We are staying at the Orkney Hotel in Kirkwall, the Island's capital and largest city. But our day included a jaunt down to another of the islands: Burray, home to some of my maternal ancestors. There was an adorable cemetery in the village of Burray, where we didn't find any Stewarts or O'Hanlans - but we did find Rosies! So I'm not sure whether or not we coincidentally found another family named Rosie and the graveyard just didn't have our family, or we got the wrong branch of the family in our oral histories somehow! In any case, the village was very cute and we had a grand time.
We also had an absolutely phenomenal rainbow appear over the cemetery. The fullest bow I've ever seen, and one of the brightest doubles.
UPDATE: According to an email just received from Granna, I think perhaps someone had the family history wrong, and we did, in fact, find family graves!
It was the real Rosie graves you saw. Elizabeth was a name handed down through the generations. I corresponded with the postmistress of Burray in 1962 and she
ReplyDeletetold me there were no more Rosie's left on the island, although there were some
on one of the other islands. "Say" means isle so I believe Rosie could translate to "isle of the Roses" Uncle Al