibald Ritchie & Margaret Ewen–my maternal 3rd great grandparents–married 1809 in Scotland

Archibald Ritchie & Margaret Ewen – married 26 Nov 1809 in Aboyne, Aberdeenshire, Scotland

Finding records for my Scottish ancestors has always been fun for me.  This is a record I located back in 2011.  I use the Scotland’s People website to find a lot of the records.  Although some of them can be found on Ancestry.com or Family Search.

In this case I did located the image on Scotland’s People. 

The reference at the bottom is transcribed exactly as it appeared on the document.

Archibald and Margaret had 9 known children.  I almost always say “known” because we never know if a child was born that we aren’t aware of.  Especially when there are gaps of more than 2 years between births.

 

Here is a list of the children I have for this couple:

Archibald, born about 1812, Jonathan born about 1814, William born about 1818, John born about 1819, Margaret (from whom I descend) born 23 Oct 1820, Mary born 1825, Andrew born 4 Apr 1829, Charlotte born about 1831.  I still have work to do on this family to try and find exact birth dates and some marriages I don’t yet have.

Archibald worked as a Farmer, so with 6 boys and 3 girls, he had plenty of help on the farm.

I descend from this couple as follows..

Archibald Ritchie & Margaret Ewen – 3rd great grandparents

Margaret Ritchie & Charles Milne – 2nd great grandparents

Andrew Charles Milne & Susan Gillespie – great grandparents

Joseph Albert Milne & Florence Lee Nora Bowden – grandparents

Patricia Anne Milne & Harry Norman Gould – parents

If you are connected to this family, I’d love to hear from you.

Happy hunting,

Michigan Girl

Copyright ©  2010-2018   Diane Gould Hall

ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.  NO USE WITHOUT PERMISSION

WEDDING WEDNESDAY ~ MY 4th GREAT GRANDPARENTS–William Ewan and Ann Cooper–1773 in Scotland

Celebrating the marriage of William Ewan & Ann Cooper 1773

Today I’m featuring my maternal 4th great grandparents, William Ewan/Ewen and Ann Cooper.  I have next to nothing in the way of information about this couple and I’m hoping that by writing a blog post I can connect with some cousins.

I am descended from William & Ann’s daughter Margaret Ewen born about 1787¹ probably in Scotland and died 17 May 1864² in Bridgend, Glentanar, Aberdeen, Scotland.  Margaret married Archibald Ritchie 26 Nov 1809 in Kincardine, O’Neil, Aberdeenshire, Scotland.  Archibald Ritchie was born 10 Jul 1786⁴ in Dee Castle, Aberdeenshire, Scotland and died 16 May 1850².

I was able to obtain the names of Margaret Ewen’s parents from her death record.¹  And, from there I located the marriage register for William Ewen and Ann Cooper.

Other than that one piece of information, I have not been able to locate birth, death, census or burial records for them.  I’m hoping that an upcoming trip to the Family History Library will help me find more information.

Here is the image of their marriage record from 2 Dec 1773 in Aboyne, Aberdeenshire, Scotland.



Dec 2d Ewan & Cooper – William Ewan & Ann Cooper both in this our parish of Aboyne contracted on Nov 14th & their matrimonial banns being legally proclaimed.

I descend from William Ewen & Ann Cooper as follows

Margaret Ewen & Archibald Ritchie – 3rd great grandparents

Margaret Ritchie & Charles Milne – 2nd great grandparents

Andrew Charles Milne & Susan Anne Gillespie – great grandparents

Joseph Albert Milne & Florence Lee Nora Bowden – grandparents

Patricia Ann Milne – my Mom

If you are descended from any of these people and would like to exchange information, I’d love to hear from you.

OTHER POSTS THAT MAY BE OF INTEREST

WEDDING WEDNESDAY–What is the earliest recorded marriage in my tree?  And How Did I Determine That?

WEDDING WEDNESDAY ~ Andrew Charles Milne & Susan Anne Gillespie–married in 1880

Sources: 1 – Scotland Register of Deaths -  Bright Solid Online Publishing, "scotlandspeople.org," database, Scotland's People (www.scotlandspeople.org : accessed 12 May 2014), entry for the death of Margaret Ritchie; citing Statutory Deaths 170/00 0010 for 1864;
2 – The Kirkyard of Glenmuick - Spiers, Sheila M., editor. The Kirkyard of Glenmuick.  2002. Reprint, Aboyne: Aberdeen & North-East Scotland Family History Society, Reprinted 2005, 2007, 2010.
3 – Scotland, Select Marriages, 1561-1910 - Ancestry.com. Scotland, Select Marriages, 1561-1910 [database on-line]. Provo, UT, USA: Ancestry.com Operations, Inc., 2014.
Original data: Scotland, Marriages, 1561-1910. Salt Lake City, Utah: FamilySearch, 2013.
4 – Scotland census 1841 - 1841 census of Scotland, Bridgend, Aboyne, Aberdeenshire, Scotland, enumeration district (ED) 4, page 2, Archiblad & Margaret Ritchie & 3 children; digital images, Scotland's People (www.scotlandspeople.gov.uk : accessed 12 May 2014); citing citing 1841 Scotland census, Reels 1-151.

Happy hunting,
Michigan Girl

Copyright ©  2010-2018   Diane Gould Hall

ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.  NO USE WITHOUT PERMISSION

TOMBSTONE TUESDAY ~ Aboyne Parish Kirkyard in Aboyne, Aberdeenshire, Scotland

My husband and I were fortunate to be able to travel to Scotland in 2014.  It was the trip of a lifetime for me.  We had been to Europe before, but never to Scotland.

My thirteen plus years of family research, combined with family stories gave me deep roots in Scotland.

Through my research I had learned that my maternal 3rd great grandparents, Charles Milne and Margaret Ritchie are buried at Aboyne Parish Kirkyard.

We arrived in Aboyne and made our way to the churchyard. What a beautiful site we saw.
 

Beside and behind the church are all the headstones.

It was raining just a little bit, but I was on a mission.  I had to find the headstone for my 3rd great grandparents, Charles & Margaret.  I looked and looked and looked some more.  Of course I was distracted by all the headstones and all the names and I stopped to read so many of them.
 
FINALLY!!!  I glanced down at a headstone in the shape of a cross and there they were. 
How easy it would have been to miss this discovery.

That's me - so happy and the photo on the right is my husband

In the short time we had to spend at the cemetery I began taking as many photos as I could of other headstones.  I had already checked on FindAGrave.com and I knew there were only a handful of headstones that had been photographed and entered on the site.

I have the book, The Kirkyard of Aboyne, published by the Aberdeen & North-East Scotland Family History Society.  The society publishes a large number of books.

There are currently 207 interments listed on the FindAGrave page for this cemetery.  Only 55% are photographed.  When I returned home I added 118 memorials and photos to this website.  I’m hoping that family members of those listed will find the memorials.  I will happily transfer any memorial not related to me (which is most of them).
 
This was an exciting trip for me and the first time I had visited the grave site of ancestors buried in Europe.
 
Have you made similar trips?  If so, where to and what did you find?  I’d love to hear about it.

OTHER POSTS THAT MAY BE OF INTEREST

My Trip to Scotland - What I Did Right and What I Did Wrong

Photo Friday - Can You Help Me Identify This Man? - Photo taken in Aberdeen, Scotland

All pictures shown here were taken by me or my husband

Happy hunting,

Michigan Girl

Copyright ©  2010-2017   Diane Gould Hall

ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.  NO USE WITHOUT PERMISSION

SCOTLAND - ABERDEEN & NORTH-EAST SCOTLAND FAMILY HISTORY SOCIETY

I recently wrote a post about  HISTORICAL & FAMILY HISTORY SOCIETIES–GREAT RESOURCES FOR YOUR RESEARCH.  As a follow up to, today, I am writing about a family history society over in Scotland that has many resources and publications to share.  This society is just one example of the reasons to seek out the societies in your area of research.

 

Here is a picture of the outside of the society taken when we visited Scotland this past spring

 

From their website:
“The Aberdeen & North-East Scotland Family History Society exists to assist and promote the study of genealogy and family history based on the North-East corner of Scotland. This area covers the old counties of Aberdeenshire, Banffshire, Kincardineshire and Morayshire.
The Society owns premises in the centre of Aberdeen with a well stocked library and a huge selection of microfilm, microfiche and CD resources.
The Society holds regular meetings throughout the year, covering many topics of interest to family historians. Meetings are held in Aberdeen, Edinburgh, Elgin, Glasgow and in the West Midlands of England.”
 
Because of the many ancestors I have from the Aberdeen, Scotland area, I located and joined this society several years ago.  The fee for an annual membership is $25. 
The society also has a Facebook page which you can locate here 
https://www.facebook.com/anesfhs

One of the benefits I spoke of at the beginning of this post are publications.  This particular society has a booklet with over 60 pages of publications for sale. 

(CLICK ON ANY IMAGE TO ENLARGE IT) 


Here is the Table of Contents from this publication booklet. (All pages copied with permission from the society) 

Please note that they have local histories, census indexes, maps and many other wonderful publications.



Here is a sample of publications available just for Monumental Inscriptions (cemeteries).



I had received information from an email inquiry I made to the Aberdeen Family History Society regarding the burial locations for my 2nd great grandparents, Charles Milne and Margaret Ritchie.  They are buried at Aboyne Kirkyard, which is located in Aberdeenshire, Scotland.  I knew that I was going to be making a trip to Aberdeen this past spring.  Finding out that I would be able to visit these 2nd great grandparents burial site was wonderful.  

I proceeded to order 3 publications from the society that I felt may contain names of some of my ancestors.  The cost for the publications is pretty minimal .  The ones I ordered were all about 2.50 pounds or about $4, depending on the current conversion rate.

NOTE:  Some of their publications can be ordered as eBooks,  downloaded in PDF format, if that is more convenient for you.  I went to Amazon and typed in “monumental inscriptions” and found these.  I’m not sure what you might find on other sites.
Monumental Inscriptions of Northeast Scotland

Here are the publications I ordered from the society in paper format. 



Here is a page from their publication for The Kirkyard of Aboyne compiled by Sheila M. Spiers.  You can see my 2nd great grandparents, Charles Milne and Margaret Ritchie listed here.



When we went to Aboyne, Aberdeenshire, Scotland I was able to visit Aboyne Kirkyard.  In fact, if you look at the top of this blog you will see a picture of that churchyard.  It was a lovely location. 

Before I went to the cemetery I checked on findagrave.com to see if the cemetery had been photographed and/or how many memorials were listed.  At that time there were only 73 interments posted for this cemetery.  So, while I was there, although our time was limited, I took as many photos as I could.  Specifically of surnames I have an interest in, like Milne and Ritchie.  As of today there are 191 interments on findagrave for this cemetery.  Here is a link to the cemetery on the findagrave site Aboyne Kiryard.

And I just have to share the pictures of me at the Kirkyard.  It took me a while to find that little cross headstone.  Charles & Margaret’s names are on the very bottom (second photo).  That’s the smile of a very happy 2nd great granddaughter.  

    

I was really happy to be able to help document a portion of this cemetery on findagrave so that others can find their family members.  What was great about this too was that once I got home and was able to conduct more research based on the photos I took, I connected to several more of the people buried there. 

The bottom line of all this is to take advantage of the resources available at all the historical & family history societies/centers around the country and around the world.  

We all know how fortunate we are to have millions of records online.  However, there are millions more that aren’t online.

OTHER POSTS THAT MAY ALSO BE OF INTEREST 

HISTORICAL & FAMILY HISTORY SOCIETIES–GREAT RESOURCES FOR YOUR RESEARCH 

MY TRIP TO SCOTLAND - WHAT I DID RIGHT, WHAT I DID WRONG 

SEMINARS, WEBINARS, SOCIETIES - WILL THEY HELP YOUR RESEARCH? 



Please share your discoveries with me. 

Happy hunting,

Michigan Girl

Copyright ©  2014   Diane Gould Hall

ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.  NO USE WITHOUT PERMISSION