October is Family History Month, and Ferry View owes a lot to Royston’s family history as, without his ancestors, Ferry View would not exist.
Many of you will have heard the story when you visited of how Royston is the first of many generations not to be born in Caithness. His dad, the inspiration behind Mr. Eddy’s, was the last.
In May of 1945 Mary Anderson Smith (nee Taylor) returned to the family home in Shore Lane in Wick to give birth to Edmond Anderson Smith. Just 18 months later, they left with Eddy’s sister Rosemary to start a new life with Leonard Brightman in Africa, not returning to the UK for many years.
Eddy had never returned to Wick, and knew only bits and pieces of his Caithness ancestry, which he picked up throughout his life. In June of 2010, Eddy returned to Caithness with me to continue the family history research I had started some months before, and I just fell in love with the area – the people, the landscape, the big skies and stunning coastline – what’s not to love!
On our visit to Wick, we found that the basic 2 up, 2 down in Shore Lane where Eddy was born no longer existed – having been knocked down to widen the very narrow Shore Lane some years previous. Others similar properties still exist, giving us some idea of the life he had been born into. Wick in 1945 would have been a different place to the one that exists now. Self-imposed prohibition had just ended and many buildings would have shown the scars of World War 2 – today in Bank Row stands a memorial garden to the lives lost in what is believed to be the first daylight bombing on the mainland UK. Fifteen people, including eight children, lost their lives. These people would have been people that Eddy’s family would have known – a reality which is quite chilling.
It’s amazing to think how decisions and choices our ancestors made have affected our future. Had Eddy not left the UK, would he have remained in Wick? Would he have met Annette and married, having Jon and Royston? Would Royston and Vikki have met? Would Ferry View exist?
So I guess we have a lot to thank Royston’s ancestors for – without whom, nothing we have now would have been possible – one different choice made would have change the future forever!
When you look at your life, and think about those in the past, there is always something to be grateful for – even if you may not agree with the decisions and choices they made, we are thankful to be where we are now.