New,Looking for Wallace/Wilson/Shand descendants

[ScottishAtHeart]

Hello from Arkansas!

This is probably a long shot, but I have to try:

My grandmother, Mary Wallace, was born in Campbelltown in 1889. I do know she came from a large but poor family, and sometime in the early 1890's, she was adopted by a family in Canada. Apparently, it was not unheard of for large families to adopt out some of the children to Canadians. Her sister, Elizabeth, brought her over and returned to Scotland.

My parents returned to Campbelltown, and found the building in which she was born. She also had some "Wilson" relatives and we have a picture of a very old woman, labeled "Grandma Shand". We think this was her Scottish grandmother, but we have no idea.

Grandma became a nurse during WW1, somehow met my American grandfather, and kinda/sorta legally came down to the U.S. in ~ 1916. My father, her son, was born in 1917 so she was here at least by then. I only knew her as a very old woman (died 1970), and as far as I know, she never saw her birth family again. She did say her adopted family treated her kindly, and changed her name to Maud because they already had a Mary.

Since she came from such a large family (the children being born in the 1870's and 1880's, grandmother being the youngest), there's at least a good chance for descendants of her siblings to be still in the area. How exciting to find Scottish cousins!

Also, I do not wish to pry into personal painful stories, but does anyone have any information on the overseas adoption of Scottish children? Was it something like the "orphan train" adoptions in my own country in the early part of the 20th century? No one, to my knowledge, ever asked Grandma how she felt or if she ever heard from her family again. It sounds like a very painful chapter.

Thanks so much for any help! If I can offer any other information, I will contact my father and get more exact dates, names of sibs, etc.

ScottishAtHeart

[ScottishAtHeart]

I found out that my grandmother's name was Mary Wilson, so any Wilson's out there, you just might have an American relation . If there is anyone who might help, my thanks in advance.

Anne

[littlecampbell]

I have just started looking into my family information, and what I do know is that my Great Grandmother was a Wilson and did live in the campbelltown area (Peninver) at one point for certain.

Her name was Jeanie Wilson Campbell, married to Neil Campbell. I do not know any exact dates yet, but I estimate she was born around the turn of the century 1890-1900, Marriage somtime before 1920.