Instant Cousins

Tag: Nicol

  • Set in Stone

    A Welsh Family Story A short account of an Ardrossan field trip. One of the golden rules of family history research is to interview and ask questions of all living relatives to find out their knowledge of our ancestors. They will surprise us with the photos and artefacts that they have stored away. That was…

  • Homework

    Homework A surprise request to offer assistance to my grandson with his school project on Remembrance and the stories of great grandparents, or in his case, great great grandparents, led me to revisit the piece that I have written previously, about John McKie M.N. John served in the Merchant Navy throughout the Second World War…

  • Rachel

    This is the start of my research journey into the family history of my wife’s maternal grandmother, Rachel Welsh, who married Andrew Nicol in 1918. Rachel was known to my wife because for a short while Rachel lived in her daughter’s house in Gloucester until she died in the 1960’s. Her connection is not just…

  • Searching for Elspeth

    I have been trying to put together a piece about a member of the Nicol family who has left only a very small footprint in the records available both on Ancestry and Scotland’s People. Although the British Newspaper Archive has given me some hope of finding more. You will recall from earlier posts that the…

  • The South Africa Connection

    This week I am returning once again to the amazing Nicol family. The family that is a gift that keeps on giving when it comes to family history research. First, I have to offer a recap on Peter Nicol Jnr and his life in the Transvaal. After writing about Peter recently and discovering his connection…

  • Written in Stone

    Last year, in March 2024, I went down to Stevenston in Ayrshire to search the headstones in the New Street Cemetery. I wrote a post about this trip that gave some background to the relevance of this interesting burial place. It is where my wife’s great grandparents Peter and Elizabeth Nicol, have a headstone, alongside…

  • The Smiths of Stevenston

    This week I return to the land of dynamite, Stevenston in Ayrshire, where the Nicol family, my wife’s maternal line of ancestry, had established themselves and created a dynasty of workers associated directly or by marriage, with the Nobel Dynamite Factory on the Ardeer peninsula. Peter and Elizabeth Nicol, you might recall in earlier posts,…

  • The Stevenston Seaman

    The Nicol family were so well established in their community that each of Peter and Elizabeth’s children made roots in Stevenston and surrounding towns. Stevenston, Ardeer, Saltcoats, Irvine and Ardrossan are the lifeblood towns of my wife’s family. Many second generation children of the Nicol family may have settled in the area but it was…

  • 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…

  • 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…