Wester Strath

[mosstrooper]

More Photos.

James.

[bigjon]

Thank you so much James - I'll have great fun trying to find it one day

   bigjon

[prince2010]

Bigjon, what parts of South Africa are your relatives from, particularly the Coetzers and Reids?

[bigjon]

Hi prince,
  my g/grandfather Thomas Reid was born 1860 in Wester Strath and emmigrated to South Africa in the late 1800's where he married Amy Harrison.
All I know about Annie Sophia Coetzer is that she was born11 March 1862 in South Africa and she married my maternal g/grandfather Joseph Henry Reuben Brown. She died 11 October 1958 in Kenya.
Apart from the Reid's in Scotland, I have very little on these two lines.

    bigjon

[prince2010]

Hi bigjon

Okay, thanks. There is a Coetzer and a Reid family in my town but probably not related.

Enjoy your trip here later this year.

Glenn

[kenMcC]

My Grandmother and Grandfather Anne and Thomas Grierson, were married at Wester Strath by the minister of the Congregational Church at Avonbridge in 1899, and granny had been born there in 1881. Our great great grandfather William Gay died there in 1895. Wester Strath is an old farmhouse out from Avonbridge. I visited the now ruined site of Wester Strath last year when in Scotland from Australia.  Anne and Thomas left Scotland (Harthill) for Sydney in the late 1920s.   

Ken McCall 

[mosstrooper]

Hello Ken,
                   Its nice to hear you made it back to the Auld Country to see these places
I was born at Avonbridge and have never lived more than 15 miles from there in my life
My brother John lives in Cairns.

James.

[kenMcC]

Hi James,

I am amazed that there was any information about Wester Strath on web.  It appears that many people lived and probably worked on the property.  My relatives were not well off at all so I would think they  were farm hands or something similar.

Ken

[mosstrooper]

Ken,
        At that time the big thing in the area which brought in workers from far and wide
was Coal and Ironstone Mining, the whole area is peppered with holes in the ground
my own Grandfather and his family were Miners, my uncle and his family owned 2 Coal
Mines which employed about 700 Men, Women & Boys between them.

If your studies have not extended to the history of Scottish Coal Mining have a look here
for an account of the Industry and the times.

http://www.scottishmining.co.uk/

James,