Jun 17th, 2009

Kirkwood Place

I couldn’t think at first how to write this story, because the individuals concerned aren’t my direct ancestors and yet they loom very large in my memories and affection.  Then I realised that a lot of the story revolves around one four-square house in a Scottish seaside town.

But first to the roots of it.

A blacksmith named William Selfridge of County Derry in Ireland had a son Henry who came to Scotland as a young man and married a Scottish girl, Margaret Elder. They lived in Hamilton and had nine children, the youngest of whom was Hannah Elder Selfridge, born in 1893.  This was my Great-Aunt Hannah. In 1911, she married Joseph Higgins.

It’s very likely that the Higgins line came originally (more…)