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

MILITARY MONDAY–Killed in Action–A Tribute to George Briggs Fitzcharles 1886-1918

George Briggs Fitzcharles is my 1st cousin twice removed.  That makes him a nephew to my great grandmother, Elizabeth “Bessie” Fitzcharles.

First let me tell you how excited I am to be able to write anything about the Fitzcharles family.  My great grandmother’s parents remained a mystery aka brick wall to me, until 3 years ago.  Now I take the time to learn everything I can about this Scottish family.

BACKGROUND ON GEORGE BRIGGS FITZCHARLES
George was the son of Michael Fitzcharles and Euphemia Anderson who were married on 14 Feb 1879 in St. Clement, Dundee, Angus, Scotland.  To this couple were born the following children:
John born 9 Sep 1879
Robert Nicholas born 1 May 1881
William born 1 Dec 1883
George Briggs born 26 Apr 1886
Ernest born 24 Oct 1888
Maggie or Margaret (the only girl) born 1 Jun 1891
David born 6 Jun 1896

George married Isabella Jane Hutton on 2 Aug 1909 in Dundee, Angus, Scotland.

(CLICK ON ANY IMAGE TO ENLARGE IT)

MARRIAGE RECORD - GEORGE B. FITZCHARLES & ISABELLA J. C. HUTTON

They had their first child, a daughter, Euphemia, born 12 Feb 1910. 

George was working as a Brakeman for the railroad in the 1911 census, living in Grangemouth, Stirling, Scotland.

1911 CENSUS OF SCOTLAND - GEORGE FITZCHARLES, HIS WIFE AND DAUGHTER

A son, George, was born to this couple on 5 Jan 1913.

Historical events effect our lives today as they did back then.  In 1914 the “Great War” or World War I began.  You can watch a short video about it here 
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In 1915 George was working as a furniture salesman in his father’s business.  On 4 Jun 1915 he enlisted in the 1st Royal Scots.  Here are his attestation and descriptive papers upon enlistment
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Just a little over a month after his enlistment, George was admitted to the hospital for “Intesinal disorder” and what I read to be ptomaine ? (could it be ptomaine poisoning?)  He appears to have been admitted on July 7, 1915 and discharged on August 7, 1915.  And then transferred to Cramour House Convalescent Hospital from August 7, 1915 to August 28, 1915.

On September 13, 1915,  George was admitted to the hospital a second time for a concussion of his spine.  He stayed in the Kitchener Hospital in Brighton for 5 days.  Upon which he was transferred to a military convalescent hospital.



According to the book Roll of Honour, Arbroath and District 1914-1919, page 167, printed and published by T. Buncle & Co, Market Place, Arbroath, Scotland in 1921.

 Private George Fitzcharles was killed in action on March 27, 1918.  He was 31 years old.

“Private George Fitzcharles, 3rd Royal Scots, 33 Park Street, Arbroath, was the son of Michael Fitzcharles, Guthrie Port. He was thirty-two years of age, had married Isabella Hutton and left a son and a daughter. He was a furniture dealer with his father when he joined the army in July 1915. He went to France in October, and was invalided home the following year suffering from shell shock and wounds. In 1917 he returned to France, was slightly wounded several times, and was killed in action on the 27th of March 1918. His platoon officer wrote of him : - ' ' He was a good soldier.  We feel his loss very much."
 


I have located several references to George having been killed in action during his service, including pension papers, references in books and on war memorials and correspondence with his widow, Isabella.

He is honored on the Grangemouth War Memorial in Zetland Park, situated in the center of Grangemouth.  Here is George’s name on the memorial:

GRANGEMOUTH WAR MEMORIAL

He is also honored on the Pozieres Memorial in France.  Here is an index page for that memorial, showing his name.


George was a young man with his whole life ahead of him.  He left behind a wife and two young children.
  
I located a death certificate for his widow, Isabella, and it appears she never remarried.  She is still using the surname Fitzcharles and is listed as the “widow of Private George Fitzcharles.”  She died on February 14, 1955, age 68.

Here is the post I wrote about breaking down the Fitzcharles brick wall.  Click here. 

PLEASE contact me if you think you might be related, even remotely, to anyone mentioned in this blog.

OTHER POSTS THAT MAY BE OF INTEREST

WHY DIDN'T I SEE THAT?  When the Obvious Escapes Us

SCOTLAND - Aberdeen & North-East Scotland Family History Society

Happy hunting,

Michigan Girl

Copyright ©  2015   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

MY TRIP TO SCOTLAND–WHAT I DID RIGHT AND WHAT I DID WRONG

We have been back from our trip over to Scotland for about two weeks.  I think I’ve finally caught up with laundry, snail mail, email, appointments and sleep.  

It was a fantastic trip.  Being in a place that I have read about and heard about for most of my life, was truly amazing.  

We flew into Glasgow, rented a car and drove over to Dundee.  From there we drove up to Aberdeen and then down to Edinburgh.  Getting used to driving on the “other” side of the road from the other side of the car was not easy for my husband.  And being his passenger…..well, it had it’s moments.  He did very well though, even on the very narrow city streets.  The roundabouts are very useful and better than all the stoplights we have in our cities in the U.S.  

I have ancestors from both Dundee and Aberdeen.  Also Perth, Arbroath, Aboyne and several other locations.   

On my paternal side there are LINDSAY, WALLACE, FITZCHARLES & McGOVERN.  

On my maternal side there are MILNE, RITCHIE & LESLIE.

Those are the direct lines. 

I prepared for this trip by doing as much research as I could before we left.  Knowing that no matter how much I did, or how thorough I thought I was being, I would wish I had done more.

I have taken several other trips that were either dedicated to genealogy research or included some research, so I had an idea of how to prepare.

HERE IS WHAT I DID CORRECTLY

• Located as much information about the families who lived in Scotland as I could.
• Found vital records (birth, marriage, death etc.) prior to going on the trip.  I used the website Scotland’s People to gather much of this information. This site has actual images of the records.  You can find transcriptions on Ancestry.com, but not the actual images.

 NOTE:  Scotland’s People is a subscription site.  You pay for credits, that are good for one year.  They start at 30 credits for 7 pounds ($11.90 U.S.) and go up to 300 credits for 70 pounds ($119 U.S.).  I have been using this site for many years.  To learn more about how the credits are used, please visit the site.

• Located census records from Scotland for the periods that they have released, which are 1841-1911.  Again you can find the images on Scotland’s People, but only transcriptions on Ancestry. 
• Entered all the information including images into my genealogy database.  I use Legacy.
• Created a list of all people who had any connection to Scotland.  This was easy with the genealogy software we have available these days. 
• Created a list of names and the addresses where they lived.  This way you can Google the address (or use whatever map program you prefer) before you leave and see if the street or building is still in existence.  Whether or not you found the street on your map program you can still look for it once you arrive.
• Make sure you have a list of any other locations pertinent to your ancestors such as: Cemeteries, places of business, churches etc.
• If you plan to visit any libraries, courthouses, archives, historical societies or churches be aware of the days and hours they are open. You'll soon see how important this is.
• Contact the places you may be visiting to see if they have volunteers who can do any preliminary look ups for you.  There may be a small charge, but as you’ll see later in this post, it can make a big difference.
• Have some way to access your database while you are on your trip.  Whether you carry your laptop, a tablet or a smartphone, just have something.  You could even have printed group sheets.  I carried my iPad with me which has the Families app containing my current Legacy family file, including images, sources & events.

All in all I was as well prepared as I thought I could be.
 
HERE IS WHAT I DID WRONG

When we were planning our trip, we set up our itinerary for each location.  We knew we’d only have a short time in each place.  We made all our reservations at the B & B’s and had everything planned out as to what we would do each day.  

I knew we would be in Aberdeen on Sunday and Monday.  I knew the Aberdeen & North-East Scotland Family History Society would be closed on Sunday.  I’ve been a member of this society for about 5 years and know they have many records available that I wanted to see.  I planned to spend about 4 hrs. there on Monday morning.

NOTE:  I was traveling with my husband.  This was a vacation for us, not a genealogy trip.  He knew I would be wanting to go to cemeteries and historical societies, of course.  But, spending the whole day doing that wasn’t fair to him.  He’s not the genealogist, I am.  Whatever time I can get, I will take.

MY MISTAKE:  Not realizing that Monday, May 5th was a local public holiday.  Therefore, the Aberdeen Family History Society was CLOSED.

Should I have known this?  YES!  Could I have known this? YES!  Was I disappointed? BEYOND YES!  Could I have kicked myself?  A THOUSAND TIMES YES!!!!

How I did I deal with it?  I was thankful that I had sent emails back & forth to one of the volunteers at the society.  She had been able to provide me with birth records and a burial record before my trip.  The cost of those look ups was 10 pounds. Well worth it, wouldn’t you say?

I took a nice picture of the front of the building and spent about 10 minutes being angry with myself.  Life is too short to spend time on things that cannot be changed.  I moved on.    

Here it is.  My picture of the Aberdeen Family History Society office. 

Off we went to Aboyne to see if we could locate the headstones of my 2nd great grandparents, Charles Milne & Margaret Ritchie.

It was a lovely drive, through the countryside, to Aboyne from Aberdeen.    I even got to drive the car for a while.  I wanted to experience driving on the “other” side of the road. 
The weather was typical for Scotland.  A bit drizzly and chilly, but not bad.  Our GPS in the car led us right to where we wanted to go.  

Once we got to Aboyne we stopped and asked where the Aboyne Kirkyard was and were told it was just around the corner.  

We arrived and saw this beautiful old stone church with a cemetery on the church property.  Well maintained and not too terribly big, which should make hunting for headstones much easier.  The parishioners were arriving for church and were very friendly.




You can’t see the whole church yard in that photo.  It goes back quite a ways.

My husband is very sweet and always assists me when we get to cemeteries to begin the hunt.  I give him the surnames and he hollers when he finds one.  We spent about 30 minutes walking every foot of this cemetery and looking at every headstone.  There is a book of transcriptions for this cemetery and it does have my 2nd great grandparents as being buried here.  There is a note on the transcription, however, that says the stone is partially buried.  

TIP:  Having seen that note about the stone being partially buried I was looking for a flat stone.  There weren’t many of those at this cemetery, but there were some.  Never make assumptions, as I did.  This stone was NOT flat.

When we were just about to give up and I had walked this cemetery over and over, I looked down at the bottom of this small cross shaped headstone.  What did I see?
MARGARET RITCHIE!  I went over and took a closer look and there was another name on that headstone – CHARLES MILNE!  I did my genealogy happy dance and yelled out to my husband “I found it!”

There it was, nearly obliterated by years of weather, but I had found them.

   


What a happy moment.  Those names are written in our family bible.  For a long time it was as far back on this Milne line as I could get.  

I took pictures of other Milne’s & Ritchie’s buried at this cemetery, in case I can later connect them.  I also snapped a few additional headstone photos of other surnames, as I had checked on FindAGrave and noted that there were very few memorials listed for this cemetery.  Now I can add to it.

This post is already too long and I apologize for that.  But, I had a lot to say and hope you enjoyed reading it.

You can find the memorials for Charles & Margaret on FindAGrave #129545950 and #129546301.

OTHER POSTS YOU MIGHT ALSO ENJOY

CEMETERY RECORDS - WHAT THEY CAN TELL YOU, HOW DO YOU USE THEM?

ADDING SIBLING LINKS TO FIND A GRAVE

Happy Hunting,

Michigan Girl

Copyright ©  2014   Diane Gould Hall

ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.  NO USE WITHOUT PERMISSION