Ooh - have you seen this? The letters of Mary Darroch Currie to her cousin in Canada. Mary is a daughter of Duncan Darroch and Mary McBride. There's lots of detail in the letters.
http://darroch.org/curries_letters.htmlI found the following snippets interesting:
22 Dec 1879
"My father is now 85 years of age, so like your mother he is far past the allotted span. I enclose you his portrait which was taken here about 6 years ago on the occasion of the last visit he paid me here. His two step-sons are dead so he and step-mother are living alone. He took an ill turn the summer before last and I went home to Clachan to see him but he recovered, although I am afraid he will not survive this winter. My son John goes to Clachan every summer to see him."
The father that Mary refers to is Duncan Darroch and the two step-sons are Donald McPhail and Archibald McPhail. Donald McPhail is the one who appears with Duncan and Mary in the 1861 census.
I have to say that for anyone interested in family history, Mary's letters are packed full of genealogical detail.
My brother Neil resides in Linwood, a small town 3 miles from Paisley. He is a gardener and has a large family.
"My sister
Marion is a widow whose husband was a sea-faring man having been drowned some years ago. She lives in Paisley and gets employment in a thread factory and with her lives her family, two boys and a girl.
"
John is working as a blacksmith in a ship building yard on the Clyde at a place called Govan about five miles from here as the crow flies. He's a confirmed bachelor and lodges with your Aunt Elizabeth.
"Across the river from Govan is a small place called Scotstown about 6 miles from here and it is there that Catherine and Archie live about a stone's throw from each other.
"
Catherine (Mrs. Connell) is a widow, her husband who was a carpenter having lost his life through falling into the hold of a vessel in course of construction.
"
Archie is married and has charge of a horse in a shipbuilding yard."
I have notes that Duncan Darroch and his first wife had the following children:
Mary (the letter writer), 1825-1904
Anne, b 1827
Neil, 1830-1883
Catherine, b 1832
John, b 1834
Duncan, b 1838
Marion, 1840-1912
Archibald, b 1843
She mentioned some other relatives as well:
"You referred to
Nanny Glen and the poor thing was confined to bed last summer. I have not heard how she is keeping.
"Your cousin
Mary McAlpine is a lonely and poor creature. She depends on the parish for her living, getting about 2/ per week, so her existence must be a miserable one."
One of the headstones in Clachan old cemetery commemorates a Helen Darroch. The headstone also has Glen names on it.
Mary, in her letter, goes on to describe the village of Clachan:
'I found lofty Dunskeig very nearly the same as the day on which you took your farewell look at it. There is no house there not even a stone to point out the spot where as a girly you frolicked about as happy as a butterfly in the summer sun. But below the site of your house is still the beautiful bay as sandy and majestic as ever and defying the ruthless hand of unthinking and selfish landlords. However the level ground between the mark of high water and the fast of Dunskeig is all enclosed for growing crops. There is now a carriage way made around the foot of the hill to the ferry, and from that again through the farm of Loup and Doctor's house. In the village are a lot of modern houses, a fine new church built at the expense of the Laird of Ballinakill and a fine new house for its ministers."
When you are in Kintyre, you will be able to visit the church mentioned above.
http://www.scotlandschurchestrust.org.u ... ish-churchBalinakill is still there, too. It's a country house hotel.
http://www.balinakillcountryhouse.com/
- great website!
