Day 5 started with another visit to the ScotlandsPeople research center, and this time my intent was to focus on the Campbell family. After my 3x-great-grandfather came to America, he met and married Ann Campbell, who was born in Scotland but came to America at the age of about three.
Ann’s family was from the Crieff area (north of Edinburgh) in Perthshire. Her parents were Duncan Campbell and Elizabeth Tainsh. Ann was the middle child in a family of seven children. A couple of weeks before leaving for Scotland, I was able to trace her parents’ families back a couple of generations using the ScotlandsPeople website. They families seemed pretty rooted in the Crieff area.
Imagine my disappointment when I found that most of the Crieff “Kirk Sessions Minutes” are missing! There were only two years (1817 and 1820) for the period of time after Duncan’s and Elizabeth’s birth. I decided to take a peek anyway.
Oh my.
Right away I came across a hand-written note written by none other than Duncan Campbell himself! It was written in the spring of 1820 when he would have been about 23 years old.
It says:
Gentlemen:
This is to certify that if the Child laid to my charge comes to my time which will be between the 19th and 21st May I will acknowledge it and come through course of time and give all satisfaction which is hereby asserted. By
Duncan Cempbell
Well, that’s another shocker! At least Duncan seems a pretty stand-up kind of guy, and pretty certain he isn’t the daddy. Although I’m a bit troubled about the narrow window of opportunity for the baby’s due date.
I think I found evidence that the baby was not his but I’ll save that for later.
Two years later, Duncan married Elizabeth and he seems to have put this whole episode behind him
I cut out of ScotlandsPeople mid-afternoon and Dale and I took off toward Aberdeenshire. Driving a manual transmission car on the wrong side of the road is tense! Dale did pretty well.
We stopped at a charming seafood restaurant along the way. The car’s GPS took us on series of remote, winding roads to get us to the night’s destination – Leslie Castle!
The castle was extensively renovated in the 1980’s – it was literally a pile of rubble and had been back to the time even before my ancestors were here. But a Leslie descendant (an architect himself) restored it in a very authentic way.
Saturday, we’ll be off to the Highland games in Cornhill and who knows what else – there’s more to do than we can possibly fit in.
Not many photos today – no wi-fi at the castle and cell signals are poor.
Aberdeen was where the British Clipper ships were built. Ships like Cutty Sark and Thermopole, the fastest ships to India hoisting 30 or so sails. Any evidence of that around Aberdeenshire?
wow, how fun was that !!!!Many blessings. Aunt Josie