I began researching my mother's maternal roots on a visit to Australia in 2002. Grandmother Mary Amelia Blanche Dunn Ingram (nee Dempster) died when my mother (Sarah Ann Jane Ingram) was just six years old. Grandfather George Ingram subsequently remarried. For reasons unknown contact with Mary Dempster's parents (Peter Dunn and Sarah Ann Dempster) was lost. My mother had few, but fond memories of her Grandma Sarah Ann Dempster in particular. She mourned losing touch. She was very proud of the fact that her grandmother had been a nurse midwife in Charters Towers, Queensland and often mentioned that this had inspired her to become a registered nurse. Sadly, my mother who died in 1993 was never successful in reconnecting with the Dempsters.Mum possessed just two Dempster photos. The first is pictured here on the left. From left to right - Sarah Ann Dempster (my great grandmother), babe in arms Sarah Ann Jane Ingram (my mother), and Mary Ingram nee Dempster (my maternal grandmother).
My timing at Queensland archives could not have been better. Birth, marriage and death indexes for the relevant years had become available, and death certificates for the senior Dempsters, both of which were rich in detail, were readily obtained.
The big surprise was that both Peter and Sarah Ann had migrated to Australia from Scotland – not from England as my mother had assumed! (Her father’s and step-mother’s people were English.) Peter who died in 1937 aged 84 had been born in Tranent, Haddingtonshire. He was a carpenter by trade, as was his father, Andrew Dempster before him. His mother was recorded as Mary Dunn. Sarah Ann, who died in 1940 aged 89 had been born in Nessmuir, North Ronaldsay, Orkney. Her father was recorded as Peter Swanney, a fisherman and her mother as Sarah Kelday.
Peter Dempster and Sarah Ann Swanney had married in Brisbane, Queensland in 1885. The death certificates also revealed that they had had four children, only one of whom outlived them. I was quickly able to establish some details about the family. The children were all born in Brisbane, Jessie Lillie on May 23, 1886, Andrew Parker in 1887, and Thomas Archibald in 1889. My grandmother Mary Blanche Amelia Dunn was born on September 21, 1891. I'm not sure when the family moved to Charters Towers but it was sometime before April 7, 1993 because Thomas Archibald is recorded as having died there on that date. Jessie married Francis McLellan on April 26, 1915 and my grandmother Mary married my grandfather, George Alfred Ingram on March 2, 1916 - both these weddings taking place in Charters Towers. Andrew Parker married Edith Margaret McIntyre in 1913. I also found two birth records of children for Andrew and Edith - Peter Edward Dunn (1913) and Andrew John (1914).
Where to go from here?!!? I decided to concentrate efforts on researching Sarah Ann Swanney and her ancestry and so I turned my attention to Scottish/Orkney sources. I was certainly very encouraged by the data available to me through http://www.familysearch.org/, the Scottish OPRs, http://www.scotlandspeople.com/, http://www.cursiter.com/ and http://www.genuki.org.uk/big/sct/OKI/NorthRonaldsay/index.html. I became a member of the Orkney Family History Society (http://www.orkneyfhs.co.uk/) - and as a start, ordered some very helpful OFHS publications – ‘Monumental Inscriptions in North Ronaldsay’ and ‘Census Returns for North Ronaldsay’ for the years 1841 thru’ 1901. But a major boost to my research efforts came after publication of my research interests in the OFHS ‘Directory of Member Names and Interests’. Three members made contact with me and shared what they knew about various North Ronaldsay family connections. I was thrilled to receive such spontaneous and generous assistance and began verifying and documenting all the data I received. However, I soon found myself becoming rather frustrated. The early-mid nineteenth century North Ronaldsay population was surprisingly large relative to its size – 489 people in 1841 on an island four miles long and 1-2 miles wide – and yet there were few surnames making it hard to distinguish one person from another, particularly going back in time and when analysing indirect lines! By way of illustration, the breakdown of surnames recorded in the 1841 census was as follows : Tulloch – 34%, Swanney - 18%, Thomson – 13%, Kelday – 10%, Muir – 9%, Cutt – 8%, Other – 8%. In reading a number of historical accounts of North Ronaldsay I was able to confirm that this relatively large population had evolved over some hundreds of years with little influx of new people. (See Genuki site above for historical references.) I finally appreciated that Sarah Ann was likely related in complex and convoluted ways to most of the islanders of her day!
Around this time I made e-mail contact with Mike Rendall, a North Ronaldsay researcher who was inviting enquiries about the Swanney surname. I was having trouble accounting for Sarah Ann’s whereabouts between 1871 and her wedding in Australia in 1885. Mike referred me on to another North Ronaldsay researcher, Marian Chesters who advised that Sarah Ann had given birth to a baby daughter, Ann (later named Joan) in Edinburgh in 1879. In 1881, little Joan was boarded with the Smith family in North Leith while Sarah Ann was residing in an Edinburgh mansion at 31 Drumsheugh Gardens. She was working there as a laundress for a wealthy ship owner’s family. (Sarah Ann’s whereabouts in 1881 had previously escaped my attention because her birthplace had been recorded as Kirkwall.) Marian had additional news to share. Joan had been raised by her maternal grandparents and some of her descendants living on the island today had indicated that they would be very pleased to make contact with me! Contact was quickly made with (half) second cousins Sandra and John Tulloch and Sandra promptly e-mailed a studio photo of Sarah Ann and her family in Charters Towers circa 1900 (see immediately below) - from left to right, Sarah Ann Dempster nee Swanney, my great grandmother, Mary Dempster,my grandmother, Andrew Parker Dempster, my great-uncle, Jessie Lillie Dempster, my great-aunt and Peter Dunn Dempster, my great-grandfather).
I was now able to identify numerous people in the second photo passed down by my mother - the following wedding photo:
Sarah Anne Dempster nee Swanney is the imposing figure with the 'turban-style' hat in the middle of the back row. Her husband, Peter Dunn Dempster stands to her right. The bride is clearly Jessie Dempster (the groom must be Francis McLellan). My grandmother, Mary Dempster is seated on the far right with her brother, Andrew Dempster standing behind her. The lady beside Andrew is surely his wife, Edith. The babe in her arms must be their second son, Andrew John Dempster and the toddler their first child, Peter Edward Dunn Dempster.
A visit to North Ronaldsay became a top priority for me. It was a place where almost certainly many generations of my maternal ancestors had lived and died. I finally had an opportunity to visit in September 2006 as part of a trip to Scotland with my sister-in-law, Bobbie Thomson and friend Annie Best.
During our visit to Edinburgh I checked out the address where Sarah Ann Swanney was working as a laundress in 1881. The house at 31 Drumsheugh Gardens is pictured on the left. (I also went hunting for the address where one of my paternal great-grandmothers -Annie Margaret Ross - was attending finishing schoolthat same year. It was just several blocks away!)We took the train from Edinburgh all the way north to Thurso and then caught the ferry to Stromness in Orkney. We spent a wonderful week exploring the main island of Orkney - checking out the places where my other Orkney ancestors had come from - and also exploring many of the wonderful archaelogical sites there (led by my friend Annie, who has had extensive training in the subject!)
We headed for North Ronaldsay early one morning by small commuter plane - the only practical way of getting to and from the numerous islands of Orkney. I knew North Ronaldsay was small and flat but it was still a surprise to actually see it! No wonder the sea spray reaches right across it in bad weather!
The first order of business was to meet my (half) second cousins in person! Pictured below in the lounge of the island's only hotel accommodation are , from left to right : Sandra Tulloch, her sister-in-law, Lottie Tulloch, her brother Thomas and me. Thomas and Lottie live in the house pictured below, one of the few occupied farms left on the island.
Next we checked out Nessmuir, where Sarah Ann Swanney was born and raised. It has long been uninhabited and like many other homes is falling into ruin.
We headed for the old kirk and graveyard next. The monument for my great-great grandparents, Peter Swanney and Sarah Kelday is pictured below. Many of the names on other monuments were recognizable as other kin of mine!
The remaining time on the island was spent exploring on foot and bicycle. The contrasts were remarkable. The remaining working farms were surprisingly lush looking - the cattle particularly well-fed! Abandoned farms were over-run with weeds and rabbits glore! There was not a tree in sight - the winds apparently are just too severe. The few remaining vegetable and flower gardens are sheltered by stone fencing. Much of the coastline consisted of jagged rocks - with just the occasional strip of sandy beach.
The remaining time on the island was spent exploring on foot and bicycle. The contrasts were remarkable. The remaining working farms were surprisingly lush looking - the cattle particularly well-fed! Abandoned farms were over-run with weeds and rabbits glore! There was not a tree in sight - the winds apparently are just too severe. The few remaining vegetable and flower gardens are sheltered by stone fencing. Much of the coastline consisted of jagged rocks - with just the occasional strip of sandy beach.
Whenever we ventured to the coastline we came across seals - either bobbing up and down in the water following our every move or basking on rocks and trying to ignore us! The most curious sight of all were the sheep - a special breed which over many hundreds of years have become accustomed to feeding on seaweed, tons of which get deposited on the shoreline by the dangerous currents swirling around the island.
We noted many different varieties of birds everywhere!! North Ronaldsay is in the path of major bird migrations and the one hotel on the island is a bird observatory catering to birders from around the world.
Our three day visit to North Ronaldsay was over all too soon. I certainly have a much better appreciation of what life might have been like for Sarah Ann Swanney and the other islanders - inspiration for me to keep researching the island's history and its people and tracing their many descendants around the world!
