{"id":5723,"date":"2023-05-21T12:48:43","date_gmt":"2023-05-21T16:48:43","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/cromarville.wordpress.com\/?p=5723"},"modified":"2023-09-02T05:45:26","modified_gmt":"2023-09-02T09:45:26","slug":"migrations-iii-peter-cromars-milne-buckner-and-esson-descendancy-lines-in-the-northeast","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/williamcromar.com\/cromarbaile\/2023\/05\/21\/migrations-iii-peter-cromars-milne-buckner-and-esson-descendancy-lines-in-the-northeast\/","title":{"rendered":"Migrations III: Peter Cromar’s Milne, Buckner, and Esson descendancy lines in the Northeast"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
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Author’s Note:<\/strong> After a long hiatus, I’m finally able to return to posting! I moved this website to a new domain and server, a time-consuming process and not for the faint of heart. But the results are worth it: no more ads, a new design, better support for multimedia, easier navigation. Did I mention no more ads? I hope you enjoy no more ads. I sure do.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Another change:<\/strong> the near future, you may see some postings by a new author. My sister, Paige Cromar Davis, will be chronicling her adventures in Scotland and Scandinavia!<\/em><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n

Into and out of Aboyne<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

In this journal, we’ve had many opportunities to explore the migrations that define the Cromar family’s history. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

It turns out our “origins” in the Howe of Cromar<\/a> may have been bookended by migrations both into<\/em>, and out of, the Kirkton of Aboyne and environs<\/a>. I say into<\/em>, as I’ve discovered a fable of escape from the Massacre of Glencoe<\/a> has been supported by three independent versions of that story documented in Scotland, Canada, and the United States<\/a>. This may explain the origins of Peter Cromar<\/a>, whose descendancy chart<\/a> I completed last year. The chart revealed the other side of the migration story: that the extent of the Cromar Diaspora<\/a> closely mirrored the Scottish Diaspora.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Cromars’ first forays out of Aboyne were surprisingly early. These accounts led to some of the widest (and wildest) migration experiences recorded in Peter Cromar’s descendancy. That first deeper exploration<\/a> was defined primarily by the Aberdeenshire origin of my family migrations. In this and future chapters, we’ll define them by destination.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Migration by destination <\/h2>\n\n\n\n

So, I’m describing this new strategy as a region-specific one. We’ll start with a region that is nearest and dearest to me, the Northeastern United States.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In the current iteration of Peter’s descendancy<\/a>, we find nearly 650 persons<\/a> documented who either emigrated or were born in New England or the Mid-Atlantic. A majority of those \u2014 nearly 450 \u2014 were associated with New England. This naturally makes Boston a major focus of our family history. Over 140 persons in the descendancy are associated with Boston, one of my favorite cities in the world as it happens. Of course, it has to be: I met and married my wife there!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This set of Cromar emigres \u2014 which happens to belong to my branch \u2014 doesn’t hold a candle to the massive migration we see to the West or Midwest regions of the United States, but it is larger than we find in many other regions, such as the South. And while I do have Southern roots on my matrilineal side, I don’t have quite as strong an affinity for this southern, more Sassenach lineage. Based as it is in stories of rapacious Jamestown settlers and seditious Confederate traitors<\/a>, I’m frankly not terribly proud of it. But that’s another topic for another journal.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

New England and the Mid-Atlantic<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

The migration waves we’re exploring here include Thuddie Cromar and Teenie Robb, my paternal great-grandparents whose lives we investigated in a series of posts<\/a>. If you’re careful, you can find a listing for Theodore James 6.1. He’s about half-way down the long scroll in this database of Cromar migrants, under the USA tab<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Familiar territory<\/h3>\n\n\n\n

We know Thuddie’s line well. John Cromar 5.1<\/a> was his father, Charles Robb 7.4<\/a> his son, then on to my recently deceased father Charles Robb 8.2<\/a>, and me: William Robb 9.1. My parents were raised and married in Virginia, but we moved all over the East Coast. We ranged from as far south as North Carolina to as far north as New Hampshire. And the wanderlust didn’t stop there. I moved from D.C. to Boston to Philadelphia as an adult, while my sister Paige moved from Florida to Connecticut to Ohio. It seems this peripatetic predisposition is in our blood. Recall that Thuddie took his family<\/a> from Boston to D.C. to Richmond, finally winding up in Annapolis, Maryland.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

But Thuddie has us beat by a long stretch: his migration started in Scotland<\/a> and took him to New England. This is a huge decision for anyone. How and why did he make it?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It may have been made for him. Recall that Aberdeenshire Granite Men flocked to New England during this period. There was opportunity to be had in a growing country that was simply not available in Scotland, which was suffering a long economic depression. In Peter’s descendancy, it’s interesting to see he’s not the only Cromar to make this choice. Many of Thuddie’s cousins also emigrate.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

So this begs a question: did Thuddie interact with any immigrant cousins? Did they know each other back in Scotland? And did they have any social or professional relationships on this side of the Atlantic?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

To explore that question, let’s wind our history back to my great-grandfather, John 5.1, and his siblings.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Milnes in New England<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Our tragically short-lived John<\/a> had a brother, George 5.2<\/a>, who enjoyed a long life to age 95. He made a professional sojourn to Fraserburgh at one stretch, but returned to Milton of Auchlossan and presumably died in or near Lumphanan, as we note his memorial at the Kirkton of Aboyne burial ground<\/a>. This George had a daughter, Ann 6.1<\/a>, who was apparently born out of wedlock. Ann’s mother, Elizabeth Ingram<\/a>, gave birth to her in Banchory Ternan to the east of Aboyne, though Elizabeth’s family had roots in Tarland and Birse. We don’t know a great deal about Elizabeth, other than her employment as a domestic servant, a fact found on Ann’s birth record in 1858.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Ann’s father George is my great-grandfather Theodore’s uncle, making Ann his first cousin (and my first cousin 3 time removed). Given the family’s settlement pattern, I’m unsure how much they spent time together. She does not appear to be in direct adjacency to Theodore in Coull, but we can’t rule out some kind of relationship.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Descendants of Ann<\/h3>\n\n\n\n

Ann, presumably living with her mother, married Alexander Milne on 24 May 1879 in Monymusk, due north of Banchory. We know the Milnes as one of the strongest allied families<\/a> to the Cromars, if not the<\/em> strongest. Alexander’s family has deep ties to Donside settlements \u2014 Tillyfourie, Cluny, Insch, Auchravie Cottage. He is, for a time, a Granite Man, working as a quarrier, but later in life pivots to perhaps less physically stressful labor in a saw mill.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This couple made their home in Cluny first, then Insch, and finally Moneymusk. They raised a typically large Aberdeenshire brood of 15. An astounding number of these children emigrated to the USA. Henry Meldrum Milne<\/a> migrated first to the Midwest, then South, while sister Jessie<\/a> headed West. But the majority of Ann’s migrating children gravitated to New England.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

More Granite Men<\/h4>\n\n\n\n

We remember that Theodore. born in 1868, began his stone-masonry work possibly as early as an apprenticeship around age 14, in the early 1880s. He later took his trade to America, emigrating to Boston in 1891. Ann’s sons and daughters, whose birth years span from 1879 to 1902, represent the generation just following Theodore’s generation.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

These are all his second cousins, but many of them are only 15 years or so younger than him. At the time Thuddie is a journeyman stonemason traveling through New England and raising a family in Boston, these Milnes are following his lead. Perhaps he assisted them in finding work and settling in the New World?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Alexander Milne 7.2 and sons<\/h5>\n\n\n\n

Alexander E. Milne 7.2<\/a>, born 20 September 1880 in Cluny, was 12 years younger than Thuddie and emigrated about a decade after him. We know he was in New England before 1903, based on his marriage record to Emily Mary Mackintosh in Barre, Vermont, on 14 May of that year.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Alexander Milne and Emily Mary Mackintosh, marriage record<\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Alexander’s occupation is listed on his marriage record as a blacksmith, but we know he was smithing for a quarry company in Cluny, Scotland<\/a>. Based on the 1910 Census record<\/a>, he was doing the same at a granite works in Barre. This may have been the Adams Granite Company<\/a>, at which we find his son working later on. Arthur Clarence Milne 8.1<\/a> is described at Adams as a lumper<\/a>, a quarryman who moves partially-finished or completed work. Arthur’s son Kenneth Edwin Milne 9.2 was in turn described as a “master mason<\/a>” in an obituary, but this was not his occupation.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

John Milne 7.3<\/h5>\n\n\n\n

John<\/a> was born 29 September 1882 in Insch. Like his older brother Alexander, we’re not quite sure when he made his passage to the New World, but we know it was before 1908, since we find him marrying Jane Riddel<\/a> (a.k.a. Jeannie and Jeanie) on 14 April in Barre.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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John Milne and Jane Riddel, marriage record<\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Given their ages and the timing around the turn of the century, it’s entirely plausible that these Milne brothers emigrated together. If we assume they arrived when John was around 18, Theodore would be living at 22 Smith Street<\/a> and perhaps even had been recently naturalized as a citizen, on 29 September 1900. He may well have assisted his newly-arrived second cousins with the process of breaking into the stone business. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

If they were together, this could mean that Alexander was employed by the Hoyt & Lebourneau<\/a> company instead of Adams. A draft card record for the younger John indicates he is a granite cutter for Hoyt & Lebourneau, at their stoneworks on Willey Street. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

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John Milne, draft card<\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Thought H&L seems to be out of business today, several stoneworks still occupy large structures on the same road, perhaps having taken over the old stone yard.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

There’s more. We aren’t quite done with the Milnes yet…<\/p>\n\n\n\n

William Ross Milne 7.4<\/h5>\n\n\n\n

We find younger brother William Ross<\/a>, born 1885 in Cluny, naturalized as a US citizen<\/a> in 1912. Is it reasonable to presume he came over with his older brothers? If it is, and if we also know that naturalization is a process that takes a minimum of 5 years at that time<\/a>, we might be able to pinpoint a hypothetical date for the migration at around 1902, given older brother Alexander’s marriage data. That would have made William a minor at the age of 17 at the oldest. So either Alexander, at age 22 or 23, was given guardianship over William, or William came over as late as 1907 at age 22. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Whichever way that played out, Parry & Jones<\/a>, granite dealers in Brunham’s Meadow, hired William Ross as a stone cutter, as we can see in his draft card<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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William Milne, draft card<\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

But there’s even one more, younger Milne brother to account for. This one is sporting the middle name of Cromar, as it happens.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

George Cromar Milne 7.4<\/h5>\n\n\n\n

George<\/a> is an interesting case. Most of these brothers have draft cards for World War I in the record, but only George seems to have served \u2014 and even then, he does his duty before<\/em> being naturalized as a citizen. His draft card is issued in 1918…<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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George Cromar Milne, draft card<\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

… while his citizenship is not granted until 1919<\/a>. This is a busy time for George, as he also married Alice Annabella Riddell on 24 August 1918.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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George Cromar Milne and Alice Annabella Riddell, marriage license (at left)<\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

His occupation was noted as “Solider” on this record…<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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George Cromar Milne, marriage record<\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

… while back on his draft registration card, we note he was listed as an engineer living in Graniteville, employed by Boutwell, Milne & Varnum Company<\/a>. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The “Milne” referenced in the company name is one George B. Milne, born around 1857 near Aberdeen. He journeyed to America in 1880, worked the trade in Maine, and arrived in Barre in 1883. In 1885, he started his own granite company and by 1889 he was owner of the famous Rock of Ages quarry<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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