In the only photograph that I have of my paternal grandmother, Flora Clark, she is dressed in a nurse’s “walking out” uniform – I have already included the image in an earlier post [see Challenge] but am re-posting it here for ease of reference. A Service Register held by the Hampshire Records Office reveals that… Continue reading Institutions
Tag: Clark
Language
There is not a single person amongst my direct ancestors who was born outside of the UK, so the short answer to “what language did they speak ?” is pretty simple: English ! The exception to this may be those who were born in Aberdeenshire in the 18th and 19th centuries, although even here it is hard… Continue reading Language
Brick Wall
The dreaded brick wall occurs when, despite much research effort over several years, the origins of an ancestor remain a mystery. In my own case, I’ve been pretty lucky as I’ve been able to trace most lines in my tree back as far as records allow, but there is one notable exception: my great great… Continue reading Brick Wall
Siblings
I have mentioned my paternal grandmother’s eleven siblings several times now, so I think it is time to introduce them. To recap: they are the children of John Clark and Barbara Ann McDonald, and all of them were born in Peterhead, Aberdeenshire apart from my grandmother, Flora, who was born in Maryhill. Although John and… Continue reading Siblings
Challenge
Working out how my paternal grandmother, Flora Clark, ended up in Portsmouth, hundreds of miles from her family in Scotland, was one of the biggest challenges I faced when I began researching. This photograph, taken around 1919, is the only image I have of her. I knew that she had been born in Glasgow in… Continue reading Challenge
Nickname
My great grandfather’s name was recorded as John Cox Clark when his son, Thomas, registered his death in 1912, which puzzled me as Cox is not a family name and it doesn’t appear in any other records. I think it was probably a tee-name, or nickname, traditionally used by the coastal communities of Aberdeenshire to… Continue reading Nickname
In the Beginning
In 2001, my father read a newspaper article that announced the publication of the 1901 Scotland census online, and he asked me to see if I could find the family of his mother, Flora Clark. She had died when he was a small child and he knew almost nothing about her beyond the information recorded in… Continue reading In the Beginning
Sleuthing Notes 