In this picture are some of my ancestors. Hannah Asher is my Great Great Great Grandma, she is the lady with crutches. This picture was taken around 1900. These are the Willoughby Cottages, Sudbrook, Lincolnshire. Three families lived in these cottages.
Compared to the first picture this side of my family were very rich. This is a picture of John Robertson and his family, he is my Great, Great, Great, Great Grandad and the picture was taken around 1870. He owned the largest cotton mill in the world! They lived in Scotland. They had the first house on the Isle of Bute to be lit by gas.
This is the one of the homes of John and his family.
My Great Great Great Grandfather, William Eastern Robertson was one of John's sons. He lived in Scotland, and went on holiday to Paris in 1876. Dora Annie Goble from South Africa was also on holiday in Paris. She was walking up the steps of the Paris Opera house when her locket broke and fell to the floor. William retrieved it, returned it to her and fell in love with her immediately. They had a quick courtship visiting famous places around Paris. They met in August and got married 8 months later in South Africa. They lived in Scotland for a while, he owned a textile mill which went bankrupt and they went to live in South Africa, where he became a Presbyterian Minister. They had 11 children, one of which is my Great, Great Grandads.
This is a postcard that William wrote while in Paris after meeting Annie and falling in love.
The poem reads:
Amist the cares, the toils, the strife,
the weariness and waste of life.
that day shall memory oft restore
and in a moment live it o'er.
William Eastern Robertson met at Opera House, Paris (Capt. Goble and Dora) on 7 Aug 1876 at 7.30pm. Staircase - dropped and returned locket.
