Oh Mother ....

We, my distant cousin Jane Miles, and I had been trying to find William Gray's mother's maiden name for a long time. His father was Thomas Gray, from Aberdeenshire, Scotland and his mother's maiden name was never listed, or so we thought. All the records or the articles said Thomas Gray and Catharine Gray. The George Gray family bible says Thomas Gray and Catharine Gray; the book Elora, The Early History of Elora and Vicinity (pg.95)

"Thomas Gray and his wife, Catharine Gray, from the Parish of New Machar, came to Bon-accord along with Mr. Brockie, Mr. Gray bought his farm before leaving Scotland from Mr. Jameson; this being the next farm north of James Moir's. In Thomas Gray's family there was William, lived in Nichol, Near Alma; Jane, Mrs. John Paterson, in Iowa; Christina; David, in Grand Rapids, Mich.; Barbara, Mrs. Thomas Downing, lived in Bonaccord; James living near Rockwood; George died in Iowa; and Catharine, Mrs. Hugh Reid, living near Holstein.

Back in probably 1994/1995 Jane was in Salt Lake doing family research and as she describes it, she had looked for a long time and on her way to the bathroom passed by a "rack" of records. She decided that or she was prompted to search one of the records again ... and this time she found a marriage record of Thomas Gray and Catharine Gray ... GRAY ... EUREKA ! That was it ... both their last names were Gray ... The marriage record from the Parish of Belhelvie says " Gray & Gray ... Belhelvie, 24 December 1831 ... The said day Thomas Gray and Catharine Gray both in this parish signified their purpose of marriage & after publication of Bans were married." It had been staring us in the face, but who would have thought that they shared the same surname. As Jane remembers , it was shortly after that I came into the area and looking at her face said, "You've found something, you've found something haven't you." Catharine's parents were David Gray and Christian Thomson, buried in the New Machar churchyard. According to records they had lived at the farm "Greens." Years later Jane went to Ontario to attend a Gray reunion and visited with another distant cousin Orell Setterland. During some point Orell told her that she knew that Catharine's mother was Christian Thomson, and had a note written with the information in a box she had in her home. Years in the "finding" and we could have found it in a box ... It was more intriguing our way! You always need two mouths to testify of the truth. It justified all of our work and the journey was much better together than it would have ever been alone. I still cherish my friendship, even kinship with Jane. We share so many interests and she has taught me so much. I am so glad that she knows my family and together we share ours ...