Email Exchange with Isabel Shearer

Hello,How lovely to hear from you.As I said my grandfather would have been Nellie’s brother.My father and brother are also called Alexander George.Strangely enough,the funeral is taking place this Monday of Henry Forbes’wife Magdalene who died on 28th June aged 96.
I am out most of today but will email again soon.The rest of the family will be delighted that we have made contact.I have 2 sisters and 1 brother
Best Wishes
Isabel

Hello,

I attended Magdalene Forbes’s funeral on Monday and met Bert Forbes’s son Brian there.He has also been looking into his family history. You were saying you came away with more questions than answers after your visit to Scotland. If I can answer any I would be very happy to help or at least try.My son is helping to write up all the information we have currently.Just to fill in the details from my side of the family. My grandfather was Alexander George Forbes, married to Eliza Ann Junor. My father was Alexander George Forbes ( Sandy). He had 2 brothers- Robert and James (Jimmy) and 2 sisters, Isabella and Agnes (Nanny).My mother was Mary Farquhar Simpson.I have a brother Alexander George ( Sandy) and sisters Morna and Helen. We were always aware of our Canadian and American links but not in any great detail.My husband and I have had holidays in both Canada and America. My brother and sisters have also visited Canada. Our father actually emigrated there when he was a young man but returned to Scotland after a few years.

Look forward to catching up again

Isabel

Hi Vic and Cathy,

Good to hear from you again and thanks for the links.We are off soon on a short trip to France.We are visiting the Somme area, specifically Arras, as I discovered I have 2 great uncles who fought in WW1 and are buried in the area.They are both brothers of my maternal and paternal grandmothers.It seems only right to go and pay our respects now that we know where they are.We’ve visited that area before but I didn’t know about these relatives at that time. I will email again when we return.

Sorry to hear your rail journeys were disappointing.

Best Wishes,
Isabel

On 4 Sep 2018, at 03:57, Vic Smith <vic@vicsmith.us> wrote:

Hi Isabel,

I have coded the information you provided about your family. You can find that here – https://www.vicsmith.us/?page_id=3758 under Family Tree. This isn’t the easiest software to use, especially if you aren’t in the direct descendant tree. Basically you use the tree to maneuver close and then use the family groups.

You may want to look at the Morrice Clan Family History under Genealogical Documents on my page. It was written by one of your Canadian cousins and is the source of much of my data.

If you see anything incorrect, please let me know.

Last, if you ever have the opportunity to ride Amtrak, the American passenger train system, pass it up. What a truly miserable way to travel.

Take care,
Vic & Cathy

Hi Vic and Cathy,

Sorry for taking so long to reply. We’ve been away again on a short trip to London. Our trip to France was very rewarding. We found the graves were wanted to visit.One was in a tiny cemetery in a field in farmland which seemed very fitting as my great uncle had worked on a farm before he went to war.It was quite moving visiting the graves as we may have been the first relatives to have been there.Was the person you told the story of whose remains had been found in 2003 a Forbes related descendant? Each time we look into our family history seems to throw up more questions but it”s fascinating.You are correct about the amount of names being re-used and of course often you find names being spelt differently at each census,depending on who was recording the information.I’ll be happy to answer any questions if I can.

Best wishes to you both

Isabel
On 9 Sep 2018, at 18:42, Vic Smith <vic@vicsmith.us> wrote:

Hi Isabel,

Hope you folks have a good time in France and find the graves you are seeking.

I have a WWI story about France. These was a battle just before the Battle of the Somme where the Germans  buried the UK dead in mass graves. It sounds incredible to me, but one of those graves wasn’t discovered until 2003. The troops were disinterred and before they were reinterred in individual graves, material was gathered to mark those graves. That included DNA where possible. One of those soldiers was my wife’s forebear. The British War Graves Commission found my web page and sent me an email requesting information on a male descendant of Cathy’s great uncle. I couldn’t help them but I did redirect their inquiry to one of Cathy’s cousins in England who does genealogy. It was a gratifying exchange.

I am working my way through several of my Forbes family questions. It seems that, unlike with many public records, strict attention must be paid to dates since names are so often re-used. I actually had three Margaret Ann Forbes all born within four years. Several of the names belong to what seem very prolific families with a common practice of using maiden names as middle names for offspring.

Take care,
Vic & Cathy

Hope you are both well.Here are a couple of attachments that hopefully will be helpful.To answer your questions first. Agnes Ritchie Forbes was the second born child of Alexander and Annie. She was born on 18/12/1890 and died on 19/10/1971.Quie a few of my relatives are buried at Peathill Cemetery.The name is primarily of the church but there are a few houses there. It is very close to the small town of Rosehearty where a lot of my mother’s family came from.I have attached a list of Alex and Annie’s children, most of whom you have identified already but I have included the 3 children who died in infancy. There was a total of 17 as far as we can find. I have also attached the marriage certificate for Alexander and Annie and information on the findings of myself and other family members who have been researching as well. It can be difficult with so many people having the same name or variations of spellings! I hope they are of some help. Let me know if there are any other questions you have or want a copy of any certificates.Sorry for taking so long to reply again! Where does the time go ?

Best Wishes

Isabel

Hi Vic and Cathy,
Lovely to hear from you.It’s ok to share my email address.It would be good to hear from other relatives.I had lunch a few weeks ago in Perth with Margaret and Susan, who are the daughters of Henry and Magdalene Forbes. Henry was my grandfather’s brother. They were saying that since he was amongst the youngest of the family (although they knew nothing of the youngest one who died in infancy)and there was such an age range that their father never really knew some of his older siblings well.The photograph in the Forbes collection you have where there is a group at a wedding,Margaret is pretty sure it was at her wedding. It includes Henry, Alexander ,William etc. This was on 7/10/1972 in Blairgowrie which is in Perthshire. Her parents lived there for many years and her sister still lives there.Hope you hear from some of the extended family.My sister unearthed a photo of my grandfather on his first ever holiday in his eighties when he visited his brother William in Canada-quite an adventure for him.
If there is any further information I can provide, we have quite a lot here!
Take care
Isabel and Alf

Sent from my iPad

On 13 Feb 2019, at 04:25, Vic Smith <vic@vicsmith.us> wrote:

Hi Folks,

I finally found some time to look over your work. It seems some revisions are in order.

I am attempting to get in touch with some members of the Forbes family to share your findings. I have written to Kelly Canham, Lil Forbes grand-daughter, and am looking for contact information for Margaret Annie Morrice / Forsman / Bazarkiewicz, Chrissie Forbes daughter and the author of the Morrice family history where I gleaned most of my Forbes family info.

May I share your email address with these people? We don’t have an ongoing dialogue, but perhaps they would like to communicate with their cousin.

Take care,

Vic & Cathy