January 5th

It's January 5th and we've got a couple of birthdays to talk about.  On this day, 197 years ago in 1822, John West was born.  John West is your great great great grandfather.  This is on grandma's maternal side of the family.

The Wests are a long line of fishers who lived in the east Scottish coast village of Ferryden.  John West was the second child of the nine children of Alexander West and Margaret Anderson.

There are challenges in researching my Ferryden families.  For a couple of centuries my grandmother's side of the family lived and fished in Ferryden and almost everyone during that period have one of five surnames - and our family has four of them including West.  So when I find that a John West saved some of the people of a sinking boat in 1946 I cannot with a clear conscience claim that this is our John West.  But his life was like all the other fishermen - hard and dangerous.  The unpredictable North Sea was an unforgiving workplace.





The next birthday is in 1884 - 135 years ago.  That was when Duncan Alexander Campbell was born. Duncan is your 2nd cousin twice removed.  The ancester you share is letter-carrier Allan Campbell who is your 3Xgreat grandfather and Duncan's great grandfather.

Duncan was born in Glasgow to Duncan Campbell and Ann Frazer Mckail.  He was their first child.  His dad worked at the post office in Glasgow and son Duncan followed suit.  He was a sorting clerk.

In 1915 he signed up to serve in the Royal Scots Regiment.  About 60% of the soldiers' records from World War One were irretrievably damaged or lost completely as a result of the bombing of London in World War Two.  Some records survived and some 2 million records were saved from complete destruction but they are burnt.  Duncan Alexander Campbell's war time service records are among these burnt records!  I have images of 15 pages which I need to spend time reviewing and/or transcribing so I think an update on this cousin will be in order sometime soon.

🎈🎈🎈🎈🎈🎈🎈🎈🎈🎈🎈🎈🎈🎈🎈🎈🎈And we can't leave January 5th without noting the 34th birthday of a somewhat newer twig on the tree.  Yep, that would be your sister-in-law.  

 Happy Birthday Elizabeth Jean!