Tuesday, January 20, 2009

Broadfoot Monument


Broadfoot Monument
Originally uploaded by midgefrazel
For the next few posts, my Broadfoot family will be the subject. Broadfoot is my maiden name and I started researching my Scottish family when I was in my early twenties. I learned the value of oral history with this family; discovering that the generation before me did not know all of the answers!

My father and my aunt spent a lot of time helping me puzzle out the generations before then and quickly decided that we should travel to Massachusetts to see Great Auntie Peg who could tell us more. I was so surprised to learn that I had a great aunt that I had never seen! She was delightful. I remember that she had siblings back in Scotland that she had never seen and knew little about. I still have a hard time imagining having family I didn't know about. She seemed sad but accepted this fact of her life.

This is the lovely monument for the Broadfoot family in Section 9 of the River Bend Cemetery in Westerly, Rhode Island. Here rest family members that I never knew. My father listened to stories about them; this much he told me. I wouldn't know about them if I had not started working on this branch of my tree early in my own life.

I took a course in Scottish genealogy online and it was a wonderful experience. The instructor, David Webster, lives in Scotland and was very intrigued by the surname Broadfoot. He was a huge help finding records for me and tracing this line back as far as we ever think it will go. In turn, I helped him with some technology skills. What a team we were. I still use the Scotland's People Web site and hope someday to be able to find out more about this interesting family of stonecutters.

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