More family secrets revealed

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Thursday 9th July
More family history secrets revealed
Today is our last full day in Edinburgh and after the revelations of Tuesday during our research at the Registry Office we decided to put in another couple of hours to see how much more progress could be made on tracing the ‘rellies’.
I moved RR back to the street where she could safely stay for the day and we had breakfast and planned for the day in the city.
We thought going for the day might be a bit much on the concentration and anyway the weather was again fine and pleasantly warm(for Edinburgh,low 20’s)and we wanted to also take in the Botanic Gardens which would take us through the streets of the city and give us some more sightseeing on foot.
First place to visit was the Kirk of Greyfriars where John Gray the master of Greyfriars Bobby is buried.The gravesite and headstone is probably the best maintained in the graveyard of the church demonstrating the fascination tourists have with the story leading to the site being looked after over the last 160 years.
Gretchen had the route planned through the streets of the city taking us from one side to the other and the Gardens.It took us through part of the shopping precinct and across Princes Street(the main street in the city) where the road is being dug up for tramlines to be laid in preparation for the introduction of a light rail system which would initially have one line running from the city to the airport about 12km distant.There seems to be mixed feelings towards the billion pound works programme amongst Edinburgh citizens we have met and talked with over it.Many feel it is a waste of money when there is already a perfectly good bus system in place and that bringing back the trams,which the city got rid of 40 years ago,was a retrograde step.Certainly as travellers we have always found light rail to be a quick and efficient way of moving us around cities where the transport was by light rail.
The Botanic Gardens is reputed to be one of the best in the UK(they all say that of course)but in this case it was probably fairly accurate as the grounds were extensive and beautifully laid out with complementing displays throughout the whole area.We visited the memorial garden for the late Queen Mother.The design of it meant that it was probably best viewed from above but you could still make it out what the designer was trying to achieve by walking around it.The design was shaped hedges forming the letter “ E “.The rose named “Elizabeth”was in profusion something which we have noticed wherever people have had a small garden in the city.
The border garden of pereniels was particulary attractive with some of the plants we have in NZ but others we had not heard of or seen before.
We walked back to the city via different roads we had used to get to the gardens so taking in more of the outer lying streets of the downtown city area.
As I had already had my free taster session at the Registry Office Gretchen signed up for todays session and I let her drive the computer as anyway she had in her head what she thought would be the best searches to uncover more history.
My brother and his two sons plus myself are the only Benvie males we have discovered in NZ and Australia and the surname is relatively rare in Scotland as well.Even so when you type the name into the Registry search it does bring up people who have different Christian names and lived in different towns that have not come up in our previous searches.
With the revelation of my Grandfather having being married three times and not the twice we had previously thought we decided to find out when his first wife died and whether there were any children from that marriage.
It didn’t take long to reveal that Helen died in 1901BUT the certificate showed that her husband,George(my grandfather)was deceased!!Now we knew this wasn’t the truth as he went on to have four children to Catherine Jane.The mystery was becoming more complicated!!
Helen’s death was witnessed by a son Thomas and we were able to trace him to his death in 1931.
They also had a daughter,Agnes,who died at the early age of 17 in 1899.
So another aunty and uncle can be added to the family tree!!
George and Catherine did not officially marry until 1903 and whether this was because he was not divorced from Helen(we couldn’t find any divorce record)or had to wait until she passed away we do not know.However we have a family gathering in 10 days when we stay with my cousin and perhaps more will be revealed by the “locals”.
We ended our session with a lot more information and once we get home to NZ will be able,we are sure,to put more of what we have uncovered into context with the family tree information at home as well as from letters my father wrote to his brother and father during the 1920’s and 30’s.
We have invited Alan and Alison,who own the flat we are staying in, to dinner tonight and so we needed to get home and prepare the chicken chasseur for their arrival around 6pm.
We had a pleasant evening with a delicious meal and good conversation with Alan,Alison and their 15 year old daughter Hannah.

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