Roots, shoots and stories

A lot of the time, when I start investigating some direct ancestor, I find myself following their siblings and their descendants and finding some pretty interesting people! I am lucky that on my direct paternal line, I can trace my ancestors back to Edinburgh, and to the Canongate, to be specific. Lucky in that records from the 17th century there have been preserved and this is where this story starts, with my 7 x great grandfather, Patrick Mcarra, who was a Baillie in the Canongate. I have written about him and his position previously  here. I descend from Patrick and his second wife, Helen Wilkie. His first wife had died leaving him with two daughters, Mary and Margaret. Mary did well for herself. In 1698, she married the Reverend John Andersone, minister at West Calder. Now, normally I might have left Mary and John alone at this point, but I was intrigued by the pairing, simply because my dad  (McAra) had married my mum, an Anderson! So I kept investigating! They had a daug...

 A recurring name in my paternal line is that of John McAra. That was my dad's name. It was also the name of his father, his grandfather, his great grandfather - and then there's a break - then his 2 x great grandfather - a break - and his 4 x great grandfather! The reason for the two 'breaks' is down to the Scottish naming tradition of naming the firstborn son after the father's father. The two breaks in the line are where my direct ancestor was not the firstborn son and therefore given a name other than John. (If he had been second born, he would have been given that of the mother's father.) But .... my dad was the youngest child born in a family of  12 children! When I first started my family research, I found out that he was actually the second 'John'. The first John had indeed been the first son, born some 26 years before my dad! Sadly he had passed away at the age of 8 from what appears to have been a cerebral haemorrhage. My grandparents decided t...