Columbus OH

Enforced idleness has produced at least one benefit for Bobbi: she has been bitten by the genealogy bug.

Convinced that there must be something interesting in her past, Lew long had urged Bobbi to find something out about her origins. But as her various elders aged and died, she made no inquiries. Her mother even had a cousin that we visited a couple of times, and that cousin was deeply into their family history, but Bobbi never followed up, and all the genealogical material either went to the cousin's sister, or was lost. Her mother had a half-sister (still living) who knew their father, but again, no interest.

Last week, all of this changed. Lew had a long standing subscription to ancestry.com which he resorted to from time to time. So one day boredom prompted her to use that site to try and find something out about her paternal grandfather. Personal inquiries over the years had been completely unproductive - her grandmother, his wife, did not even know where he had been born.

She was able to locate his family almost immediately. And she found it relatively easy to follow the line backwards not only to colonial Virginia, but back into Scotland (no one ever had suspected a Scottish connection). Furthermore, the names were familiar. Checking, she learned that these familiar names belonged to significant historical figures: Stewarts, Douglases, Crichtons, Alexanders, Rosses, etc. It looks like her Bruce ancestors probably left Scotland as losers after the Battle of Culloden. The line currently traces back to the both the Viking chiefs (via the Orkneys) and the Irish chiefs, who trail off into the mists of legend.

Stay tuned for additions and corrections.