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Our family history which began in North Queensferry is nearing completion (after six yrs!). We would be very grateful for any info on Walter McRitchie of Dundee and his daughter Helen McRitchie who we believe married a Derek Kidd in Dundee East in 1967.

Helen was the daughter of Walter Lewis McRitchie who in 1946 married Alice Third, then 36 years old, in her home parish of St. Clement, Dundee East. They had three children, Helen (b. 1946), Anne (b. 1948) and William (b.1950, d. 1951). Walter worked as a car salesman. We think Anne and William died young, but we think that Helen married. We have tried ringing all the Kidds in Dundee and placed an ad in the local paper without success.

On retirement Walter and Alice returned to Barry Road, Carnoustie where he had been raised. Alice died in 1980 and Walter died at the age of 83. Any info would be very much appreciated.

I am trying to trace ancestry of the late Sqn Ldr Alexander Ian McRitchie, date of birth around 1920. He had a distinguished war record in the RAAF and I understand he had an engineering firm after the war ended. McRitchie Crescent in Whyalla was named after him.

Wartime photos of him show a very strong family resemblance to my own family, who were mariners in North Queensferry, Scotland, from 1650 to around 1900. We know many McRitchies worked on UK-Australia-NZ run,  some crewmen stayed in Australia, and other McRitchies emigrated to there. If I could trace his parents/grandparents' details they may link to family information I hold.

All info very gratefully received!

Scotlands People and LDS entries for James McRitchie marriage in Inverkeithing parish 10 Aug 1754 do not list his spouse. Viewing the image brings up an account book, not the register, in which various people including James give up their name for Proclamation and pay 2s 6d.
We can find no record of McRitchie births relating to this proclamation, ie all the other parents over the period can be traced (we had hoped to find name of spouse among the births). We have records from the Inverkeithing registers in Nov 1752 and in 1759 so we wonder whether the book for 1753-1759 or thereabouts is missing. Or maybe the marriage did not take place.
Has anyone any explanation for the missing entry, please?

When Italy declared war in June 1940 Italian males in the UK were interned. Hundreds were shipped to Canada. On July 2 the liner Arandora Star was torpedoed off the Irish coast and over 800 of the 1600 men on board were lost.
Much has been learned about the Arandora Star tragedy in recent years and a memorial tablet was unveiled in Liverpool last year. Further ceremonies are planned for next year, the 70th anniversary.
A week later the survivors were put aboard the ms Dunera and after a nightmare voyage were placed in a camp at Tatura north of Melbourne. They were kindly treated so when the war ended many Italians chose to stay in Australia, names such as Cappuccini, Rabaiotti, Fulgoni, Rosi, Marioni.
Anyone out there with roots in Italy via Tatura?

Hello everyone: First posting, so apologies if I breach protocol. This is a question for tommacgregor who posted some interesting stuff on the Chalmers family last year, and who it seems lives in Melbourne.
The McRitchie family were smallholders, ferrymen, boat owners, sailors and innkeepers in North Queensferry for over 200 yrs. Alexander McRitchie married Helen Walwood in 1687 but by 1901 only Alexander b. May 1842 was left. (Most of the family moved to Edinburgh about 1870 and did quite well in the rag trade.)
Alexander was a boatman and the son of James McRitchie and Helen Chalmers. We have an 1823 will in which a John McRitchie bequeaths his share in the sloop Friends of North Queensferry, master Thomas Chalmers.
However, Helen was James's second wife. His first was Janet Turnbull who died at the age of 36 after they had three daughters Christina, Margaret and Janet.
In January 1848 Christina and Margaret left for Australia. By that time their father had eight more children by Helen Chalmers.
The State Library of Victoria has a letter written by Christina to her father giving a fascinating picture of the voyage.
"Dear Father, We are happy to inform you of our safe arrival in Melbourn(e) on May 16th.  We had a good passage, a good Captain, a doctor and officers with temperate sailors.  We intended keeping a journal but our part of the ship being so dark many day we could not see.  Their was nothing of speaking about ...  There was some children died but none of the old people died.  It would have been a great deal worse if there had been but the children were never much minded."
And we thought 22 hours on the Jumbo to New Zealand was hard going.
The girls left N Queensferry on Jan 8 1848 and embarked on the barque William Stewart at Plymouth on January 25.  There were 234 emigrants on the voyage which took 111 days. 
Their youngest sister Janet appears on the NQ census up to 1881.
As far as I can see she did not marry but worked as a servant.
Now Mr. Tom ... please can you suggest any way that I might trace Christina and Margaret McRitchie after they landed in Australia and took up servants' posts with a Mr and Mrs Brown?
Thank you everyone for this excellent website, I have spent hours on it!