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Scotland (Counties as in 1851-1901) => Scotland => Moray (Elginshire) => Topic started by: Jackson_search on Saturday 17 March 07 13:03 GMT (UK)
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My McDonald ancestors ( orphaned ) were fostered by a Maggie Grant from about 1907 until about 1920. They lived in the house featured on many postcards next to the Bridge of Brown, not far from Tomintoul. The house may be run as a Tea Room today.
I would like to find any information about Maggie Grant.
Thank you.
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I passed through the Bridge of Brown some years ago, I only remember the one house/ tea-room,
http://www.highland-holidays-scotland.co.uk/brown.php
looked on 1901 census but not found anything so far , but if i do will let you know
prop
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Ok folks.....I need the assistance of some local knowledge ;D
Looking at the link posted above I see this for an address:
Tea Room and Craft Shop, Bridge of Brown, Tomintoul
Ballindalloch, Banffshire
and then looking in my gazetteer I find:
Bridge of Avon - 1 1/2 miles SE of Ballindalloch, Banffshire and there is a Post office there.
So is the Bridge of Brown and the Bridge of Avon the same bridge? My gazetteer doesn't have a listing for Bridge of Brown.......
And the reason why I ask? ;D
There is a DC on SP for a Margaret GRANT in 1946. Her home was at Bridge of Avon, Kirkmichael. She was single, age 69, and the postmistress. Informant was a brother.
What are the odds???? ???
Here's hoping
Jean
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Hi Jean
There was also a duplicate post on the Banff board...you and I are, I think, going the same way :)
www.rootschat.com/forum/index.php/topic,221525.0.html
Regards.
Monica
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Hi Monica
Thanks for that! It's got to be a possibility then! Guess I need to read the whole board a little more frequently ;D
Best wishes
Jean
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Hi I have Also Just checked my Gazeteer of Scotland ( pubished in 1937) it an old one but quiet useful there is no Bridge of Brown listed , However the Bridge of Avon is,
Another old book I have on Scotland However dose mention the Bridge of Brown
(The Bridge of Brown Is in a most romantic spot, where the waterflows through a rocky channel some 2ft wide at the surface of the stream, and 8 or 10 ft wide at the upper surface of the rocks some 40 ft above the wate.
this part of the stream is known as the Linn of Brown. the road then climbs up over the hills to the east and crosses the Avon bye the bridge of Avon and there joins the road, via Strath Avon From Ballindalloch)
this book is another old one but i cannot find a date on it but suspect it may not be as old as the first.
I also have a mention of it in Ward Lock's Red Guide To Scotland, but in this book ( published 1970) it it listed as the Bridge of Broun, but apart form the first line of the fist and earlier book it gives little else,. the only one of the 3 books that mention the bridge of avon is the gazeteer, the other giude book have no mention at all of it.
Hope this is of some help to you
Sybil
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:o Sybil, after your last post with all the detail, I had one last go on Ancestry's new index for 1901 searching for a Grant/surname and address Bridge of Brown....I'm quite taken back (putting it mildly!) by what came up on the search result:
Maggie Grant 45, formerly domestic nurse, b. Inverness-Shire, Abernethy
Peter Fowler 23, nephew, Grocer Shopkeeper, b. Edinburh
Mary Christie 10, boarder, b. Glasgow
John Hannah 9, boarder, b. Glasgow
Robert Simpson 8, boarder, b. Glasgow
Archibald Smith 9, boarder, b. Glasgow
Address: Bridge Of Brown Cottage, Abernethy and Kincardine, Inverness-shire
She could be THE Maggie. We have the young boarders, from Glasgow....how it all fits in I do not know....
I know that in 1901 this Maggie is not in Tomintoul - but there are too many strong markers on this one.
Jackson, I'd be curious to know how the Tomintoul reference came in with the MacDonald children from Glasgow.
Regards.
Monica :)
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Glad it helped your most welcome
Sybil
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Thank you everyone for your efforts. It seems likely that we have THE Maggie Grant. The link to the borders from Glasgow is curious. When I thought of my Grandmother and her siblings being sent up to live with Maggie I guessed there might have been a family connection. Perhaps a McDonald in the area .... or a Hinshaw .... but there may be another possibility worth considering. The reference to Maggie being a nurse. My Greatgrandmother Mary Ann Hinshaw had worked at the Western Infirmiry in Glasgow.
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Found Maggie's death (thanks to the Sunday Mail contribution on SP units!) - I'll PM you.
Regards.
Monica
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Well Done Monica.
Just had some Brill info from the boards on some of my side lines, feels fantastic when someone finds something good for you but feel just as good when you help someone and find what they are looking for
Sybil
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So is the Bridge of Brown and the Bridge of Avon the same bridge?
No, they are two different bridges.
Bridge of Avon is on the A95 at Ballindalloch, National Grid reference NJ183357; Bridge of Brown is on the A939 between Grantown-on-Spey and Tomintoul, National Grid reference NJ124205.
http://www.geograph.org.uk/gridref/NJ1835 has a couple of photos of Bridge of Avon, and http://www.geograph.org.uk/gridref/NJ1220 shows Bridge of Brown.
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So is the Bridge of Brown and the Bridge of Avon the same bridge?
No, they are two different bridges.
Bridge of Avon is on the A95 at Ballindalloch, National Grid reference NJ183357; Bridge of Brown is on the A939 between Grantown-on-Spey and Tomintoul, National Grid reference NJ124205.
http://www.geograph.org.uk/gridref/NJ1835 has a couple of photos of Bridge of Avon, and http://www.geograph.org.uk/gridref/NJ1220 shows Bridge of Brown.
Wow Falkryn.....awesome photies.....thanks for the geography lesson!!! I always forget about that website but got it clearly "favoritized" now!! :)
Best wishes
Jean
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I notice that one or two people have spoken about looking in a gazetteer and not finding places they are interested in. In other threads people report failing to find places in road atlases.
Can I suggest that you are far more likely to find small places like individual farms on sites with gazetteers linked to detailed maps, which should be the first port of call when looking for a place.
These sites include the Ordnance Survey Get-a-Map http://www.ordnancesurvey.co.uk/oswebsite/getamap/
and www.streetmap.co.uk and http://uk8.multimap.com/map/places.cgi
All of these will locate both Bridge of Avon and Bridge of Brown.
Being contemporary maps, they don't work for places no longer in existence, but if you know which parish the place was in, you can often find it in http://www.old-maps.co.uk/. However there isn't a complete gazetteer of all names recorded on these maps, so a search may involve a lot of scrolling.
If you are in luck, someone may have located and photographed a derelict place, or the site of a vanished one, and submitted the photo to www.geograph.org.uk, so that's always worth a try.
If all these methods fail, there are other means, but they'd take too long to describe here. Best just to ask.
Oh, and remember that spelling is not fixed, and place names may be a little different now and in historical records. For example, I've seen Cooperhill/Couperhill/Cowperhill, all versions either with or without an 's' on the end, referring to the same place near Forres.
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:-[ Just realized I addressed my last post to the wrong poster :-[....Forfarian I"m so sorry!
Thanks again!!
Best wishes
Jean
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Not to worry, it's the thought that counts! :)
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A correction of note..... the tea room I had referred to earlier is not the correct place. The location I meant was the cottage immediately adjacent to the bridge. It was used as a gift shop at one time a few years ago, but apparently not anymore. I had a closer look at the reference pictures. John Myers tea room might be the next house up the road but the building construction differences between the tea room and the cottage should have alerted me earlier.
Thank you to all who have offered assistance. Our biannual family reunion is in two days and I look forward to presenting everything you've helped me find.
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May I add a little to the answers to your query.
Fostering children was quite a common occupation in the area. Quite how it was done I'm not sure though there are people still living around Tomintoul who were fostered and who married and stayed on. During the war a number of children were also evacuated there.
The cottage which was the Post Office was indeed close by the bridge. The cafe is/was half-way up the hill and above it is the old schoolhouse. It is not an easy stretch of road to negotiate in winter because of the gradient and the bends and it is best to stay in low gear and take it easy. There were originally quite a number of other cottages around the Bridge of Brown (Brig o"Broun). John Brown is supposed to have dismounted to help Queen Victoria to cross. (cf her Highland diary)
The designation "Bridge of Avon" can cause problems. If you are using the Kirkmichael census then this refers to the old Wade bridge (now with a new bridge built beside it that was opened by Prince Charles) below a farm called Urlarmore on one side of the river and Kilnadrochit lodge on the other side. There are two cottages one on either side of the old approach to the bridge from Tomintoul but there were once other cottages below Kilnadrochit lodge that were washed away in the great Moray floods.
If you are using the Inveravon census then the Bridge of Avon refers to the lower bridge over the river. Avon is pronounced A-an locally which may also cause some confusion. The Brig o Broun is worth a visit. The river has made a fine narrow gorge that is worth stopping to look at. It's a great part of the country that people simply pass through without realising how much there is to explore.
Hope this helps.
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Hi esKirrie
Welcome to RootsChat :)
What a fantastic description of the area, you've painted quite a picture in my head!
Monica :)
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Glad about that. Another thought. If the families you are talking about were Catholics and Maggie was also one of the Catholic Grants then it is quite likely that the arrangements would have been made via the parish priests. This is an area where Catholicism survived with the help of the local Protestants despite rivalries because most families had and have members on both sides, Grants were and still are leading members of the Catholic community but there were and are Grants who are members of the Kirk. This applies to many families with long histories in the area.
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Just a quick note....
I was fortunate to visit the Brig o Broun this past July. Maggie Grant's home, where my Gramma lived, is fenced off by the current owner so we couldn't get too close. But we did stand and stare and imagine my Gramma as a child living there and washing cloths in the stream, riding her bike down the steep hill etc .. We walked on the old original bridge. I climbed down to the stream and was even stung by some Nettle... it left a reminder of the area for quite a while ....
We also walked over to the gorge. So people were sliding down through it as part of an eco tour. My Gramma and her sister used to catch fish there. The trout or salmon would be jumping up through the water. One sister would bat them out and over to the shore where the other sister would have to catch them.....
We also climbed to the top of the hill above the Bridge and have some incredible photos .... and wet boots .....
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Hi you could try brig' o' broon thats what its known as around this area.
Regards Rosemary