Some of my treasured family photos; a few are definitely the worse for wear. Photo: Su Leslie, 2014
If my house was on fire and I knew the Big T, the boy-child and the cats were safe, I think the only thing I’d try to rescue is my much-treasured collection of family photos.
In these faces live my history – and perhaps wisps of my future. I see my nose and cheekbones, my son’s hair, eyes and his half-smile (one of those omg moments). I also see our temper, stubbornness and our shared sense of humour. These are the men and women whose genes – and experiences – helped shape the woman that I am, and the man my son is becoming.
These photos are also one of the main reasons I began this journey to research and document my family history. More precisely, this is the photo that began it all.
Elizabeth Brown, Alexander Cruden, David Ramsay, Margaret Cruden and Isabella Wallace. Photo taken around 1933-34
My mother gave me this quite a few years ago and it sat in a box with other “bits and pieces.” It was only when the Big T and I renovated our house and finally had the wall we’d always wanted for a “family photo gallery” that this one was dug out and framed. That’s when I realised I could only identify three of the people in the photo; my grandmother, Margaret Cruden, her son David Ramsay, and her father Alexander Cruden.
Looking up to the ancestors. Photo: Su Leslie, 2013
A quick phone call to my mum told me that the other two – older – women were Alexander Cruden’s mother and grandmother. It was an odd moment. I knew that my grandmother was born in 1908, so I figured that her grandmother had to be at least 40 years older than her, and that the very old lady in the photo was probably at least 20 years older again. Suddenly, I was catapulted back in to the middle of the nineteenth century and I wanted to know about these people.
I’ve written quite a lot before about my grandmother (Fearless Females: Margaret Crudenand Not a kiss, but another celebration of marriage) and great grandfather (On Growing Old Together, On trying to put flesh on the ancestors’ bones) but next to nothing about the other women in that treasured image.
So here is what I know
The woman on the far right is Isabella Simpson Wallace. She was born on 2 May 1866 in St Madoes, Perthshire, the third child of Donald Wallace and Jane Morrison. Donald was an agricultural labourer, originally from Kirkmichael, Perthshire (Fade to black (and white)). Jane had been born in Dundee, but at the time of her marriage she was a domestic servant to the Lion family of Herverd Farm, Moneydie, Perthshire – where Donald Wallace was also employed.
In 1869, a fourth child, James was born and in 1872, Donald Wallace died – aged only 42 leaving his widow pregnant with a fifth child, Christina.
It seems that Jane took her children back to Dundee, and in 1873 married John Balsillie and bore him five children.
The 1881 census shows the family living at Pitfour Street, Dundee. Isabella, age 14 is working as a sheeting weaver, along with her two older sisters Margaret and Ann.
In 1886 Isabella married Stewart Cameron Cruden in Dundee. Together they had seven children – Jean, Alexander (my great grandfather), Betsy, Elizabeth, Isabella, Mary and Stewart. The family moved about quite a bit – leaving Dundee sometime after the 1891 census for the first of several addresses in Fife. By 1911, they had settled in Wemyss where Stewart snr. worked as a coal miner. I don’t know exactly how long they lived there – but I do know that in the 1920s Stewart, Isabella and their younger son Stewart jr. emigrated to the United States. They appear to have all travelled separately, and I have only been able to find passenger records for Isabella (in December 1924), but all three appear in the 1930 US census living 34/155 West Third Street, Bayonne City, Hudson, NJ. Isabella returned to Scotland in October 1932. Both Stewarts obviously returned to the UK at some point; the elder died in Kirkcaldy, Fife on 9 January 1934, while the younger Stewart was killed during WWII when the ship he was aboard sank in the Barents Sea with the loss of all but three crew (The fate of HMT Shera: “Closed until 1972”)
I know that two of Isabella’s daughters – Elizabeth and Isabella – also emigrated to the United States, and seem to have stayed there. Betsy and my great-grandfather lived out their lives in Fife, while I recently discovered that Mary died in 1921, aged 19, of eclampsia, a few hours after giving birth to an illigitimate child (When the truth contradicts the “family folklore”). I am currently waiting to see if the wonderful people at the Lothian Health Services Archive (Family mystery about to be solved) can gain access to the child’s birth record so that I can find out whether Mary’s baby survived and what happened to him or her.
Last but not least …
My mum had told me that she was named after the old lady in the photo. She says that she remembers visiting her great, great, gran as a child, and that that this women had witnessed the aftermath of the Tay Bridge Disaster which occurred on 28 December 1879.
As I’d been told that the photo above was of “five generations”, I assumed initially that the old lady was Isabella’s mother – Jane Morrison. The problem with this is that my mother’s name is Elizabeth, so my assumption immediately seemed unlikely. I haven’t been able to find any record of Jane Morrison’s death, so it is possible that she actually is the old lady and that my mother is mistaken about it being the woman she was named after. However, it seemed just as likely that the woman might be Isabella’s mother-in-law, so I began looking at the records for Stewart Cruden’s father – Alexander Cruden.
And there I hit pay-dirt. Elizabeth Brown married Alexander Cruden in 1892, when he was fifty two and she was 41. Elizabeth was a spinster and prior to their marriage, was Alexander’s housekeeper.However, while it was Elizabeth’s first marriage, it was Alexander’s third and although the couple had one child together – George Alexander- born in 1894, Elizabeth was the step-, rather than biological mother of Stewart Cruden.
I suppose if I were more interested in lineage than history, this might matter. It might somehow “devalue” my five generations photograph. But of course it doesn’t! Elizabeth Brown joined my family by marriage; her son is my second great, grand uncle, and most importantly, she must have been much loved for my mother to be given her name.
I’ve talked a lot about the concept of whanau – a Maori term that encompasses all those with whom we feel kinship. I feel kinship with Elizabeth Brown, and I treasure my photo of her.
This post was written for the Daily Post Weekly Photo Challenge: treasure. Here are some other bloggers’ treasures:
http://grahy.fr/2014/02/18/weekly-photo-challenge-treasure/
http://travelswithjaye.com/2014/02/19/weekly-photo-challenge-treasure/
http://priorhouse.wordpress.com/2014/02/19/weekly-photo-challenge-treasure/
http://followyournose.me/2014/02/18/treasure-two/
http://lindylecoq.wordpress.com/2014/02/18/first-date-weekly-photo-challenge-treasure/
http://acidfreepulp.com/2014/02/18/weekly-photo-challenge-treasure/
Quilts That Matter, and the Weekly Photo Challenge: Treasure
http://mightwar.com/2014/02/18/treasure/
http://maverickmist.wordpress.com/2014/02/17/treasure/
http://graphicrealestate.wordpress.com/2014/02/16/weekly-photo-challenge-treasure/
http://shmamaland.com/2014/02/16/weekly-photo-challenge-treasure/
http://ordibild.com/2014/02/16/wpc-treasure-love/
http://makinglifesparkle.wordpress.com/2014/02/16/weekly-photo-challenge-treasure/
http://photobyjohnbo.wordpress.com/2014/02/16/weekly-photo-challenge-treasure/
Shaking the tree 
Such wonderful treasures, you are very lucky. Have you looked into fireproof boxes? My mother had some to keep family papers in, it looked like a footlocker.
Thank you. Yes, we have a fireproof box, but it mainly has things like passports, birth certificates, and some of our old photo negatives. I should probably get another one for the photos. Thanks for suggesting it – I’ve been a bit remiss 🙂
Love the Photos and loved reading about your family tale. I’ve often tried to track my past relatives but it’s been quite difficult because of the lack of records. They also share the same first name a lot of the time.
Thank you. I also find duplicate names confusing. In Scotland it was common to name children after relatives – in a particular order – so although it can be helpful to know “which child comes next” and whether any have died young, it also means that you get parents and children – and cousins – all with exactly the same name.
Wonderful family photos and a great way to display them! We did have a fire scare once where my husband thought we’d need to evacuate. With the time, he called me (I was at a meeting out of town) and asked what I wanted to save. Knowing he and our dog would be okay, I said well I’d love to save my photos. They are all in a heavy hope chest from my grandmother though so I told him to just save a few important ones. He ended up moving the entire hope chest into our car by himself. We didn’t have to evacuate but it did spur me into getting a fireproof box!
Now that is love!
I agree 🙂
Great post. I love this. I too treasure family photos above all other possessions. Nostalgic to the bone.
🙂
The thought of a fire terrifies me. I have so many photos and other treasures that I would be devastated to lose. I loved reading this post.
Thank you; I’ve been thinking a lot about how to protect family treasures lately. We’re planning to move house and I’m a bit scared of losing things. I always do when we move!
At least having a blog and placing your photos on it means that you can’t lose them. They are indeed a great treasure and I like how you have displayed them. 😀
I know what you mean about feeling the kinship. That’s why I write about various connections, even if they have no blood relationship. How could I be an adoptive mother and sister of an adoptee if I thought blood was all that counts? It’s all these people who are a part of our lives, even by being part of the lives of the people who came before us.
That’s beautifully put; thank you 🙂
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II whole heartledly agree with “currentdescent” reply.
And I loved your story.
Thank you 🙂
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