Weekly meeting

Roddy Greig was the first speaker of the new Rotary Year at the Howe of Fife Rotary Club, when he told members about his involvement in a Long Lost Family investigation. As a genealogist, Roddy is often asked to trace family histories going back into previous generations. This time he was asked to look forward to trace family members who were believed to have moved away from the area in the late 1950s, possibly to Australia or New Zealand.

The story started in Aberdeen where, following the death of her husband, his widow and daughter set sail for New Zealand and had no further contact with family in Scotland. The facts given to Roddy were scant and he started his investigations in Scotland, where he was able to check the details he had been given using marriage records, census data, land registry and other public records. He was able to confirm the identity and background of the widow, who had been a nurse in Aberdeen before the marriage and also confirm details of her daughter, including name and date of birth. From there Roddy was able to find passenger lists showing that the pair had indeed made it to New Zealand, via Australia and even had a destination address in New Zealand. The trail went cold for a period, but eventually Roddy discovered the widow had settled and remarried in New Zealand. He was also able to follow her daughter’s progress to university, marriage and the birth of a son, who is currently working as a physiotherapist in Australia.

This was a fascinating piece of detective work, involving many hours delving through records and some educated guess-work to put together all the relevant bits of data and which ultimately resulted in the family regaining contact with their long lost relatives.