Another Kincardine connection

[Thomas Thompson]

This email was sent following David's receipt of his member certificate/info pamphlet - reprinted with permission.

Dear Tom and Mary,
 
I just read the info sent with our membership certificate. I was excited to read what has occurred with the research regarding the clan. I have "felt" for along time that the MacTavish connection was not right but it is probably not particularly helpful to go on intuition alone in these matters.
 
My great-great grandfather on my mother's side was George Thomson. He lived in Kincardine, on the firth. As a boy he worked in the coal mines and injured his hand when he was 13 when coal fell on him. This injury troubled him the rest of his life. When he was a young man he was approached by Mormon missionaries and joined the church. His family became very angry with for his decision and his older brother held him while his mother beat him with a rod. He left Scotland in 1851 and sailed from Liverpool on the the ship Ellen. He came across the plains with Mormon pioneers and while on the journey he met Alice Tomlinson, an English girl who was also on her way to Utah. They had both sailed on the same ship but did not meet because she was in first class and George was in steerage. They settled in Northern Utah and raised a family. One of their daughters was my great grandmother. George had a younger brother Moses, who came to America after joining the Mormon church. He sailed on the ship Horizon and came in 1856. He was a member of the Martin handcart company. He carried an sick elderly man most of the way across the plains in his handcart. When the Martin and Willie company's reached the Platte river an early and severe snow storm set in. It snowed for days and several hundred of the people in these two groups died. Moses froze to death at Devil's Gate in Wyoming in November 1856, at the age of 22. George grieved the loss of his younger brother for the rest of his life.
 
I have several other lines of Scottish ancestry, but this Thomson line is the closest...it is the dearest to me. I have a photo of George Thomson and his family hanging in my office where great-great grandpa Thomson and his daughter, great grandma Agnes Gilbert can keep an eye on me. (Photo below)

 
Newbold is an English name and those ancestors came to Utah a bit later after joining the Mormon church in Castle Donington, Leicester, England. When we visited Scotland for two weeks in 2004 I stopped on a street corner to chat with an elderly gentleman who was out for an evening stroll. When I told him about my Scottish connections he indicated that Newbold did not sound like a Scottish name I told him it was English. He very kindly and without hesitation informed me not to worry, "Laddie, it only takes a drop of Scottish blood to purify the rest."
 
I am proud to be of Scottish descent and am proud of the Thomsons who left Scotland to come to this far off place because of their beliefs and convictions. I hope the research continues and again, I am happy that what I have "felt" about the Thomson name and heritage might be accurate. If there is a moral to this, it seems to me that it would be that we should pay more attention to our feelings and intuition...maybe it is the second sight.
 
We have the Thomson line back a number of generations and I will be forwarding what information I have on to Cathy McTavish in the near future.
 
Thanks for your hard work and dedication.
 
With highest regards,
 
David Newbold 

[Michael Thompson]

Welcome David, and thanks for sharing a bit of your heritage. My grandfather (Thompson) was always proud of his English heritage, while my grandmother (née Lee) bragged about her Irish ancestors. I haven't been able to find anywhere near the detail you have about how and when they came over, but I'm still working on it. We know there were Scots in the line somewhere and have long been proud of our Celtic bloodlines, even if we lack detail.

Like you, my intuition tells me that I am of Celtic blood. I am a musician, and nothing stirs me more than Scottish and Irish folk music. I'm still working on the Welsh part of that, as my grandmother on my mother's side was born in Wales. She was brought over on the SS Celtic when she was seven months old. Her father came to work in the coal mines of Colorado. The Celtic was an earlier version of the Titanic, being the biggest ship of its time, like its later sister was, but fortunately, didn't encounter icebergs on the voyage.

[Mary]

Michael -

Can you post some of your known ancestry info?  You know, my grandparents on my mother's side also came from Wales........... if you can post some ancestors/marriages etc., maybe I can help find something (both on your Scottish side as well as the Welsh).

I think we have to be the best cross-breds!   

Mary

[Barbara]

Hello David and welcome!  How wonderful to have that much history on your family and what a wonderful picture!  I love the old photos.  From what I've read the Scots have the second sight more than any other race.   

Barbara