G is for Gravestone

I referred earlier to a selection of books I recently ordered from overseas with such engaging titles as The Forgotten Tombstones of Moray that I can't believe you haven't all asked to borrow them! [*] 

Reading such stimulating subject matter lately G is, therefore, for Gravestone. 

Genealogy today is so much faster and easy thanks largely to the internet. Not all records are digital though and we then rely on the hard work of people who visit out of the way places and publish their findings. As our funny genealogist shares in Rule 4 of the Rules for Genealogy:

http://www.abdnet.co.uk/burialgrounds/  

"The ceme­tery where your ances­tor was buried does not have per­pet­ual care, has no office, is acces­si­ble only by a muddy road, has snakes, tall grass, and lots of bugs … and many of the old grave­stones are in bro­ken pieces, stacked in a cor­ner under a pile of dirt."

That was certainly the experience Mum and I had driving around Garmouth looking for Old Urquhart Cemetery which we found next to an empty house and a few paddocks just off Station Road in Urquhart. One mob of hard-working people busting axels down muddy roads and fighting the bugs is the Moray Burial Ground Research Group (MBGRG). Their hard work transcribing the gravestones in Morayshire helped us to not only locate where our Robert's parents were buried so Mum and I could visit them but also identify/confirm the identity of a couple of his siblings: John and James. (See the post about Jessy for more detail on the gravestone and its inscription). 

Deaths weren't often recorded in parish records because of the cost involved to the family in paying "mortcloth dues", so gravestones are sometimes the only record of death and manner of death. They also give us more clues to occupations, locations etc...

My readings through the loving inscriptions left on the gravestones of the residents of Garmouth and surrounds haven't thrown up any earth-shattering discoveries (yet) but I have found reference to a few exlineal family members including Betsy Murdoch's sister (our Robert's sister-in-law): 

Erected by ANN MURDOCH in memory of her beloved husband
JAMES BRANDER, Shipmaster, Garmouth
who died 8th November 1880 aged 50 years.
Also of the said ANN MURDOCH
who died 10th January 1929 aged 89 years.
Their son ALEXANDER ROBERT BRANDER
who died 4th April 1944 aged 64 years.

"Blessed are the dead who die in the Lord" [1]

[*] The delivery included:

The Lands and People of Moray (Part 14): Garmouth, Kingston, Essil, Lunan and Newtown by Bruce B Bishop

Monumental Inscriptions: Urquhart Old Churchyard edited by Helen Mitchell and Bruce B Bishop

The Forgotten Tombstones of Moray (Vol 4): Lhanbryde Old Churchyard, Urquhart Churchyard, Spynie Old Churchyard by the Moray Burial Ground Research Group

The Lands and People of Moray: Mortcloth Dues and Miscellaneous Death Records by Bruce B Bishop

Speyside monumental inscription pre 1855 edited by Alison Mitchell

The Forgotten Tombstones of Moray (Vol 1): Dipple and Essil and Kirkhill by the Moray Burial Ground Research Group

Monumental Inscriptions: Essil Old Churchyard edited by Helen Mitchell and Bruce B Bishop

You know, just in case you'd like to read them!

[1] The Forgotten Tombstones of Moray (Vol 1): Dipple and Essil and Kirkhill by the Moray Burial Ground Research Group, page 30, Old Essil Churchyard, ref. 337.

What's in a name?

Oops, not doing so well on the New Year’s resolution to remember birthdays.... While I did help a friend celebrate her birthday on Wednesday night and I’ve bought a couple of cards, I haven’t sent them yet and on Thursday I failed to recognise the birth date of Jessie Cameron, my third great grand aunt. 

Born 11 January 1839 in Garmouth, Moray, Scotland, were she with us today Jessie’d be in the Guiness Book of Records and the Fire Department would be on stand by to put out the 173 candles on her cake!

  

Sadly, Jessie died 'in infancy' [1] but she holds a very soft spot in my heart because she was one of the first of our Robert’s relatives that I identified in the very early days of taking over the family archives.  

As I mentioned, Didi had been tracing the tree for quite some time before I got involved.  She had a pretty complete picture of the family born from Robert in Australia, after he married Betsy. However we didn’t know anything of his beginnings or family beyond the name of the town he came from, being “Garmouth”. (Even that was a mystery for a while because Didi had thought a reference to Garmouth in a Bible passed through the family was someone’s name!)

So, armed with his name and a town name I tried to find more.

Thanks to the wonders of the world wide web and digitization of old documents, with a few (paid) searches on Scotland’s People, I narrowed down two Robert Camerons born in the same area and within a few days of each other. I was able to determine which one was ours by locating our Robert’s marriage certificate to Betsy. Marriage certificates can be a wealth of information and Robert’s was no different, naming his parents as Alexander and Janet Cameron.

A couple of clicks later, I was looking at the beautifully handwritten entry in the old church records for the parish of Speymouth recording his lawful birth on 11 April 1827 to Alexander Cameron and Janet Cramond.  And who should be recorded on the same page but an older sister Jane (born 15 October 1823) and the much younger sister Jessy!

At some point In delving into the past I became aware of the interesting fact that Jessie is actually a nickname for someone called Janet, which in turn is a derivative of Jane [2]. Even more confusing is that all three names could be, and were, used interchangeably! A fact that became very apparent for me when I have the name “Jessy” as the official first name in the Old Parish Records but two years later a census collector noting down a 2 year old “Janet” in the Cameron household [3].

With all three names being used by three different people in the immediate Cameron family, I can only imagine the scenario, perhaps around the dinner table or in anger someone yelling “Jessie Cameron” and at least two heads looking up thinking they were in trouble!

Another interesting point to note about names is that it also wasn’t uncommon for first names to be passed on from generation to generation in Scotland [4] recognizing or commemorating the one before it. So, the first boy would be named after the father’s father and the first girl after the mother’s mother and the second son after the mother’s father. It seems our Cameron family followed this tradition quite well as our Robert is named for his mother’s father, Robert Cramond, and his older brother Alexander for his father’s father. Alexander and Janet ran into trouble with their third son who is traditionally named for the father! As Alexander was already taken, Robert’s next brother was named John (born 18 September 1831) and the youngest boy James (born 24 October 1833).

So now you know a little more about the family from where we came. Let the journey continue!

[1] As recorded on the family gravestone in  Urquhart Old Churchyard, Station Road, Urquhart [photo above] which also has the spelling “Jessie”. The gravestone reads:

ERECTED BY

JANNET CRAMOND

To the memory of her

Beloved husband

ALEXANDER CAMERON

Ship Carpenter Garmouth

who died 19^th April 1840

aged 47 years

Also

their daughter  JESSIE who died in Infancy.

Also their Sons

JOHN CAMERON Carpenter

who died the 10^th Sept 1852

aged 21 years.

And JAMES CAMERON Seaman

who died 23^rd Feb 1858

aged 24 years.

Also the above  JANNET CRAMOND

who died the 4^th April 1883

aged 83 years.

[2] http://www.scotlandspeople.gov.uk/content/help/index.aspx?561 and http://www.whatsinaname.net/female-names/Janet.html

[3] 1841 Scotland Census – this was conducted on the night of 6 June 1841 and while only basically factual detail was recorded it has helped shed light on Cam’s Fam like that our Robert’s brother Alexander was a Shipwright. It also tells me Jessie survived to at least 2 years of age and that their  father Alexander was not counted in the census and therefore may have died before 1841, consequently confirmed when I found the gravestone.  What confuses me is the reference to a 12 year old Elizabeth. I haven’t been able to find any other record of her as one of Alexander and Janet’s offspring.

[4] http://www.scotlandspeople.gov.uk/content/help/index.aspx?561

Happy Birthday Didi!

It seems fitting to start this blog on my grandmother's birthday as she is the one who started me on the journey to trace our family tree! 

It was a long journey from Garmouth in Scotland to Sydney for our ancestor Robert Cameron and probably felt longer for Didi as she hunted down documentation the hard way - letter writing, contacting slightly-related rels, visiting cemeteries, waiting for transcriptions. A completely different experience for me as I haven't really haven't had to wait much longer than the click of a mouse for the information I have collated! 

Over 20 years or so she collected a lot of information about the family she had married into - Camerons descended from Robert Cameron (born 11 April 1827 in Garmouth and married to Betsy Murdoch) in Australia. I have been tasked with keeping the archives complete and adding to them where possible, which is what I'm enjoying doing in my spare time. 

This blog aims to share what information has been collected (and is being collected) about each of the members of "Cam's Fam"- a affectionate reference to my gorgeous grandfather who his grandkids all called Pa but who was known as "Cam" to others throughout much of his adult life. I'm sure as this blog progresses there were will twists and turns through history and along the branches of the family tree with a strong focus on the paternal line of the Camerons. 

On that note, I will diverge slightly to recap some of the stories making news on the day of Didi's birth in 1925[1], care of the National Library of Australia's website TROVE which provides digitised copies of many of Australia's old newspapers, free!

CAR SWAMPED. CREEK RISES SUDDENLY. MOTORISTS' ESCAPE. DUBBO, Wednesday. p. 8

NEW GUINEA. Colonel Ainsworth's Report. ASIATIC LABOUR FAVOURED. p. 8

WATERFRONT TROUBLE. More Vessels Held Up. SEVERAL EFFORTS AT SETTLEMENT. Strong Move by State Cabinet. NEW WATERSIDE LABOUR EXCHANGE. p. 9

[1] 1925 The Sydney Morning Herald (NSW : 1842 - 1954), 8 January, p. 1, viewed 8 January, 2012, http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-page1223173