Guest speaker: Katharine Peace
Kate's Dad's side of the family presented one of those solid brick walls. Her great-grandfather, John Reid, had been born in Scotland and emigrated to New Jersey in the 1880's. Family lore had it that he was from somewhere in the region of Glasgow, and that his mother's name might be Caroline. With just these few clues to go on, Kate embarks on a determined effort to unearth the roots of John Reid. The thorniest question of all would be the hardest to crack .... who was John Reid's father? From the textile factories of Southern Scotland to the silk mills of New Jersey, Kate describes the methods used to discover facts about this working class family in Victorian Era Scotland, a time and place not kind to the poor. The presentation offers enticing details included in her new historical novel, written about this genealogical adventure.
Kate is an 11th generation Cape Codder, descending from all three men who settled the town of Yarmouth in 1639. Her mother, Nancy Thacher Reid, wrote the definitive biography of the Town of Dennis and encouraged Kate's interest in local history and genealogy.
Aside from working on her family tree, Kate enjoys website building, learning languages and writing both poetry and novels. She is working on the second novel in her "Ancestry Angels" series.