Holiday - Day four - Monday
Today was the day when I discovered some of the edge pieces were missing.
First, the Salmon Bothy on Portsoy doesn't open until 2pm. By then I intended to be in the Family History Centre in Aberdeen.
No problem, the Joiner's Workshop in Fordyce, three miles away, opened at ten, and it was rumoured that some tools belonging to my great-uncle, a blacksmith were there. So, by half past ten I was there. It was open, but very quiet, and with most of the display lights off. After a while the manager turned up, realised he hadn't locked up on Sunday, and helped me fail to find the tools. I did find parts of an item he had built for the joiner, and the cleaner suggested a museum's service site that might have them. I also got to see some beautiful half-built harps, being made by the manager.
So, off to Aden Country Park, at Mintray, near Peterhead Stopped on the way to find a multi-stage cache, thinking I could be a little late to Aberdeen. Got to the farming museum at the country park, and found it the most dispiriting museum error. Sterile, expensively done, empty of people but full of staff. Clearly designed for the staff - the route to the most interesting section went up and down stairs to avoid an office area. Priorities!
I set off for Aberdeen back on time, and made it to the Family History Centre. I soon had help from one of the volunteers, and discovered a surprise. I had a pretty good idea that my great Aunt ands Uncle who married in their sixties in about 1950 had both been married before, and probably had both been widowed/(widowered). I had a vague idea of a likely surname for the first husband, but no idea at all of the name of the first wife.
Having tracked down their wedding date more exactly, I managed to track her down first, finding all the names of wives married to a mn of the right name in the right area and period - any time between 1910 and 1950, finding which of them had died by 1950, and eventually pinning down the details via the death certificate record.
Finding the first husband was trickier but I eventually found him, found that he had died in 1950, shortly before his wife remarried - but then found the shock - that she was his first wife, and he had remarried, while she was still alive. So, I know what I'm researching tomorrow.
Found my B&B, one that advertises in the Aberdeen & NE Scotland Family History Society journal, and on arrival immediately got questioned on my researches. Discovered that the couple that run it were married in the village where my earlier researches today were based, 60 miles away from Aberdeen.
Now to collate my findings from today, to help me work efficiently back at the centre tomorrow morning.
First, the Salmon Bothy on Portsoy doesn't open until 2pm. By then I intended to be in the Family History Centre in Aberdeen.
No problem, the Joiner's Workshop in Fordyce, three miles away, opened at ten, and it was rumoured that some tools belonging to my great-uncle, a blacksmith were there. So, by half past ten I was there. It was open, but very quiet, and with most of the display lights off. After a while the manager turned up, realised he hadn't locked up on Sunday, and helped me fail to find the tools. I did find parts of an item he had built for the joiner, and the cleaner suggested a museum's service site that might have them. I also got to see some beautiful half-built harps, being made by the manager.
So, off to Aden Country Park, at Mintray, near Peterhead Stopped on the way to find a multi-stage cache, thinking I could be a little late to Aberdeen. Got to the farming museum at the country park, and found it the most dispiriting museum error. Sterile, expensively done, empty of people but full of staff. Clearly designed for the staff - the route to the most interesting section went up and down stairs to avoid an office area. Priorities!
I set off for Aberdeen back on time, and made it to the Family History Centre. I soon had help from one of the volunteers, and discovered a surprise. I had a pretty good idea that my great Aunt ands Uncle who married in their sixties in about 1950 had both been married before, and probably had both been widowed/(widowered). I had a vague idea of a likely surname for the first husband, but no idea at all of the name of the first wife.
Having tracked down their wedding date more exactly, I managed to track her down first, finding all the names of wives married to a mn of the right name in the right area and period - any time between 1910 and 1950, finding which of them had died by 1950, and eventually pinning down the details via the death certificate record.
Finding the first husband was trickier but I eventually found him, found that he had died in 1950, shortly before his wife remarried - but then found the shock - that she was his first wife, and he had remarried, while she was still alive. So, I know what I'm researching tomorrow.
Found my B&B, one that advertises in the Aberdeen & NE Scotland Family History Society journal, and on arrival immediately got questioned on my researches. Discovered that the couple that run it were married in the village where my earlier researches today were based, 60 miles away from Aberdeen.
Now to collate my findings from today, to help me work efficiently back at the centre tomorrow morning.