A Day at the Microfilm Reader

I was delighted earlier this year when I  found an online index listing the daily contents of the Haddingtonshire Courier (now the East Lothian Courier) from October 1859 up to December 1902. The newspaper collection on microfilm  is housed in the Local History area of the John Gray Centre in Haddington, East Lothian, Scotland.

Now it just so happens that Mr GeniAus has Gowans and Sibbald ancestors who were in the Haddington area during that period so I checked the index and found more than 30 reference to family members. I saved these on a spreadsheet. As we were planning a trip to the UK I added Haddington to our itinerary. Once I had a date I emailed the John Gray Centre and booked a microfilm reader for the day.

I was most impressed when Mr GeniAus dropped me off at the Centre and went to find a parking spot. When we visited a number of years ago the local studies collection was stored in an inadequate area in a loft. The new  John Gray Centre houses the local library and archives in a lovely light filled environment.

When I marched up to the reception I was given a right, royal welcome. Bill Wilson, Local History Officer,  and his staff settled me at a microfilm reader and organised  retrieval of the films I needed. Robert joined me and we bunkered down for a morning of research.

GeniAus at work

Local studies collection

 While I played with the microfilms and downloaded the newspaper articles onto a thumb drive  Mr GeniAus browsed the book collection looking for references to his ancestors.  Bill offered us a behind the scenes tour of the archives but I declined as I wanted to complete my task. Mr GeniAus accepted Bill's offer and found the tour very interesting.

Behind the scenes in the John Gray Centre 

An innovative display highlighting local identities

 When I announced on Facebook that I was headed to Edinburgh and Haddington my fellow geneablogger, John Laws, who lives in the neighbourhood suggested we meet up. Knowing that we would need a lunch break we made a date to meet John at a local cafe, The Loft. 

It was lovely to meet John in the flesh, through blogging and genealogy we had been online friends for several years.  John is kept busy with a surname study for the Laws (and variants) name. He blogs about it here at The Laws Family Register.

Meeting up with genimate, John Laws

 After our break we returned to the John Gray Centre so I could complete my task. My head was swimming after spending several hours at the microfilm reader so I was pleased to set off towards our next stop at Galashiels.

I was not so pleased when, that evening, I discovered that I had left my thumb drive containing all my saved images in the microfilm reader. Mr GeniAus displayed great restraint the next morning when we had to trace our steps to  collect my thumb drive.

I cannot thank enough Bill Wilson and the staff at John Gray Centre  who made us so welcome. I owe a debt of gratitude to the team of volunteers who have created such a valuable resource in the newspaper index.

Found while planning the next adventure...

Our next holiday will be to the UK. Although our main focus is touristing, as we will be in ancestral territory, we will have to spend some time ancestor hunting.

Gowans Headstone

On a previous visit to Scotland in 2004 (was it that long ago?) we visited Haddington in East Lothian, Scotland. The local history and genealogy collection was housed in a cramped little gallery area upstairs in a library. The staff were amazing and so helpful and gave us some very useful leads. We were so impressed that Mr GeniAus wrote to the local authority to compliment the staff and comment on the poor conditions in which they were working and the records were housed. 

While in Haddington we were able to add several leaves to the Gowans tree when we found several family members resting in St Mary's Church Graveyard. 

Today I was doing some planning for our next jaunt which includes a few days in Scotland after an organised tour from London to Scotland. I'll visit General Register House in Edinburgh, The Heritage Hub in Hawick and return to Haddington. 

I discovered that Haddington now has The John Gray Centre "The John Gray Centre brings together East Lothian Council’s Archaeology, Museum, Archive and Local History Services, alongside Haddington’s branch library." Wow! Did they listen to Mr GeniAus?

What was even better was that I was able to consult their online catalogue where I found numerous references to Mr GeniAus Gowans ancestors. The industrious folk at East Lothian have indexed newspapers and local archives and records. We'll be having a busy and fruitful day in Haddington when we visit the John Gray Centre to access all those references I found today.

Tennessee Troubles

The search for Mr GeniAus' Gowans cousins keeps me on my toes.

A while ago I tracked down one branch of the family to Tennessee; today I thought I would revisit them. Mr Google took me to a page entitled Online Tennessee Death Records & Indexes from which I followed a few links.

I struck gold at a resource compiled by the Nashville Public Library: "Index to Obituaries in the Nashville Tennessean Newspaper 1964-present also includes a Nashville marriage records index 1864-1905." I found obituaries for three Gowans cousins.

The library site states" Obituaries appearing in the Tennessean Newspaper are indexed back to 1964. The index will provide the first date the obituary appeared in the paper, as well as the page number. Once you have the date and page number, you can look up the obituary in the Tennessean."

Well I have my three references. Now I just need to find The Tennessean. Those instructions are fine if one lives near Nashville but what about a poor old Granny in Australia?

Worldcat tells me that the closest library to me that holds the newpaper is 7400 miles away in California.

Closest locations for me to access the Gowans Obituaries.

As I will be visiting the UK soon I asked Worldcat if there were any locations close to London. Bingo - I would only have to travel 3200 miles from London to Boston to access the newspaper.

I am going to email the Nashville Public Library to see what they suggest. Failing that I will have to wait until Rootstech 2016 and plan an excursion to an American library that holds the Teneessean. I wonder what the weather is like in Tennessee in February?

In case some geneafairy is watching over me these are the permanent links from the Nashville Public Library to the obituary sources:

http://waldo.library.nashville.org:82/record=b1045455~S0

http://waldo.library.nashville.org:82/record=b1045456~S0

http://waldo.library.nashville.org:82/record=b1259917~S0

Come and see the real thing....

I've been quiet for a day or two! 

Since I bought my new 4TB hard drive I have spent a bit of time tidying up my files especially my "Sorting" folder.  One of the files I found was for one of Mr Geniaus' relatives, Francis Jollie Gowans, who was an officer in the Royal Navy. 

When I was in England in June I paid a visit to The National Archives where I downloaded some digital files and ordered and copied some original records.

This is the record I requested : ADM 340/281. Francis' folder contains over 40 pages of letters, reports and documents. There is a wealth of genealogical information in this file, it is going to take me an hour or two to extract all of the information and enter it into my database. As Francis isn't a direct ancestor this is not high on my priority list.

ADM 340/281

I have, however cliped a couple of snippets from the file to share here on this blog.

Regal Appontment

Photo from Francis' file

Reflecting on my vist to The National Archives I am reminded of Russell Morris' song:

"Come and see the real thing, come and see the real thing, come and see 
Come and see the real thing, come and see the real thing, come and see"

Access to online resources is convenient and easy but there's nothing like the Real Thing.

How do you solve a problem like Maria?

Mr GeniAus rarely takes to the dance floor but last night found him waltzing down our hallway to pay a visit to my study. He could barely contain his excitement.

The GeniAuses last whirl round the dance floor

We've had over a week of wet weather so Mr G. hasn't been able to get out into the garden and play on his tractor. Co-incidentally he had volunteered my services to help a couple of friends solve some geneamysteries. I didn't want to be distracted so I showed him how to use Ancestry and a few other tools to help these folk out. Once he had done this I suggested that he look for articles about his grandfather  in Trove, that has kept him amused and satisfied for hours as there are lots of snippets about Ern's trotting horses. Mr GeniAus doesn't 'do' genealogy!

Last night Mr GeniAus was very quiet until he came dancing down the hall. He had been on Ancestry (I hope it's ok for there to be two concurrent users on a personal account from the same house) trying to demolish a brick wall that had been bothering us for some years. It wasn't for a close relation but it was a case of someone disappearing into thin air that had us baffled. We could find no trace of Maria Gowans, daughter of Mr GeniAus' 3xGreat Uncle John Gowans, we still can't find her on the 1920, 1930 or 1940 US Censuses.

Why the excitement? He had found this death record from North Carolina:

Name:	Marie Gowans Grosvenor
Gender:	Female
Race:	White
Age:	88
Birth Date:	27 Oct 1867
Birth Place:	New Jersey, United States
Death Date:	10 Dec 1955
Death Location:	Asheville, Buncombe
Father's Name:	Unobtainable
Mother's name:	Unobtainable
Residence:	Asheville, Buncombe, North Carolina

I tried to calm him down but he was convinced, we knew Maria was born in NYC around October 1867 but still..... Off he went down the hallway again, after a while he returned with a marriage to a Charles A Grossenor (transcription error?) from the New York Marriage Indexes and a burial record for Green-Wood Cemetery, New York where Maria's siblings are buried. I checked the grave number for Maria's burial to see if she was near her parents. 

BINGO - she is interred in the same plot. It's the grave we visited in New York last year, it is a fine grave with a substantial memorial but Maria's name is not etched upon it. We were standing at her grave and didn't know it. When we asked at the Green-Wood Office for information on the grave they would not tell us anything, we had to write in and hire a genealogist to get further info, I would have happily paid a small fee on the spot for someone to pull the record. Wouldn't have been nice if they had given some assistance to two Aussies who had travelled halfway around the world in search of their ancestors. I need to purchase the marriage certificate, find a probate record and see what I can dig up on her husband but I am fairly sure that we have found Maria. She married late in life and probably had no offspring so there are no living Gowans cousins for us to find from that branch. 

Mr GeniAus at the Gowans grave April 2013

Back to the dance floor, I think that Mr GeniAus now understands why we genies get so excited when break down a brick wall. He certainly enjoyed his first Genealogy Happy Dance.

Air Miles for the Heaven Bound

I've been researching a branch of the family who emigrated to Canada from Scotland and came across the Ocean View Burial Park in Burnaby, British Columbia where Mr Geniaus' Great-great Aunt, Joanna Nelson Gowans,  is buried.

I found it rather funny that they offer Air Miles to those who prebook their funerals. Does this mean that if Eagles' Wings fail one can use Air Miles to catch a ride to Heaven?

Surprise Package

A lovely surprise was amongst the pile of mail that greeted us on our arrival home from nine weeks of travel last night.

Amongst the begging letters, bills and advertising bumph was a small brownpaper package from a distant relative of my husband's.

On opening it we discovered a collection of a dozen photos of my husband's Gowans great aunts and uncles and assorted relatives with a note from my late mother-in-law's cousin.

Knowing of our obsession with family history this cousin and family members when going through the photos of his recently deceased brother decided to pass these  treasures on to us. I was deeply touched and honoured by this gesture as I can think of over a hundred Gowans descendants who may  have been entrusted with these items.

Thankyou to Warren for sending this treasure to us. It will be cherished. I  will scan the images and share them with any  Gowans family members that find me.

The moral of this story is that seeking out  distant relatives, sharing family stories and letting them know of your passion for family history will reap rewards.

On the Road Again

I've been neglecting the blog for a few days but have been very busy discussing and sharing family information with various members of my husband's family.

Around eight years ago we connected via Genes Reunited with a branch of the Gowans family from Scotland. We have visited our new cousin in England on a number of occasions and he has finallly made the trip down under. We have been dragging this poor chap all over the countryside to meet cousins and see the sights. We are now en route to Melbourne for a very exciting meeting before we pass him on to his friends.

I have previously blogged about my husband's ancestor, James Gowans, who was a clock and watchmaker in East Linton, Galashiels and Hawick. A serendipitous result of a Google search for "Gowans clock" a few months ago was the discovery that there was a Gowans longcase clock in The Scienceworks Museum in Victoria. So today I am accompanying two rather excited gentlemen on a journey to meet the clock made by their direct ancestor around 170 years ago.

Hopefully I will be back in the bumpy backseat this afternoon blogging about the meeting.

Tombstone Tuesday

On a genealogy trip to Scotland we went to Haddington in search of my husband's Gowans ancestors. Although we scoured the graveyard at St. Mary's Kirk we were unable to find any trace of them. Whilst in the graveyard we were approached by a Scottish gentleman who was transcribing the site. He gave us his telephone number and said that he would check his records at home for transcriptions.

When we telephoned him the next day he gave us the location of a family grave that we were so close to on the previous day. We returned to the cemetery to find a headstone not just with details of my husband's ancestors' burial but with details of a number of other family members.

It is pleasing to see that the volunteer gentleman's transcriptions are now available on the Church website.

James the Clock

"James the Clock", as we affectionately know him, is James Gowans my husband's 3rd great-grandfather.

Born in 1806 in North Berwick James grew up to be a clockmaker in East Linton (1837-1850) and Galashiels, Scotland. Since we learnt of James' trade we have been anxious to find a clock made by him. Having an object crafted by James or his son James b. 1836 , my husband's 2nd great-grandfather, would add an extra dimension to our family history. James the clock's first son, John Gowans b 1832 who emigrated to the United States was also a watchmaker .


We started searching the internet for a Gowans clock around 2002 and discovered one on a British clocks website. We willingly paid the 99p subscription to view the site and download the photos of our first "Gowans" clock find. An email to the site did not elicit an answer so we were unable to find contact details for the owner. The clock's description states " There are four handpainted 'castles' one in each corner of the dial. It has Roman numerals. In the arch it has a picture of a farm-girl carrying two pails on a shoulder yoke with a cottage in the background." The photographs are by Mike Fuss.

We would have loved to see this clock "in the flesh" on a visit to the UK but had to content ourselves with photos. Just today I paid another 99p and went back to this website to check on James' entry that had been updated in 2009, I found an inaccurate and unsourced biographical entry. I was most disappointed and sent an email off to the site.


Not long before setting out on an excursion to the UK in early 2006 a Gowans ancestor contacted us through the Genes Reunited site. After a flurry of emails in which we discovered that he had inherited a Gowans clock from an elderly aunt we made arrangements to visit him to share family history and documents and have a viewing of the clock and James the Clock's family bible.

We had a wonderful visit with my husband's 3rd cousin (1 time removed) in his charming cottage in the English countryside. We have established a friendship with him and have subsequently stayed with him on another visit. As well as the clock and bible this cousin had a photo of an elderly James the Clock (above) as well as letters and documents from later generations. Oh, to have spinster aunts who live into their nineties and are bowerbirds to boot.

We have continued to scour the internet and have made contact with clock dealers on three continents in the hope of sourcing a Gowans clock. We regularly scour auction sites in the UK. Our English cousin has been on the lookout for us and helpfully placed an advertisement in an English clock magazine. We have yet to find a clock for sale.

Early this week I did another series of searches for Gowans clocks and got a new hit. This Gowans clock is in Australia at Museum Victoria; it is only 1,000 miles away. We immediately sent off an email to the Museum outlining our relationship to the clock's maker and asking if it would be possible to view it.

I was so excited to get a response from the Museum this morning thanking me for the biographical information supplied and indicating that we may be able to visit the clock at a time to be arranged. When I have photos of this new clock I will post them on my family history website and this blog. This news will make my husband's day.

I won't give up hope....one day our clock will come.

Smile for the Camera, 14th Edition Wedding Belles

Sadly I never got to meet my husband's grandparents who are pictured here. Eliza Anne Gowans, aged 17, and Ernest James Gillespie, aged 23, were married at 188 Albany Road Petersham on 29 October 1913 according to the rites of the Presbyterian Church with G. Acheson Gordon the officiating Minister.

Eliza and Ernest's partnership ended in divorce around 1935. Eliza had two more marriages before her death in 1962, whilst Ernest had one more marriage before his death in 1958.

9th July 2004

This post is prepared for Genea Bloggers Weekly Genealogy Prompt Week #5: Talk about your genealogy adventures while on vacation. Doesn’t everyone plan a little genealogy visit during vacation? Take your readers along for the ride.

From my diary on 9th July 2004: "Big find of the afternoon was the death of Robert's 5xgrandmother Janet Sibbald."


We had paid a visit to East Lothian Local History Centre in the town of Haddington, Scotland "where the staff, who work in the most incredibly basic conditions, were hugely helpful." It was here that we found an obituary for the death of Janet Gowans nee Sibbald who died on 24 February 1814. We were thrilled to find that she was interred in a local church, St. Mary's, Haddington so we set off in search of the grave. The staff at the Local History Centre were very professional in their approach and tuned in to our needs; they went out of their way to make our visit the success that it was.


"We cannot find the Gowans grave, but meet a helpful old Scot, Ewan, who is indexing the historic cemetery. He gives us his 'phone number and promises to look in his records at home to see if he has any info for us." After returning from dinner to our hotel in Edinburgh that evening we gave Ewan a call. "We are given the news that we were very close to Janet's grave this afternoon and that there are five other persons in the grave including Robert's 5xgrandfather John Gowans." The next morning we returned to St. Mary's and took a number of photos of the grave and graveyard.


Ewan's act of kindness created one of the highlight's of our family history trip to Scotland. It is pleasing to see that the results of Ewan's work are published on the church website.


The information on the Gowans headstone gave us many leads for further research. We now need another trip to Scotland to follow them up!