Ramsays of Fife

[gr133]

Hi Margow

I am a second cousin of yours (sharing James Ramsay born 1850 as a great grandfather) from New Zealand, and can enlighten you on the families of your great uncles Peter and David Ramsay who emigrated  to NZ in the early 20th century.
 
Peter, who was a baker, married Lizzie and had two children - James who did not marry and Betty who married but had no children. All are now deceased.  Peter and David fell out some time in the 1920's, apparently over a will, and I only found out about the existence of Peter from one of my aunts when I was introduced to Betty at a family funeral after my own father's death.  My aunts and Betty had maintained contact against the wishes of their fathers!

David, who was my grandfather, arrived in NZ in 1914 with his wife Margaret and two eldest children, James (my father) and Catriona (who did not marry).  Two further daughters Vida (who did not marry) and Margaret were born in NZ.  There is evidence he visited a "relative" in Ravensbourne Dunedin NZ in the early 1920's but there is no information on whether that was  a Ramsay, Elder or another family connection.

David's daughter Margaret had three sons and two daughters all of whom married and had children.

I have two sisters, both of whom married but only one has children (a son and daughter) 

I have three sons.  The eldest is am orthopaedic surgeon and will be visiting Edinburgh next year to take up a fellowship at the Royal infirmary.  He has a daughter ( and son(5).  The likelihood is my wife and I will also visit Scotland next year.

Your post filled in a few gaps in my own attempts to construct a family tree.  I knew of the existence of my great aunts Robina and Mary but had no information on whether they had married and had children. 

My wife and I visited Scotland on 2000 and went to Kirkcaldy and to South Uist where my grandmother was born.  At the time I made contact with the daughter of Margery Allison, the daughter of our great uncle Frank Ramsay.  Unfortunately Margery Allison's daughter was away at the time of our visit and I did not make contact and have  since lost contract.  At that time I was lead to believe the children of Margery Allison were the only other living descendants of our great grandfather James Ramsay.

This is my first foray on Rootschat so I trust this information gets through to you and is of interest.


Graham Ramsay

[Margow]

Dear Graham ,

I apologize for not replying sooner to your very informative message.   I have been on holiday and have only just returned home.

Our great-grandparents, James Ramsay and Helen Elder, had nine children (five daughters and four sons), of whom seven married and had children, so there are probably a great many living descendants out there, although I am now only in touch with one or two of my first cousins.
   
James Ramsay died intestate in 1912 and his widow, Helen Ramsay (m.s. Elder) died in 1929.  Perhaps it was her will which caused the family squabble.  (According to my mother, my father’s family were much given to squabbling !)  I hadn't been aware that she left a will, so I will check on that next time I am in Register House.

I have quite a lot of information about the Ramsay and Elder families and I am sure that we can cooperate in fleshing out the family trees, but it might be better to do so through the Personal Message (PM) facility.  This is a private e-mail system within RootsChat and, as the name suggests, personal data sent by this system can only be seen by the recipient.
 
However, new members must make three postings before being allowed to use the PM facility, so if you are able to make two further postings on Rootschat, I can then contact you
via the PM system.

I look forward to hearing from you.

All good wishes,
Margow

[gr133]

Hi Margow

I have (or hope I have?) made two further postings related to other branches of my ancestors so hopefully can now be contacted through the PM system.

Regards  Graham

[Margow]

Dear Graham,

I have sent you a PM.

All good wishes,

Margow