Family in Scotland

As many of my friends know I have been to Scotland several time in the past year. This time it was strictly for FAMILY. I wanted to share my connections I found with Mom and Sarah. Elizabeth might be a little young to understand but, someday she will get it.

I have worked on Ancestry.com adding family and finding family. The internet is full of ways to search. There are headstone inscriptions on line, Scotland's People let you search their records for a small fee, even small town have websites to go to and leave a message. I have found connections in each way. I will say the biggest connection was through Ancestry. I have found and talked to several of my Cousins. Some were as close as 2nd cousins and some as far off as 7th cousin 1x removed.

My goal this trip was to find my Mom's ancestors and the graves. I found that her father was born in Kilsyth and his family goes back to 1600 in Kilsyth. That is the biggest connection I have found at all. I have added about 3,000 family member that were born in Kilsyth. There were 5 sets of cousins that married each other. One set was even first cousins. No wonder that my Grandfather wanted to get out of Kilsyth and move to the USA.

We are all the Shearer Family Members

 My 3rd cousin 1x removed Margaret and her husband. Found them on Ancestry.com 

 2nd cousin Jim and wife Mary I am in the center. Shearer's

 Mom's full cousin Helen, Mom, Helen's Husband Tommy and Me. All Shearer's 

 Helen Mom (Sarah) and William Shearer's. William is my 2nd cousin.

William with the Shearer family

 Dorothy with the Shearer Family

Back: Dorothy, Scott, Callum, Me(Laura). On the left arm Sarah, right arm Sarah & Elizabeth.

Front: Fiona, Laura, Sarah, Chrissy