Alexander Ogilvie Stevenson & Barbara Stevenson from Banff, Scotland

[A.Stevenson]

   Dear nw_whiskers:

   I exceded the character limits, so I had to split my post in two.  Here is the rest of the story:

   As I wrote before, Alexander lived two very different eras in Mexico.   The second one was a very difficult and sad one.   On 1910 the mexican revolution started, with the objective of throwing out President Diaz.  From 1910 to 1929 Mexico was ravaged with civil war, and when you thought it was over, another one started.  Hard times.  There is another family story, which honestly I don't know if it's true, but according to it, during this time Alexander returned to Scotland with his family for a short time.   I think this is possible, given he situation here in Mexico at that time, but perhaps you can shed some light on this.

   According to another family story, a few years before my Great Grandfather died there was a little quarrel between him and my Grandfather.   My Grandfather, Alejandro (Alexander in Spanish), was very passionate with a new technology of that time, the radio, and he intended to install some radio stations around the country, but in order to do this, according to the mexican law of that time, you had to be Mexican, born of Mexican fathers.   From what I have heard, Alexander wanted Alejandro to take the Scottish citizenship, and Alejandro wanted his father to take the Mexican citizenship, in order to be able to get a radio frequency concession from the government.   Finally, Alejandro convinced his father and became Mexican.   That changed a lot of things for my family, my Grandfather became one of the pioneers of the radio industry in Mexico.  I will get into that on further posts.

   Alexander Ogilvie died on August 11th, 1936.   According to his death certificate, he died from a peptic ulcer.  Last year I went to the old cemetery and found his grave, my father didn't know where his grave was, so I started looking for it.  He is buried next to his wife, Catalina, who passed away on 1980 or 1981 I believe.

   It's a little late here, time to go to bed.  If possible, I shall continue tomorrow and write about my Grandfather and his family.   Thanks in advance for your time and quick replies, and if you want to know anything about us, please ask.  If you could share some stories, it would be great!   Have a nice Friday!

   My best,

   Alex


   To RedMystic:

   Thanks for your tip!  That comes really handy!! 

   Best regards,

   Alex

[MonicaL]

Hi Alex

Bienvenido a las paginas escosesas de RootsChat 

A little bit here available online on the children of Alexander and Barbara - www.rootschat.com/links/0q4a/  Further dates for births here www.rootschat.com/links/0q4b/

Also, as background, from the same link, http://wc.rootsweb.ancestry.com/cgi-bin/igm.cgi?op=PED&db=snjareid&id=I1200

You can click on the various links for further info to see what if anything is there.

Monica

[nw_whiskers]

Dear All, MonicaL has given us a great link to a chart that mirrors what I use so we can fill in the blank spaces from our common knowledge.  Alex has given us the death 11 Aug 1936 to fill out the first one on the left.  The birth date & place look correct for Alex O Stevenson (II) and he was born at Careston Castle near Brechin in Angus (was Forfarshire at one time).  His father Alexander Ogilvie Stevenson was born 29 Sept 1830 (IGI) at Auchanachie near Fordyce in Banffshire.  He married Barbara Stevenson on 19 Jan 1865 at Smiddyboyne, Fordyce.  They had 12 children between 1865 and 1891 most of them listed on the links given by MonicaL.  He died 20 Jan 1916 at Blairshinnoch Farm which is just outside Banff.  His wife Barbara was born 5 March 1845 at Smiddyboyne, Fordyce and she died 20 April 1914.  The family grave stone is in the Banff Cemetary on the western outskirts of town near the school.  It is close to the west wall and carries a great deal of family information including their sons who went to Mexico.  Alexander Ogilvie Stevenson was VERY well liked and respected by all who knew him.  I think that is plenty for you to absorb in one post.  I will fill out the Robert Ogilvie Stevenson space in the next post.  We will eventually extend the boundary to the right of the existing chart!   Best wishes,  nw_whiskers.
   

[nw_whiskers]

Dear All,  The place names in Banffshire, Scotland are going to come thick and fast so a map is going to be a big help if you are tracing the details of this posting.  I use Ordnance Survey 1:50000 Banff & Huntly (Portsoy & Turriff) Number 29.  It is on Ebay.co.uk for a few UK Pounds.  Blairshinnoch farm is on the south side of the A98 overlooking Boyndie.

Take a look at the links that MonicaL has given us.  The Family Chart by Sonja Reid is a great framework to work with and we will get to the Reid side in due time.  It will get complicated as there are plenty of Stevensons and Reids for that matter so we will need to stay firmly focused on the "main events".

Many thanks,  nw_whiskers.

[MonicaL]

In the absence of a physical paper map for now, there are a number of map sites that will help enormously such as http://maps.nls.uk/os/6inch/banffshire.html

Alex, not sure how comfortable you are with mapping and locations for this part of Scotland, but if just starting out, a couple of good places to start to get familiar:

Map of Scottish counties - www.genuki.org.uk/big/sct/
Maps of parishes within the County of Banffshire and nearby counties - www.scotlandsfamily.com/parish-map-aberdeen.htm

There is also geograph.org.uk which combines modern photos with modern mapping, a good springboard sometimes. See here www.geograph.org.uk/photo/153720 for map and photo of the Blairshinnoch farm you have just mentioned, nw_whiskers. Site is easy to navigate, just search in top right hand corner box, by key word, place name etc.

Monica

[nw_whiskers]

Dear All,  Monica has put up a link to the Farm at Blairshinnoch.  The Farm Yard looks overgrown as it was in 2006 but the house has been restored since then so it is looking in great condition in this link.  We are delighted to see it returned to its former glory.  You can imagine Alex & Barbara Stevenson sitting between the two bay windows with the family in a semicircle having their photograph taken.  It would be taken before his sons left for Mexico to seek their fortune.  I will see if I can find a copy of it for you and you will see the parents without problem and spend some time putting names to the younger faces.

Best wishes,  nw_whiskers

[MonicaL]

Sounds like it will be a great photo, nw_whiskers 

Monica

[nw_whiskers]

Dear Monica,  Yes, I have just found three pictures on my other computer.  The main one has the two adults and 11 of their brood in it.  Some of them are full grown adults by todays standards.  The one called Barbara Reid Stevenson born in 1872 died 24 Feb 1874 is obviously missing but all the surviving members are in it to the best of our knowledge.

It is a fairly large digital file *.jpg but I will see if I can tidy it up a bit before thinking about upload it.  Yes, I see that it will need to be under 500k so I have a target to meet.

Many thanks,  nw_whiskers

[nw_whiskers]

Dear All,  The picture of what looks to be a very special day for Alex & Barbara Stevenson,  two pictures outside Blairshinnoch Farm House and one from the Banff cemetary.

I hope that they bring you pride and joy in the same abundance that they give to us.

They are under 500k each but the system is NOT happy I will attach one at a time!

Best wishes,  nw_whiskers