Meet the ancestors!

Meet George Calder who was born in Wick, Caithness in 1842.  He emigrated to the USA in 1870, when he was 28, and married and had a family there.

At the age of 80, he decided to return to Scotland to visit his family.  He sailed from New York to arrive in Plymouth on 6 July 1923.  Presumably he travelled up to Scotland from there as he sailed from Glasgow almost 8 weeks later to return to New York.

George was my first cousin, three times removed.  Does it make more sense if I say he was my grandfather's first cousin, once removed?

This isn't a family photo.  I discovered it when I found his 1923 US passport application on www.ancestry.com

Now meet his daughter Helen

She was born in Hartford, Connecticut in the USA in 1877.  

She applied for her passport in 1919.

In addition to the photo, we also get a physical description.

She was 5 feet 10 3/4 inches tall, with grey-blue eyes, brown-grey hair and a light complexion.  Her face was long-oval with a straight nose, round chin and a medium mouth.

She was a missionary worker and was planning to travel to China, Japan, Ceylon [now Sri Lanka] and India to inspect missions.

Isn't the internet wonderful!

Sheena

www.setait.co.uk

 

Glasgow Police Museum to close

The Glasgow Police Museum which is based in the old District Court in St Andrew's Square is due to close on 8 December.  The Scottish Courts Service is taking over the District Courts from Glasgow Council but does not want the old court building, so the museum has been given notice to quit.  The full story is on the Evening Times website at http://www.eveningtimes.co.uk/news/display.var.2468550.0.curators_anguish_as_glasgow_police_museum_is_axed.php

The Glasgow Police were Britain's oldest police force.

The first attempts to establish a police force for Glasgow were made as far back as 1779 but it wasn't until the Glasgow Police Act was passed in 1800 that a permanent force was established.  The newly formed force, consisting of three sergeants, six police officers and 68 watchmen mustered for the first time in the Laigh Church, Trongate on 15 November 1800.

For the following 175 years the City of Glasgow Police served the city.  

The force was finally disbanded on 15 May 1975 when it was amalgamated with other forces to form Strathclyde Police.

The Police Museum has a website at http://www.policemuseum.org.uk/ where you can read about the history of the force.

Sheena

www.setait.co.uk