Return to the Past

By Catherine Carson

Kirsty Forbes had grown up listening to stories her grandfather told her of their family history. One story in particular had captured her imagination and when she found proof her namesake had left Argyllshire, Scotland in 1892 to marry her betrothed Logan Ferguson she contacted the family still living in Colorado.
The answer she received from the Ferguson’s opened up a completely new search which led her to leave Central Scotland and travel across the Atlantic to Colorado to meet the descendants of her great, great aunt.
Before the mystery of why her aunt married William McPherson rather than Logan Ferguson is solved, Kirsty finds herself thrown in at the deep end between two estranged families.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Lulu.com
• Release date: Jan 18, 2016
• ISBN: 9781326536831

Book preview

Return to the Past

Return to the Past

By Catherine Carson

Standard Copyright © Catherine Carson 2015

ISBN 978-1-326-53670-1 Paperback

ISBN 978-1-326-53683-1 eBook

About the author

Born in Scotland I now live with my husband in the North West of England.  We have three children who, between them have given us six wonderful grandchildren.

I studied commercial subjects at school and college and spent most of my working life in the offices of various companies, starting as a junior in a local garage typing invoices for car repairs.   I left Scotland and crossed the border to England to marry the man I met whilst on a holiday with my extended family and eventually became a secretary with a beer bottling company leaving six years later when the first of our three children came on the scene. 

Returning to the workforce when our children were young adults I finally untied the apron strings to join the offices of a large wholesale book supplier and embraced the advancement in technology since I had first learned to type on a manual typewriter and take notes in shorthand.

During the years I became something of a letter writer as friends and family lived in many parts of the country and indeed the world.  Often friends and family would tell me…..‘You could write a book’ to which I always replied…..‘But would anyone read it?’

When my granddaughter asked if I would write a book especially for her I confided in my good friend Lisa Schmidt and she told me to go for it.  That book became the first of many stories which had been lurking in my imagination for a good number of years.

Once started I found the stories simply kept coming and often an overheard conversation or a glimpse from the passenger seat of the car would trigger a likely scenario which my imagination would then elaborate and weave into a story.

My hope is that my writing brings a little pleasure into the life of my readers and allows them to leave the mundane world behind for a few hours as they meet the characters I adore creating.

www.facebook.com/catherinecarsonbooks.uk

www.catherinerenacarson.jimdo.com

Other Books by this Author

Stand AloneSeries

The Mouse in the LibraryTapestry of Love-Bk 1

Family TiesTwins Exchanged-Bk 2

Overall ConstructionHighland Feud-Bk 3

Wounded Wolf

Coffee and CakesSoil, Seed & Betrayal-Bk 1

Memories RekindledDesert Prince, Exiled Princess-Bk 2

Wholesale LoveBody Language-Bk 3

Hope’s Conflict

Sibling RivalryAn Open Book-Bk 1

Fighting for CustodyAfraid to Love-Bk 2

White Knight Black Knight

Through the Garden Gate…A Second Chance-Bk 1

Love Lost and FoundTaming the Playboy-Bk 2

Alphabet Bachelors

A Dreamer’ TaleEstranged Husband & Father-Bk 1

A Precious JewelIdentical Mistake-Bk 2

Footbridge of Solace

Girl Meets Boy                               Sigh of the Claymore-Bk 1

Demolition of the Heart                  Beyond Claymore-Bk 2

When Life Gives You Lemons

Dedication

For you Lisa – thank you.

The characters in this book are completely fictional, a product of the author’s imagination and bear no resemblance to any living person.

Chapter 1

After the death of her parents Malcolm and Leah Forbes had made a home for their four year old granddaughter Kirsty until she left to attend university in Glasgow, where she gained her PhD in History and Genealogy before taking up a junior post at a university in the Central Scotland area.

Malcolm Forbes had often told her stories of the poverty in the highlands and how many of the young men left the shores of their native land to seek their fortune in Australia, Canada and the United States.

His own father had left to live in the central belt of Scotland and had become a coal miner, first in the Ayrshire coal fields and then in the coalfields of Lanarkshire.

On one occasion he related the story of his great aunt Kirsty Forbes who had left Scotland after receiving a letter from the young man she had been betrothed to.  Whether the story was true or not, Kirsty had no idea but the mere fact she was named after the woman who was her great, great aunt, had intrigued the young impressionable teenager.

No matter how many times she asked for some proof of his tale her grandfather simply informed her every word was true and one day the descendants of his great aunt would come to find the family she had left behind.

When her grandfather died, clearing his house was not a task she looked forward to.  Malcolm Forbes had been a hoarder of all things relating to his family and after his wife died he had become something of a recluse, refusing to allow Kirsty to touch any of his papers.

The house belonged to the local authority and Kirsty knew she would need to clear the contents quickly as they probably had another tenant already waiting to take possession.

Deciding the best course of action was to have a removal company empty the house and store everything in a rented lock-up; Kirsty spent most of her weekends slowly filtering through the piles of boxes which contained reams of paper her grandfather had obviously thought important enough to keep.

Most of the papers were simply old utility bills or tax forms showing his earnings from the steel rolling mill where he had been employed for most of his working life.

Taking the lid from a shoe box Kirsty was puzzled to find it was full of newspaper cuttings.  Reading through the clipped articles they all referred to the incident which had taken the lives of her parents.

Robert and Senga Forbes lived in the city of Glasgow in a large tenement building.  Robert was a teacher in the local secondary school and his wife was a baker until their daughter Kirsty arrived. 

Malcolm Forbes was never happy their deaths had been recorded as accidental and had written copious letters to the police and fire service pleading with them to investigate the fire which had swept through the tenement building trapping her parents in their one bedroom apartment on the top floor.  It was only after extensive reports by experts her grandfather finally accepted the courts’ decision her parents’ death had been accidental and the fire had started in the flat below theirs by a faulty gas appliance.

It was fortuitous that weekend Kirsty had been staying with her grandparents whose home was in one of the small towns a few miles from the city and had been in no danger; although many of the other tenants were unaware of this fact and had instigated a full search of the building after the fire was extinguished and her parents’ bodies had been removed.  Replacing the cuttings in the box Kirsty put the box to one side until she decided which pile to put it in. 

Each weekend she had taken the discarded papers to her home and burned them in the garden incinerator watching everything burn with a feeling her life was being slowly devoured by the flames, just as her parents had been.

Kirsty was pleased to be making her final visit to the lock-up but she was also disappointed the papers her grandfather had set such great store by had not yielded anything of any great import to her life or the lives of her antecedents.

Lifting the roller door she entered the lock-up pulling the cord on the ceiling light switch and waited for the fluorescent tube to stop flickering before closing the door and walking towards the old bureau which had always sat in her grandparent’s living room.

It had been difficult to resist opening the bureau on day one but knowing if she found anything of importance she would probably discard the cardboard boxes without ensuring they were gone through properly she held herself in check. Taking one of the dining room chairs she placed it in front of the desk and pulled down the writing slope and started removing the papers from each of the pigeon hole divisions. 

Opening the first envelope Kirsty found birth and marriage certificates for her grandparents.  In the next was birth, marriage and death certificates for her parents and she sat looking at these for a long time trying to bring the faces of Robert and Senga Forbes to the front of her mind but found she could no longer recall even the colour of her mother’s hair without first looking at one of the few photographs she treasured.

An hour later each of the pigeon holes had been emptied and Kirsty had placed all the important papers in her briefcase.  Sitting back in her chair she was about to close the writing slope when she thought to remove the small drawer between the divisions.

She already knew it was empty but had hoped to find something hidden behind it.  Many of these old bureaus had secret drawers or cavities which could be accessed by pressing a button; running her fingers in the cavity of the drawer space Kirsty found nothing to either pull or press.

‘Ah well Gramps it looks as if your old bureau missed out on hiding places.’  Kirsty laughed as she replaced the drawer and closed the bureau.

Under the writing slope there were two drawers and Kirsty knew the top one contained the canteen of cutlery which her grandmother only ever used on special occasions but as she intended keeping it she took it from its resting place.

About to close the drawer her eyes were drawn to a brown envelope and placing the canteen on the floor she picked up the envelope and removed its contents.

The first item was a sepia coloured photograph of a tall young man dressed in a high collared shirt, long black coat and flannel trousers which were probably grey in colour.  Not exactly the height of fashion for the late 1800s but smart nevertheless.  The photograph was typical of the era having been taken in a studio but the young man was not sporting the large bushy moustache which was fashionable amongst his peers.  Turning it over the words scrawled across the back simply stated – Logan Ferguson aged twenty.

Retrieving the second item Kirsty recognised the name scrawled across the front of a heavy parchment envelope and her fingers shook as they pulled the sheet of paper from its resting place. 

Staring at the single folded sheet Kirsty felt the excitement building up inside her as she remembered the story her grandfather had told her of his great aunt going to America to be with her betrothed.

Carefully pulling down the writing slope she unfolded the single sheet of paper and placed it on the leather writing inset; marvelling although the ink had faded somewhat on the envelope, the letter seemed as pristine as the day it had been written in the fine hand of her ancestor’s young man.

Double F Ranch,

Thankful Rest,

Colorado.

20th August, 1892

My Dearest Kirsty,

At last after four long years I am able to ask you to join me here in this wonderful new world.

I have purchased a ticket for you on a steam packet ship leaving from the port of Glasgow bound for New York which you can collect at the port office.

A rail ticket from New York to Denver will also    be waiting for you.  I cannot wait for you to arrive so we can spend the rest of our lives together.

Yours forever,

Logan Ferguson

Kirsty read the letter again and again finding it a little surreal she should find the proof her great, great aunt had indeed travelled to the United States and wondered how long it had been sitting under the canteen of cutlery which only ever saw light of day on special occasions.

Closing the slope once more she checked the bottom drawer of the bureau but found nothing but damask napkins and a set of silver rings to hold them.

Taking her briefcase, canteen of cutlery and the napkin rings she left the lock-up to go back to her home and start her search hoping it would lead eventually to finding out what had happened to her relative.

Chapter 2

Her initial search established Kirsty Forbes was born in a small croft in Argyllshire in August 1870.  After searching for Logan Ferguson she found details of his birth, within a few miles of Kirsty, indicating he was two years her senior having been born in 1868. 

Checking the date of the letter it did not take Kirsty long to find a website which not only listed the ships which sailed from Glasgow around 1892 but also gave a full manifesto of passengers who had booked passages.  

The ship sailed from the port of Glasgow in September 1892 and arrived in New York some six weeks later.  The emigration authorities checked her aunt’s papers and granted her permission to travel to Denver, Colorado to meet her fiancé.  From that point on there was no paper trail to follow and Kirsty changed her tactics.

Using a search engine on her computer she discovered the small town of Thankful Rest, Colorado was still in existence and soon found the website for the Double F Ranch complete with an email address.

Checking and rechecking their website she felt sure the widow of the man who had owned the ranch would welcome some contact from the old country.   The number of requests she had to carry out such tasks for relatives of emigrants was testament to the desire many felt to connect with their roots.

For several nights she wrestled with the idea of contacting the Double F Ranch in the hope they would be eager to know of family still living in Scotland. 

Coming home from the university one evening she sat down in front of the computer and before she could change her mind she opened up her email server…

To:             Cindy Ferguson

CC:

Subject:     Ancestral Search

Hi Mrs Ferguson,

I have reason to believe we may be related in some way.

In accordance with my genealogical research it would appear we share a link through one Kirsty Forbes who left Scotland in 1892 to marry Logan Ferguson of the Double F Ranch, Thankful Rest, Colorado.

I would appreciate any information you could give me regarding this marriage and look forward to hearing from you.

With regards,

Kirsty Forbes PhD

Pressing the send button Kirsty closed the computer down and hoped she would soon have a reply from Cindy Ferguson.

Arranging for the disposal of the furniture in the lock-up Kirsty decided to keep hold of the old bureau.  Apart from being a useful piece it was a pleasant reminder of her grandparents. 

It sat nicely in her small dining room and the canteen of cutlery was now back in the top drawer and the napkin rings sat with the damask squares as they had always done.  With all the envelopes again in situ in their pigeon holes Kirsty was pleased she had made the decision to keep the old piece of brown furniture.

The long summer university break was approaching and Kirsty had an idea in her mind to visit the United States and perhaps contact the Ferguson family and introduce herself to her distant cousins.

It