Family history!

It was St. Andrew's Day yesterday! He is the patron saint of Scotland - and of Russia, Romania and Greece!!!! Sadly we do not seem to celebrate our national day very much, preferring to celebrate the birth of our national bard instead. That would be Robert Burns, the 'ploughman poet', born on 25 January, 1759, in Ayrshire, in the southwest of the country. In 2009 there are to be big celebrations for his 250th birthday! I am planning to join Ian and Berny from Australia - as they are over to visit Sally and Andrew in Glasgow - on a visit to Dumfries for a special torchlight procession round the town, where Burns spent much of his short life. He was only 37 when he died, having lived and loved a lot! I can't remember if I mentioned it before, but Ian and I have a family connection with Burns! Our ancestor, my great great great grandfather, (Ian's great great great great gf) was minister of the Secession church in Dumfries (the Seceders had broken away from the Established Church), and Burns came to listen to him preaching - at first, according to Charles, the family historian of the 1870s, because he was sent by the town magistrates to "spy" on William, they wanting to find an excuse to overturn the Secession doctrine. Burns wouldn't "bear false witness" and refused to say anything against Wiliam's preaching. The magistrates were not happy and tried to get Burns to say something that would give them cause to react against the Seceders, but still Burns would only tell them what William had preached and let them make up their own minds if it was against Christian beliefs. So the matter was dropped, as they could find no fault with William's words! Burns returned to William's church because.......he preached what he believed and practised what he preached.
and eventually made friends with him. When Burns lay on his death bed, William visited him and according to family tradition, Burns "expressed his deep contrition for his sinful life and his immoral writings, and his resolution if he was spared to amend his ways." An interesting thought!



Anyway, for Ian and Berny, this is the family tree, that I made of my line of descent from Rev. William Inglis! Our lines came from two of William's six grandsons. My plan is to make a similar tree for Ian, and his family. All the little pictures are scrapbook pages I have made.






Here's the one of Rev. William Inglis, who married his cousin Elizabeth Simson. They came to Dumfries from Fife where the Inglises had lived for several generations previously.





One of his sons was James, who became the minister of a church in a small Borders village near Selkirk. James married Grace McClelland from Wigtown, and had six sons and two daughters. Ian is descended from Thomas and I from Robert.

This picture was taken after the death of James, and shows Grace with some of her family. Charles, the rather arrogant looking fellow seated on the left, is the family historian. He did not marry. My Robert is standing directly behind his mother (with the white hood). John on the left, standing, is the brother who went to New Zealand and whose descendents I visited earlier in the year. William seated on the right was the eldest brother who would marry a few years later only to become a widower very soon after. At this stage, Thomas must have left home and was probably in Wales where he met and married his Irish wife. They left for Australia in 1848. James, the remaining son has also left home at this stage and will become the father of the family from which my dear late cousin Moira was descended. Her nephew, his wife and their baby daughter continue that line, though the Inglis surname has gone.


Enough of my family for now! I say that I could bore for Scotland on the subject of my family history, so I do hope you haven't been bored and that for you, Ian, it has sorted out just who's who!

Talk again soon.