From the Highlands to the Lowlands (part 2)

From the Highlands to the Lowlands (part 2)

ID: PC_MACFARLANE-SLACK_02 DESCRIPTION: "My father gave no indication to me of any knowledge he had of the Adams side of the family nor any hint that my grandfather had a sister. When I found this out in 2004 it was like finding treasure trove. Unlocking Janet Adams' family revealed that she married in 1909 to James McCheyne from Kircudbright, a young man who had enlisted in the Kings Own Scottish Borderers 3 years earlier at the tender (and illegal) age of 15. He had been discharged from the army on medical grounds some months before his marriage and he and Janet set up home in Maryhill in Glasgow. They had daughter and two sons before war was declared in 1914 and James re-enlisted in his old regiment. How he spent the next three years I have yet to discover, but while serving in the war at home he had his own private tragedy when his daughter died of enteritis in 1915. In 1917 James was in Flanders and in October that year was injured during the third battle of Ypres now known as Passchendaele. He died of his wounds in a medical station at Bleuet Farm near the battlefield and was buried in the small cemetery nearby among others from both sides of the conflict and from far flung continents. James McCheyne's story and many others buried in archives across the world are now available for examination and interpretation to anyone with an interest, whether descendents or historians. This information allows us to take a look at our own past and make what we will of it. As we have seen recently on our television screens as celebrities are exposed to unknown family secrets, it can be a humbling and emotional experience. James McCheyne's remains will forever lie in Belgium and I made the journey to Bleuet Farm in 2005 to visit the cemetery like many visitors do every year. I also managed to work out Janet McCheyne's and her family's journey into the 20th and 21st centuries. Janet remarried after the war and lived in Maryhill with her husband until their deaths in the early 1950s. Her two boys grew up and one married and had his own family, his children were of my generation. In 2005 I found a current address for these new cousins of mine and knocked their door. I'm glad to say that they were as pleased to hear of us as we were to meet them." Drew McFarlane-Slack March 6, 2007 PLACENAME: Belgium CREATOR (AV): Drew MacFarlane-Slack MBE DATE OF IMAGE: 2005 PERIOD: 2000s SOURCE: Drew MacFarlane-Slack MBE Asset ID: 29212 KEYWORDS: