miss m., my sister, baby girl, and i have been on an ancestral quest the past few days to see where our great-great grandmother mary grew up. with a few clues from histories and censuses, we began sleuthing our way through the highlands of scotland to find the family farm on castle hill in kilmacolm parish.
the problem - there is no longer a farm or an area called castle hill. so we consulted the map, the local librarian, passer-byers -- and found two streets that are called castlehill that could have been named after the farm.
the first was nestled in the beautiful rolling hills of kilmacolm - the town. miss m., baby girl, and i roamed the town for five hours on foot and stroller, exploring the region that could have been our family farm. we came to castlehill crescent -- which came across an unfortunate architectural mishap in the 1960s. (think stucco boxes with corrugated tin garage doors now in slight decay.)
the second was a hill above the newark castle, which sits on the river clyde in port glasgow. a townhome neighborhood has taken place of what could have been the farm. and like the other castlehill, the buildings also had come across a bit of ruin over the years.
i'm inclined to think the farm was on the second site just up the hill from a real castle that was built in the 1400s. so, it seems a good fit to me that the area above the castle could have been called castle hill.
whether either of these places were the family farm or not, we got a good feel for the area. and the area is beautiful. even on the cloudy, misty days we experienced. miss m. and i were so amazed at the faith it must have taken for mary's family to leave the lush, rolling hills for an unknown desert to gather with the rest of the pioneer saints.
knowing this area was the mcquarrie's home, i felt a little closer to knowing the people who make up my past. and now their home will always be a part of my home.
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6 comments:
I am sure Mary would be pleased you are so interested in where she lived.
i have just come across your blog about castlehill in port glasgow,i am researching port glasgow just now as we have just finished a book about the history of the town it is being released on the 8th oct. i was bornand raised in port glasgow and as a recent project i've been researching castlehill the name as you guessed concerns a castle but not newark castle as you pointed out in your blog but a castle that stood alone on port glasgows highest hill,i have an old 17th century print which shows the position of the castle from the river castlehill farm stood a wee bit back from it i think it was removed to allow for housing when the town started to build back from the river if you want some old photographs rabkane@ntlworld.com
was your mothhers name mary sinclair mcquarrie born in 1919
I've wanted to go looking for the McQuarrie's too! Good for you guys, we expect full reports.
When I spent my first night in Athens in a horrible, filthy, wreck of an apartment I reassured myself that if Mary McQuarrie could raise a family in an adobe house with a dirt floor, then I could deal with my situation. But when I woke up the next morning the first thought I had was that if Mary had been able, she would have changed her situation, and I didn't have to live in squalor. It was like she'd whispered in my ear while I slept. So I got up, checked myself into a hotel, and found a new apartment.
I think she smiles on her resourceful great great granddaughters!
what year did your great great grandmother emigrate you can get their passanger details from ellis island online was your gr gr grandmother called mary sinclair mc quarrie born about 1919 port glasgow
Mary McQuarrie is my great-great grandmother. I found this blog post through a Google search. I just did a dna test and it returned results for the Glasgow area, which was no surprise. I'm very interested in knowing more about Mary.
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