Merkland Farm

Merkland Farm, a photo by midgefrazel on Flickr.

 Obtaining Permission

Correction! Unfortunately, this is the wrong location.
My Merkland Farm is near Bankend and Caerlaverock Church. 

Not being a world traveler, I enjoy looking at the locations where my ancestors lived. I think this is one of the great pleasures of being a genealogist today. We can with a simple search find someone to give us hints about our family.

In 2002, I found a distant cousin who wanted to pursue our shared ancestry and she lived near Salt Lake. I gave her what I had and she went "to town" on it. In the "snail mail", I got a big envelope of census records and family group sheets. Then, I heard no more from her. 

She did remarkably well except for one big mistake on my Hannah line. She had the woman's first name as Jane but not as Smith as my family in California had told me was in their family records. I have destroyed those sheets she gave me so there will be no further errors (that aren't mine!)

Now, I see that Jane Smith's, wife of Robert Hannah, father was Adam Smith and mother was Helen Bell. Does this mean that I've gotten back to Adam? (little genealogy joke)

I have added this into my tree and obtained permission to use this farm photo. I think it is a cattle and sheep farm. 

There is another person whose tree is private at Ancestry.com who wrote a note on the Web site hosting the photo. I have sent her a message. 

In the meantime, I continue to correspond with a descendant of David Smith, brother to my Jane. He was travelling for work (and lives in Australia) so I have had to wait to ask more questions.

This is the great note I got from the photographer of this photo. Isn't it wonderful? I didn't even get my feet wet on the lush green grass.

Dear Midge,

Thank you for your e-mail.

I am glad that the picture is of interest to you. My wife and I very much enjoyed the landscape around Dumfries, and we might possibly visit the area again later this year. Please feel free to make private use of the photographs in ways that you have suggested.

With best wishes,

Richard Dengate