On December 20, 2011, I was contacted by Michael Clark of Alloa, Scotland in regards to an inquiry about Charles Maitland. This particular Charles was the brother of my great-great-great grandfather Alexander Maitland (born in 1813) and the son of Dr. Alexander Maitland and Jean Wilson. Charles was the brewer at Bass Crest Brewery.
This first email started a conversation about Charles, his family and eventually led to a man who was at one time an accountant of Charles' granddaughter Mary Gardyne Maitland Cummings and her husband Ian. This man had Charles' family bibles, and papers that were in the bibles. For a few years, I tried to convince him to send me the bibles, always stating that I would be happy to pay for the postage.
The years went by and while the bibles were always at the back of my mind, I had other things to do. Eventually this man's cousin got involved and prodded at him to send me the bibles. Nothing happened.
In April, the cousin contacted me again, asked if I had heard from his cousin, and said that he was going to go get the bibles, and send them to me. In the back of my mind, I'm really excited, but trying not to get my hopes up again. The next thing I heard was that this nice man, the cousin, had the bibles and was preparing to pack them up and send them to me.
Today, I received them almost five and a half years after my initial contact. I promised I would take a picture with them. My elbow is resting on sheets of genealogy information. The newspapers behind the envelope are from Edinburgh with a recent date.
I really can't thank all of them for helping me find the bibles, and finally to have them. While not ancient, they do date from 1852. For my Percival cousins who traveled to Scotland, there is a lineage handwritten by Charles Maitland tracing the Lauderdale Lineage to my Alexander Maitland (my great-great grandfather.) I hope to have more on the treasure trove as time allows!
Copyright 2010-2017, ACK for Gene Notes
I found this gem in the packet. The dates are not birth-death dates but dates for their office as Earl or Duke. So, John, the 1st Earl of Lauderdale was the father of John, the Duke of Lauderdale. The duke died without issue, so his brother, Charles became the third Earl of Lauderdale. His son Richard, the 4th Earl died without surviving issue, so his brother John became the 5th Earl. The 6th Earl was his son Charles.
