SIB FOLK NEWSISSUE No 46 June 2008 NEWSLETTER OF THE ORKNEY FAMILY HISTORY SOCIETY Echoes of a bygone age Photograph. John Sinclair. 2 NEWSLETTER OF THE ORKNEY FAMILY HISTORY SOCIETY Issue No 46 June 2008 ORKNEY FAMILY HISTORY NEWSLETTER Issue No 46 June 2008 CONTENTS FRONT COVER Echoes of a From Bygone Age PAGE 2 From the Chair the chair PAGE 3 Tumbledown Our Annual General meeting was held on 8th May No 4 with the members’ endorsement and re-appointment of Page 4 & 5 the current committee members and all office-bearers. Stromness linked to Robert Louis During my chairman’s report it was an opportunity for me to highlight the great Stevenson and positive commitment made by the various committee members and our PAGE5 volunteers. The strength of any organisation is through its membership. While Robbie the Sholtie still anticipating our 2000th member it was noticed that a number of members had PAGE 6 not re-newed membership for the current year. It is still time for you to sign up Fiery Bill Inkster and maintain your interest and also to get your copy of Sib Folk News. PAGE 7 Last Ranch Our March and April monthly meetings were well attended with two great speakers PAGES 8 & 9 – Sheena Wenham on her study area – “St Mary’s in Holm” and James Irvine’s The Spences of Cumming & insight into “DNA in Genealogy”. Both were well appreciated and these monthly Spence meetings are important in bringing members together. PAGE 10 I found my Tumbledown After our AGM we had an International flavour which followed nicely from our previous DNA lecture. We viewed the story of Alexander Korobko in his quest to PAGES 12–16 DNA in Genealogy find “Who am I”? A Russian living in London discovered his DNA indicated an ancestral connection to Orkney. It is indeed “a small world”. PAGE 17 In memory of Walter Sinclair On 15th June, we have our summer outing which this year will take members by PAGES 18 & 19 bus from Kirkwall out through Firth and on through Stenness highlighting the HBC Blankets various farms, houses and place names. We then will walk the streets of Stromness PAGE 19 on a guided tour about the history on the Hudson Bay Company and The Nor’Wast News from Janette Thomson in Stromness. After lunch at the Stenness Community Centre the bus-tour will then explore the places, farms and history of Orphir, visit the Orkneyinga Centre, PAGES 20 & 21 The Abernethys the Round Church and the Orphir Kirk yard before continuing to Kirkwall. of Stromness PAGE 21 As an advance notice to members, the “Annual Dinner” has been brought forward James Cambell this year to September 11th so make it a date for your diary. Bruce Inkster PAGE 22 An encounter with I hope that you will all have a nice summer and continue to support your Moby Dick Society. PAGE 23 Can you identify the Photographs Alan Clouston PAGE 24 Membership etc Issue No. 46 June 2008 NEWSLETTER OF THE ORKNEY FAMILY HISTORY SOCIETY 3 This is Don Holloway’s Can you still find yours? By Alan Clouston – Member No 339 As a follow-up to the article “looking for Jane’ by Don Hol- know of. Were you related to or descended from this fam- loway which appeared in Sib Folk News No 45, I thought ily? If so I would be delighted to hear from you. that it would be interesting to use the now derelict croft It is interesting to note that the occupants of ‘Gerwin’ of ‘Gerwin’ as this edition’s ‘Tumbledown’ feature. in 1921 were the Knarston family, a surname that is no The 1841 to 1901 census records show that the Wilson longer in use in Orkney. Can any of our readers relate family, from which Don is descended, lived at ‘Gerwin’. to this name? John and Catherine Wilson had eleven children that I The last occupant of ‘Gerwin, was Joe Hourston. RESIDENTS OF PARKHOUSE / PARK COTTAGE 1821 1841 1851 1861 1871 188 1891 1901 Name age age age age age age age age Barbara Knarston 60 - - - - - - - Barbard (daughter) 20 - - - - - - - Isabella (daughter 20 - - - - - - - John Wilson - 50 61 70 - - Catherine - nee Wishart (wife) 50 62 x - - - - John (son) - 25 - - - - - - Barbarta (daughter) - 20 - - - - - - Helen (daughter)*** - 15 26 35 - - - - Andrew (son)** - 8 18 - - - - - John Hay (son) - - 7 - - - - - William (grandson) - - - 16 - - - - Jane Mathieson (servant) - - - 16 - - - - Barbara Wilson (sister in law) - - - 66 76 - - - Andrew Wilson** - - - 28 38 48 58 - Mary nee Norn (wife) - - - 31 41 51 - - Mary (daughter) - - - 5 - - - - Catherine (daughter) - - - 3 13 32 - Margaret (daughter) - - - 2 - - - - John G (son) - - - 9mths 10 20 40 William (son) - - - - 9 19 - - Tomima Johnston (servant) - - - 12 - - - - Ann (daughter) - - - - 4 14 - - James (son) - - - - 2 13 - - Anderina (daughter) - - - - 5mths - - - Thomas (son) - - - - - 8 18 - Ann Tait (visitor) - - - - - - 58 - Jessie Tait (servant) - - - - - - - 38 John Bews - - - - 27 37 47 - Hellen nee Wilson (wife)*** - - - - 45 57 67 - Jane Brass (servant) - - - - 17 - - - Mary Bews (servant) - - - - - - 32 - 4 NEWSLETTER OF THE ORKNEY FAMILY HISTORY SOCIETY Issue No. 46 June 2008 Stromness linked to Robert Louis Stevenson ....and Royalty!! By Robert Whitton. Member No 218 n 1791 David Geddes a merchant in Stromness the Regional Commander for Civil Defence South East was appointed the local agent for Hudson Bay Co Region and then Regional Commander for Civil Defence Iand was the agent that arranged passage for John North West Region, 1941-1942. From 1924 until 1947 he Foubister/Fubbister aka Isobel Gunn to Upper Canada. was Chairman of the Rio Tinto Company and Rhokana One of David’s sons George Geddes (1786-1840) married Corporation as well as director of various companies. Elizabeth Anderson in Stromness in 1816 and had 2 Baron Sir Auckland Geddes died 8 June 1954. His children in Stromness and then a further 6 chidren daughter Margaret Geddes (1913-1997) married Prince were born in Liverpool. The merchant bank that George Ludwig of Hesse- Darmstadt in 1937. Geddes or his father, ran at Stromness went bankrupt in Geddes’ book “The Forging of a Family” (Faber & Faber) the 1820s when he bought merchant ships rather than was published in 1952. merely lend on them. So George and his family ended up in Liverpool about 1818. George died in Dublin in CONNECTIONS 1840 but his youngest son named Auckland Campbell David Stevenson (1815-1886) was the builder of 30 Geddes (1831-1908) was staying at “Rispond”, Durness, Lighthouses including Dubh Artach in1872 and Robert Caithness with relatives of his mother at the 1841 census. Louis Stevenson (1850- 1894 ) was his Nephew. At 1871 Auckland Campbell Geddes was a lodger with the Prince Ludwig of Hesse- Darmstadt (1908-1968) was the Lighthouse Builder David Stevenson (1815-1886) at 43 son of the last reigning Grand Duke of Hesse-Darmstadt, Melville Street (near where I went to school much later!). a middle-ranking state of the former German Empire. His occupation was given as a Certified Engineer working He succeeded his brother Georg Donatus as the titular on the Indian Railways. He would have had much in Grand Duke of Hesse after his death. He married the common with the Stevenson families and perhaps he was Hon. Margaret Campbell-Geddes (1913-1997) daughter seen as a possible husband for one of David’s daughters. of Auckland Campbell-Geddes, 1st Baron Geddes in However Auckland married a Christina Anderson in 1937, on the day after the Sabena OO-AUB Ostend crash Aberdeen in 1871 and they had 2 children in India and a that killed his brother Georg Donatus, his brother’s further 3 in Hampstead, London. wife Princess Cecile of Greece (sister of Prince Philip, One son was knighted:- Sir Eric Geddes (1875-1937) Duke of Edinburgh), two of their children Ludwig and served as British Minister of Munitions, Inspector- Alexander, and his mother Grand Duchess Eleanore. General of Transportation, Controller of the Navy and He and Margaret Geddes adopted his niece, Johanna (b. finally as First Lord of the Admiralty during World War 1936) but the little girl died in 1939, he also adopted his One. distant cousin Moritz, Landgrave of Hesse in 1960 who Another son also named Auckland Geddes was born 21 succeeded to the title of Grand Duke of Hesse and by June 1879, Geddes was a Lieutenant (3rd class) in the Rhine and Head of all the House of Hesse following a Highland Light Infantry, 1901-1902, and took part in family pact. the Boer War. 1906-1909, he was Assistant Professor of At the wedding of Prince Ludwig to Margaret Geddes Anatomy at Edinburgh University. 1909-1913 he was she had planned to wear Bavarian Pheasant Dress but Professor of Anatomy at the Royal College of Surgeons changed to black because of the plane crash. The couple in Ireland and 1913-1914 he was Professor of Anatomy at were married in St Peter’s Church at Eaton Square. Sir McGill University, Montreal, Canada. 1914-1915 Geddes Auckland Geddes had made an appeal that the couple was a Major in the 17th Northumberland Fusiliers be given privacy due to the tragedy, compounded by and 1916-1917 he was Director of Recruiting at the the fact that Ludwig had also lost his father the month War Office. Geddes was MP (Unionist) for Basingstoke, prior. Louis Mountbatten was best man, his brother the 1917-1920, as well as Director General and Minister Marquis of Milford Haven died about 6 months later in for National Service, 1917-1919. 1918-1919 he was April 1938. The Duke & Duchess of Kent were there as President of the Local Government Board. January-May was German Ambassador von Ribbentrop.