Dear Lafrowda (and respondent Rosinish)
I have the answers to your query about Elizabeth Stirling Comrie who died in Perth (Scotland) in 1997.
Firstly, some background. I am a Comrie on my mother's side and I was born in Falkirk in October 1942. In 1961 I applied to become a member of the Clan Gregor Society based on my father's surname Greig and my mother's maiden surname Comrie, both surnames then being regarded as "septs" of Clan Gregor. John MacGregor, the Society's Chairman, told me that the Society did not recognise these septs and advised me to research them. I did so, and ended up agreeing with John MacGregor that there was no direct connection of either surname to the clan.
I then began to transcribe all the birth, marriage and death certificates (from 1855 until 1980) of Comries in Scotland held in Edinburgh's New Register House. I did this work between 1961 and
1980 and I have about 2600 Comries on card index. My professional work then took me to Malawi, Ghana, South Africa and finally Australia -- where I now live in Perth, Western Australia.
I did, however, keep all my Comrie material through the years and it is now a rather valuable resource -- no-one nowadays is allowed free access to the original B, M, and D certificates.
In the 1980s , while I was in South Africa I created 63 family trees for Scottish Comries. These I later consolidated to about 55 trees.
I can therefore tell you that I have my transcription of the birth certificate of Elizabeth Stirling Comrie before me as I write this. She belongs to JC-G Comrie Family Tree 47 (JC-G card 1528). Her details follow:
Ref. 685(4) (St Giles, Edinburgh) entry 666. Year 1910.
Elizabeth Stirling was born on 13 May 1910 at 15.11 hours at the Royal Maternity Hospital, Edinburgh.
Her father was not identified. Her mother was [also] Elizabeth Stirling (Comrie) [the Comrie was added in pencil] and her "domicile" was given as Craigmore farm by Aberfeldy (although this address was scored out by a later hand and replaced with a pencilled note "Glentarf farm by Comrie"). The certificate was signed by Elizabeth Stirling (Comrie) [the Comrie was added in pencil] at Edinburgh on 27 May 1910.
The birth certificate has an important footnote:
R.C.E. (Register of Corrected Entries) 685(4) Vol. 22, page 34. 16 January 1911 states that the pencilled corrections are to be inserted according to a deposition by Elizabeth S. Comrie. In 1911 the birth record was also transcribed to the Monzievaird register as: 383 (Monzievaird) entry 1 1911 with the mother described as a farm servant of Glentarf farm by Comrie.
The underlying story here is that the original birth certificate did not name the "Comrie" surname, which it should have, and Elizabeth was clearly belatedly keen to acknowledge her Comrie ancestry. In addition, I happen to know that Elizabeth's family did indeed have its origin (if only for a couple of generations) on the farm Glentarf which I know reasonably well and which lies a mere 3¼ km SE of the centre of Comrie and about 2¾ km east of the historic Cultybraggan POW Camp. Although Glentarf is rather close to Comrie, it is in fact in the parish of Monzievaird, and Elizabeth may have wished to acknowledge that fact as well.
Elizabeth's mother, also Elizabeth Stirling Comrie, was also illegitimate. As this text of mine is rather lengthy, I shall close it now and provide a new entry tomorrow on RootsChat for her birth and death certificates and for her forebears going back four generations.
By the way, Lafrowda, you mentioned that you had a collection of photographs and other knick-knacks from Elizabeth's estate and that you wished to have them placed with a family member. Well, I'm not a family member, but I am a little bit of an archivist and I hate to see family photographs and heirlooms without a home. I have a large collection of Comrie material and, although I am 82 (but still completely compos mentis), I have already taken steps to see that my hard-won collection should not be consigned to the dustbin of history (otherwise known as landfill). I have five sons, all of whom bear the name "Comrie Greig", and my eldest son Robert Leith Comrie Greig lives in Aberdeen with his wife and three children. All are interested in family history and all know the village of Comrie very well. I have taken steps to ensure that my collection of data will be preserved and looked after when I finally shake off my mortal coil.
JC-G Comrie Family Tree 47 is two pages long and I will happily scan that for whoever might be interested. It is a declining family as of around 1980, although I hope it has grown since that year!
So, if you haven't already disposed of Elizabeth's photographs etc., I should like to put my hand up as at least a temporary custodian. I have very good computer scanner and my sons have too, so we can copy the lot, label them and make them available to whoever might be interested.
My publishing and scientific credentials may be checked by looking up "John Comrie-Greig" on Google. There are several pages of references there.
If you should wish to trust the material to my family's possession, I could give you my son's Aberdeen address. I would be happy to pay for the postage costs.
Kind regards
John
