18 Comments

Scotland is next on my list - although, not as a backpacking hippie. Thanks for the adventure story.

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Oh my goodness, Bill! I wasn’t a backpacking hippie. I just happened to look like one. :)

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Yes, Lois, I understand - but, you must have encountered a backpacking hippie or two back then.

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Yes I did, come to think of it. I was a just a bit younger than the hippie generation though. :)

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What a sweet post, Lois! How wonderful to connect w/ your only living relative left in Scotland, and obviously your timing was just in the nick. I've never connected w. any of my EU relatives though my mother used to keep in touch and send care packages after the war. Times were tough over there. But after my mom died, I no longer had addresses and neither did my cousins. When I did a genealogy search for my family, I discovered two cousins had moved to Canada, but did not find addresses. It's really great that you were able to see someone from your family from 'the old country.' Nice post.

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Thank you, Jeanine. I appreciate your kind comments.

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It sounds like you and your friend had a grand time--youth is a trip, no? And wow, so crazy the hostel was in a posh neighborhood.

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That was so wonderful that you got to meet her and spend time with her before she died. Great story.

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Thank you Lynda. I appreciate your comment.

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Oddly enough, I have a good friend named Jean who immigrated from Glasgow. Thank you for a look into her earlier home.

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Thank you for reading my posting, Diana. My grandmother’s sister’s name was Jean and she named her daughter Jean. My mother’s name was Jean as well. Apparently the Scottish pass down the mother’s name as well as the father’s. Reading the family tree is very confusing because every family has the same names in it.

Best to you Diana!

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Oh those simpler times! Sigh!

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This was fun, because I’ve been watching YouTube videos about Scotland recently and wondering if I’d like to go there.

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Hi Bev, I’ve been there twice and enjoyed it both times. It is a beautiful country. If you haven’t been there it is a nice trip.

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What a great experience, Lori! I could only imagine the challenges then of finding ancestrors in the pre-internet days. I remember my father did something similar tracing geneology back in the 1980s using church records and government rolls here in Canada. If I remember correctly, the best he could get was some English and French-Canadian ancestors in the mid to late 1800s. My mother's side is a little easier as my great-grandmother on the maternal side came from Ireland. Thanks for sharing.

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The internet has made it much easier, for sure.

Where do you live in Canada? I am originally from Calgary.

I do appreciate your comments and thank you for reading Expect the Unexpected Substack.

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It is so great that you got to spend time with her before she passed. You could visit without a human being explaining things but it's so much better when a local who's a relative tells you how all of it fits together with your family. I was very lucky to make contact with a long lost cousin in Cornwall England and we're still in contact. Great story! I love your Scottish writing!

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Another wonderful yarn! I enjoyed the description of life in the tenements and the Dixon Blazes. The photos and illustrations add a lot of context, too. Thanks for taking us travelling with your friend and younger self. :)

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