My Scottish Roots

I suppose since I’m calling my blog “My Scottish Roots and Writing” I really should put something on here about my Scottish roots. Well, here it is.

My father was one of 10 children, born to my grandparents, just outside the village of Kennethmont, Aberdeenshire, Scotland. (My grandfather had another family of 10 children with his first wife.) After my grandmother died, my father and four of his siblings were sent to The Orphan Homes of Scotland near Bridge of Weir near Glasgow.

My father came to Canada in 1930 and settled in eastern Ontario. He died in 1969 a few months short of his 56th birthday.

On my first trip to Scotland in 1993, I visited The Orphan Homes of Scotland – now known as Quarriers Village and no longer used as an orphanage. I also made the trek north and saw the remains of the house where my father was born and the cemeteries where my grandparents and other relatives are buried. I even met living relatives that I’ve kept in touch with regularly ever since!

Since my first trip that year, I’ve been back five more times – the last in 2005 and was just an overnight visit into the south – just far enough to say I touched my feet on Scottish soil.

My most memorable moments about my trips to Scotland have to be that first trip and in 1999 when I met Princess Anne at Quarriers Village.

5 thoughts on “My Scottish Roots”

  1. Excellent Mel, that would be interesting to hear more about it, do you have it as a short story?

  2. I’m blogging my heart out….this is awesome Mel…what a way to get your words out into the space/time continuum…forever drifting through cyber space…

  3. Way to go kiddo, nice start. I’m up for hearing a little more about your Dad’s life in Scotland before coming to Canada. Must have been a hard life for him.

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