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I have been doing the genealogy of my immediate line for some ten years
now. I have not published any of it as I wanted to make sure there was no
stone left unturned. It started with a family bible I received from my
grandmother. The date of the first entry's are 1834. In addition, there
were several letters of correspondence with a man named Samuel Grant
Oliphant of the US.
I have come to realize our own line was
somewhat of a mystery to all I have come in contact with, as they did not
take the traditional route. According to my records, they left Leith in
1833 and came to Prince Edward Island. Both parents died shortly after
arriving, and my gg grandfather George Treacher Oliphant was the youngest
of five brothers. Two of his brother's died at Singapore India, in some
war there. And the other two died at early ages, one at two yrs, and the
other at nine. We narrowly existed as you can see. His oldest sister Jane
married a George M. Morgan at Charlottetown PEI, and George Treacher was
raised by them. This is why they were not listed in the censes records as
Oliphant on PEI. Mr. Morgan gained employment in Newfoundland, and they
all moved there, and were the only Oliphant's to ever live there.
My gg grandfather in one of his letters of
correspondence mentions that two Lawyers came to Newfoundland, and
where trying to get him to prove his grandparents marriage. He said, I
only know their name's, and that my grandfather was a Bulking master at
Leith for thirty years before his death in 1801. His name was WILLIAM
OLIPHANT. He said, if I knew my parents were going to die, I would have
found out more about my grandparents. He also mentioned that his father
and his Aunt were born at Gask & Ardblair, and that his Aunt was the
only sister of WILLIAM. She never married nor had any children. Her name
was Wilhelmina Oliphant, she died in 1847 at Montrose Scotland. They
referred to her as an old maid.
At any rate, I have come to call my work
"The Broken Branch," as even the Mormon church had no records of
Newfoundland, and if not for the letters, and bible, this information
would have been lost.
I am currently rapping up all the loose
ends in Leith, and Edinburgh, and hope to have the full details of what
exactly happened. If this or any of the family history might be of
interest to you or your organization, I will be glad to share it, possibly
for a future publication entry. In the mean time I am working on a book
called "The Broken Branch." which will give a much more detailed
history. I was only able to give you a synopsis in this form.
Sincerely
Anthony Oliphant |
