I have been doing a wee bit of research on my Rennie ancestors recently and have come up against a missing link. No, I don’t mean the Missing Link between man and the apes, but an ancestor (my great-great-grandfather James Rennie) who may or may not be related to the eminent and prolific agriculturalist George Rennie. He was prolific as regards his progeny, of whom he seems to have begat eighteen, with two wives. Anyway, to prove the link, I need to find more details of the aforementioned James Rennie, who may be a grandson of the fecund George.
I have some documentation from one of my cousins which implies that he is buried at the village of Stow in the Borders, so on Saturday I persuaded James to come with me on a road trip to find James Rennie’s gravestone. Well, it turned out to be a wild goose chase. We searched both the old and new graveyards at Stow to no avail. Not a single Rennie was to be found, and only one Archibald (his wife’s maiden name). A friendly local historian spotted us and came over to chat, but he he hadn't heard of the family. The quest will continue.
We consoled ourselves with some excellent tea and scones in the delightful coffee shop in Stow, before setting off on a walk up nearby Birkscairn Hill - well there had to be a hill for James didn’t there? It was quite steep so James strode ahead and I went part of the way up at my own pace. Despite the disappointingly slow journey home due to the Satnav taking us on some very winding roads through deepest Lanarkshire (with hindsight we should have gone back via the M8) it was a really good day out.
No comments:
Post a Comment