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Genealogy of Sharon & Scotty

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Rae/Smart/MacKenzie/MacDonald

The Rae/Smart/MacKenzie/MacDonald Page

This is the second of Scotty’s pages with lines based in Scotland along with the pedigree chart. I have been working the Rae line fairly hard in the last year and I’m pretty comfortable with what I have put together. I have been fortunate enough to work with one of Scotty’s second cousins and she has been very generous in filling in some of the blanks. I have been working in the parish records of Lesmahagow, Knocken, Symington, and Douglas, in Lanarkshire. My favorite name so far has been Somerville Gilchristson.

The Smart and Cameron lines will be a little more difficult. William Smart was from County Clare in Ireland and while I have his parent’s names, I have no clue about Irish research pre-1850. Jane Cameron is the daughter of John Cameron and Janet Malcolm. I know from documentation that John Cameron died before 1869 and he was a fisherman, but that’s it. While Jane and her mother Janet Malcolm are both from Ayrshire, there is no guarantee that John Cameron is. It’s off to the parish records this summer to try to determine the answers on this line.

I’ve provided a link for a downloadable PDF for the current family tree of Jean MacKenzie’s family here: JMacKenzie

McLean/Frith/Brimlow/Brown

The McLean/Frith/Brimlow Page

The pedigree chart for this family line is now up. The spelling of MacLean versus McLean happened between 1915-1920. I have left Margaret Frith McLean’s spelling based on her birth certificate; however, sometime around the death of Margaret’s father George Edward McLean in 1915, her mother Nettie Ella Frith McLean began to use the spelling of MacLean. This declaration is from the 1899 request for a Widow’s Pension filed by Susan Wynn Frith McLean, the mother of George.1 The signature on the bottom left is George E. McLean. The family story is that Nettie changed the spelling based on the myth that the Scottish spelled it Mac and only the Irish used Mc. Her children adopted the change and their later records are MacLean. I have left Margaret’s records under her birth spelling of McLean.

While I now have locations to research in England the Brimlows and Browns, the Friths are going to be more complicated. I have some leads to explore when I go to Salt Lake City, but I have nothing beyond a marriage location to begin with on William Frith.


1.Declaration For Widow’s Pension by Susan W. McLean; Civil ar and Later Complete File (NATF 85D); Federal Military Pension Applications; National Archives and Records Administration.

Lawton/Pickle/Bickle/Mitchell

The Lawton/Pickle/Bickle/Mitchell Page

The first of Scotty’s family pages is now up. This was the family that hooked me on genealogy and writing about family history. I saw a picture that included Cynthia Viola Lawton, Mary Etta Pickle Lawton, and John Pickle, and I had an epiphany. My father-in-law knew his great-grandfather well and had in fact spent the first 12 summers of his life on John Pickle’s farm. I was able to talk to a man that actually knew someone who fought in the Civil War and lost part of his arm at the Battle of the Wilderness.

The newest research in this line actually centers around Mary Mitchell, John Pickle’s mother. The family of Robert Mitchell and Jane Smith of Armstrong Township, Indiana County, Pennsylvania, is proving to be tough to sort out. There are several Mitchell families in the area and the time period is pre-1850 so there is quite a tangle and not as many online records as I’d like.

The other area of work needed is on the family of Margaret Jamison born 1842, whose parents appear to be Archibald Jamison and Hannah Thomas. Margaret Jamison is the mother of Elmon Grant Lawton and wife of Stephen C. Lawton. Stay tuned – this is going to be another tangled line.