Standing on the grave
Written as part of Amy Johnson Crow’s “52 Ancestors in 52 Weeks” challenge. This week’s topic: Cemeteries
In 2010 my husband Tom and I were in Scotland and decided to drive through the Trossachs and Loch Lomond National Park. As a member of the MacGregor clan this was not my first visit to the area, but the first since I began doing family history, and I had been hoping to make some connection between my MacNie ancestors, last discovered near Stirling, and Balquhidder Glen in the heart of the Trossachs.
We began our drive in Port of Menteith, on lovely Lake Menteith, and visited the churchyard before setting off on our drive. There I was delighted to discover this lovely obelisk devoted to Isabella and Peter Macnee (the spelling of the family name that I grew up with).
IMO ISABELLA MACNEE
WIFE OF JOHN MACALPINE
AND YOUNGEST DAUGHTER
OF THE LATE PETER MACNEE
WHO DIED 27 JAN 1802
AGED 39 YEARS
I returned to my family history research hoping to find a link to this couple. What I found instead was that, while there was no connection with the family of the obelisk, I had been almost standing on the grave of my actual ancestor.
I was searching for the birth and family of my great great grandfather, John McNie of Gartur, (the subject of my Brick Wall story) when I came across a record of a memorial stone, in the Port of Menteith churchyard, which had been uncovered by a Find-a-Grave volunteer in 2016. The transcribed inscription on the stone provided enough information to allow me to identify Alexander McNie as the brother of John, and thus Duncan as his father.
ERECTED BY ALEXr McNIE IN MEMORY OF HIS FATHER DUNCAN McNIE WHO DIED 22ND OCTr 1830 AGED 6? YEARS. ALSO HIS DAUGHTER CATHERINE WHO DIED 9TH DECr 1830 AGED 3 YEARS. ALSO HIS SON JOHN WHO DIED 4th FEBy 1837 AGED 3 YEARS
But there was another picture in the Find a Grave record.
There, a few feet from the memorial stone for Duncan McNie was the obelisk for Peter and Janet. When I had taken my photo I was closer than I could have imagined to my ancestor.
My sincere thanks to all the volunteers who work so hard to uncover the history we search for.