Tag Archives: roots

My Scottish Roots…

Since the subtitle of my blog is My Scottish Roots and Writing I decided it was about time I included something about my heritage. And today is a good day to do it.

dad
Robert A Robertson July 30, 1913 – April 29, 1969

My father came to Canada in 1930 – one of the 7,000 children sent out by The Orphan Homes of Scotland founded by Scottish philanthropist William Quarrier, who grew up in extreme poverty and later in life when he had the means to help the less fortunate, he did.

I’ve written an article on Quarrier which was published by The Scottish Banner in December 2001. Funny enough, I didn’t even know the article had been accepted until I opened my paper and there it was. But I digress… back to the business at hand – my Scottish roots.

My father was one of ten children born to John Robertson and Margaret MacDonald in Aberdeenshire, Scotland between 1903 and 1915 (five of which were sent to The Orphan Homes of Scotland).

Grandpa Robertson had been married before and had fathered ten children with his first wife, too. The youngest from this previous marriage was six when he married my grandmother (wife #2)

One thing that I didn’t realize immediately but my grandparents shared the same birthday, not that they could have afforded to buy each other gifts.

grandpa_robertson
Grandpa Robertson
Aug 12, 1856-June 18, 1930
grandma_robertson
My Grandmother – Margaret (MacDonald) Robertson
Aug 12, 1882-Dec 2, 1915

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Although this isn’t the greatest quality photograph, I think I look more like my grandmother than grandfather. What do you think?