25 November 2017

Balmaghie Church link to Canada

Many families from Scottish parish of Balmaghie, Dumfries and Galloway, emigrated to Canada in the 19th century. They include Thomas McCrae & Jane Campbell, who married on 15 March 1842 in Balmaghie. They were the grandparents of John McCrae, writer of "In Flanders Fields." 

Rick Roberts of Global Genealogy emailed to let me know about a petition to save the church for the community. Check out the site where you can find out more about the community and sign the petition here.

1 comment:

Pat Jeffs, Bucks, UK said...

Thanks for letting me know about Balmaghie Church. There is one more signature on that petition. Balmaghie Church is a beautiful spot. It is painted white and on the side of a loch, and I always found an atmosphere of peace when I have visited.

They plan to leave the large cemetery adjacent to the church as a "working graveyard". That graveyard contains four monuments to my ancestors including a large one at the gate to the Neilson family--seven siblings and their parents of the late 1700s-early 1800s, including John Neilson (1776-1848), first speaker of the Quebec legislature. (There is a very long article on him in the Dictionary of Canadian Biography.) John Neilson was not my direct ancestor, but it's nice to have someone in the family who reached the history books.