Category: Stone, Steam and Dynamite
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John McKie, MN
What can I tell you about my father in law, John McKie, who died in 1986? I have yet to write about his life and times, and then that will be mostly based upon his birth and marriage records and the memories of his daughters. I knew him for only four years and the times…
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Five Doors Down
In last weeks post I wrote about my wife’s grandfather, Andrew Nicol, who, while still at home in Dynamite Road, Stevenston, in 1911, lived five houses up from Nobel House where the Nathan family were living. I was intrigued by the Nathan family, Frederic and Adeline and their young child, because of the number of…
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Andrew
You might not associate Andrew as a traditional Scottish name. However, Andrew is the patron Saint of Scotland. This is only because an English Bishop, a collector of religious relics, brought a kneecap, and finger bones, belonging to Andrew, to Fife about 1500 years ago. Andrew had been crucified in AD60, in the Greek city…
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Widow of John McKie
This weeks post is the outline of an article that I have prepared for the Dumfries and Galloway Family History Society Newsletter this Autumn. The DGFHS is an organisation that has its own premises in the town of Dumfries. It was established in 1987 and is dedicated to supporting members with their family history research.…
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Whithorn, a field trip journal
We have just returned from the Whithorn peninsula. The cone shaped peninsula that juts out from Galloway into the entrance of the Solway Firth. With gentle rolling hills and moors known as the Machars, grazed by the distinctive black with white strip Galloway cows, this hidden area of Scotland is steeped in history. The first…
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Stevenston, New Street Cemetery
Last week I went on a field trip to Stevenston to search a cemetery in Ayrshire that I guessed might have the graves of some of the Nicol family who grew up and worked in the town for nearly 90 years. Stevenston is a town on the coast of Ayrshire that became associated with the…
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Mapping the Nicol Family
An initial chart of the Nicol family line after Peter and Elizabeth were married The family dynasty that Peter and Elizabeth Nicol created in the 19th Century with children who were directly connected or married into connections with the Dynamite Factory in Ardeer had taken me by surprise when I began to research them. Peter…
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A Police Constable in Yorkshire
I have been researching the McKie family for some time ever since I started family history research about nine years ago. I have gone back three generations to their life in Kirkinner, Wigtownshire (now Dumfries and Galloway). The tragic loss of John McKie at the age of 33 left his wife Agnes caring for six…
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The Nicol Dynasty
A number of things have happened since writing about Peter Nicol and his arrival in Ayrshire. I realised how little my research was on Peter and his family and started exploring in more detail. As a result I have been discovering a number of events and facts that make his life and times a really…
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Peter Nicol 1851-1928
There is something about a name that just seems to draw you to it. Peter Nicol is one of them. It is simple to say, read and look at. It has no middle name, which is slightly unusual for someone born in Scotland in the middle of the 19th Century. It would have been quite…