BIRTH RECORD+RCE

[StewL]

Davie wrote

If Henry PETTIE was the father it would have been highly unusual for a 4 year old boy not to be living with them in 1897

This brings to mind a relative who was born out of wedlock to a widow. The father lived with the widow but never divorced his first wife.
When he died, members of the widows family had to fight to keep the child in the family. As the fathers first family were determined to take the child into their family.
Although this was in the 1940's, or perhaps just a bit earlier.

[scoobydo]

When I was about 16 we went to visit my Fathers half brother and sister who were living in the family home on Lammerton Terrace in Dundee. We had been invited to dinner my father, mother and myself. As dinner was about to begin my fathers half brother stood to make a toast, the toast was "As the oldest member of this family I wish you all good health". He was not th oldest member of the family my father was. He was the oldest member of the Pettie family. I wish you could have seem my fathers face. It was as if someone had smacked him across the face. My father had kept the secret all his life that he had no father and this ....... wanted to make sure we knew that fact. Not only that his half sister insisted on taking my mother into the library and pushing books in front of her face and saying "these books belong to mother before she married" anyone would have got the hint on looking at the name written on the front page. Maggie Gardner. Up until then we had believed that my Grandmother had been married before and then widowed and married Henry Pettie. Why they could not have left it like that I have no idea. My father was only to pleased to be asked . My father had not been in that home since 1928 no one informed him that his mother had died in 1935 and he had long since given up on them. He only renewed the link when he was in his late 60's when we were on holiday in Dundee, he called the house and thats when they invited him for dinner. I sometimes wonder if they were worried he was after money. Mr. Pettie had died first and then my fathers mother. Perhaps they thought he was wanting a share. All he wanted was acceptance.
Avril

[deepwater]

Hi.
Just found this thread. My name is Pettie. My father was brought up in Lammerton Terrace, Dundee. His Father, and after his Brother Harry, were Surgical Instrument suppliers in Nethergate, Dundee.

I will read this thread closely tomorrow and know I can assist with much information concerning various members of the family I know of - past and present (who are now in England, Australia and USA).

In the meantime I welcome any Private Messages.

TP

[paddyscar]

Welcome to TalkingScot, TP.

Scoobydo will be more than pleased to have an additional answer after all this time!

Hope things mesh together for the two of you.

Frances

[scoobydo]

I could not believe it when I got an email letting me know that someone had finally replied to my posting. This has made my day I am sure you all know what its like when you get up against a brick wall and cannot go any further. I had even employed a genealogist to check out information on my Dad but she could not even find him in any school in Dundee. So I really gave up for a while. :)

[DavidWW]

I could not believe it when I got an email letting me know that someone had finally replied to my posting. This has made my day I am sure you all know what its like when you get up against a brick wall and cannot go any further. I had even employed a genealogist to check out information on my Dad but she could not even find him in any school in Dundee. So I really gave up for a while.

Hi Scoobydo

As the person who first replied to your original posting (and that Your Family History article may have been mine ) it's just tremendous to see that you've made what looks 99.99%+ likely to be a link with a distant cousin, especially given the background of the situation.

TalkingScot didn't set out to be an equivalent of the GenesReunited and many other similar sites on the www, and we don't see that as a main aim of TS, - GenesReunited and others do the job a lot better, and involve numbers of people that TS will never even approach.

Still, it's quite intriguing, never mind very pleasing, as the number of registered members keep rising here on TS, - currently, end Nov 2006, just short of 1,800, - to see just how regularly such contacts are being made.

(Incidentally, that number of 1,800 is only the registered members. It could well be the case here that your post was picked up by one of the many others, perhaps 4x or 5x as many, or more, - it's difficult to be exact, - of unregistered folk who regularly browse TalkingScot.)

David