She emigrated to the United States along with several of her siblings, sometime in the 1890s, but she also had several siblings who chose to stay in Fosses. The youngest son, William, was one of them, and the house where the family was born still stands, used as a storage shed in the present day. A new house was built directly in front over time, and it was modernized in 1950s to add a bit more room.
When I was planning the trip, I was sure to reach out to the family to let them know that we would be in the area, and true to form, the family that continues to live locally was extremely excited to spend time with us. So much so, that they came just after breakfast yesterday, and whisked us away to the old homestead to rekindle the relationship that we had forged 10 years ago, when we made the trip from Scotland to visit William's daughter, Annie, whom I had been genealogy pen pals with for many years.
Here's a photo of Marty and me with three of Annie's daughters, standing in front of the original house where the Harvey family was born and raised.
These women are absolutely delightful, and so eager to want to share their family history. I can't say that I've met a more close knit family, and the welcome that they offer is beyond comparison.
There were 11 of them: six girls and five boys, and they all were raised in the three bedroom house that was shared with their grandparents. When the grandparents passed, the girls shared one room while the boys had the other. Kind of an amazing story to hear in this day and age.
The took us for a walk down the road so that we could see the houses of the other family members who had worked these fields so many years ago.
The stone buildings stand in rubble but the majority of the land continues to be unspoiled.
And, here is a view from the front door of the house. You can see Marty with his cousins at the end of the driveway, returning from our wee walk.
I recall asking Annie, who was close to 90 at the time, what it was like looking out at such an amazing view every day. She looked me straight in the face and quite frankly told me that when she was raising eleven children she never had time to look out the window, so she had never given much thought to it. What a spitfire!
We moved onto Bridie's house for lunch, and her husband, Martin, took this photo of us, which includes yet another sister, and her daughter, added to the group.
Martin then took Marty to St. John's point for some fishing. This is his photo as I didn't go along.
I was being entertained by the women, being offered a hot toddy to drink.
while Bridie's wee dog was seeking some attention from me. He truly was delightful.
And, here's a selfie of Marty and Martin. Of course he couldn't resist that opportunity!
We ended up staying the entire day, and arrived back at our B&B at 10:00 at night. It's difficult to judge the time as it was still light even when we returned!
I'll leave with just one funny story. When we visited ten years ago, Marty and I had taken a photo with Annie. We had it printed up and I purchased a special frame in a shop in the town. We gave Annie the photo in the frame as a wee gift upon leaving. Well, apparently Annie found that to be extremely special, as it was still in her old bedroom in the house. Her one daughter amusingly told us that she knew that we had to be very special, because her mum had no photos in her room of any of her children. Just one of the pope, and this framed photo of the three of us. I suppose we must have rated pretty high in her eyes!
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