Graveyard Hunting Part 2: Kilsyth, Scotland

The morning that my mom and I left Ayrshire for St Andrews, we made a detour through Kilsyth, which is a small town north of Glasgow. My grandmother's grandfather and grandmother, John Duff (1852-1920) and Anna Horn Barr (1856-1935), were born in this town. They got married on September 6, 1872 at the United Presbyterian Church in Kilsyth. Their third child out of 10 children was Samuel Barr Duff (1879-1960), who was also born in Kilsyth. He immigrated to the United States through New York in 1922 and married Sarah Bridgman Shearer in West Virginia in 1923. He died in Pittsburgh. This man is my grandmother's father, so my grandmother's maiden name is Duff. In my last post I talked about Sarah Bridgman Shearer's family tree and her friendship with Sarah Bone.

John Duff and Anna Horn Barr are buried in the Kilsyth Parish Cemetery along with their youngest child, Joan Duff (1899-1996). She did not have a spouse or children, but she used to send regularly my grandmother Christmas gifts and cards. She even came to the US to visit once. If my family had known how to get in touch with her, we could have visited her on my first trip to Scotland in 1993. Since my mom and I were on our way to St Andrews and didn't want to wander around the graveyard looking for our ancestors' headstones, Mom emailed the cemetery to ask for details. They replied with a scanned copy of their records for John, Anna, and Joan, including how deep they're buried. When we arrived at the cemetery, an employee walked us straight to the grave. Though three people are buried here, the stone only has the parents' names. Since so many other Duffs lived in this town, there are probably other headstones we could have seen, but we didn't have enough details to find them without wandering around looking at all the markers. Instead, after taking a few photos of the Duff grave, I wandered around taking photos of graves that I thought looked cool. Thereafter, we got back in the car and drove to St Andrews.

John, Anna, and Joan Duff's grave

is on the right. Joan's name isn't

on the grave, but records say she's here.

Not a family grave, but I like the

"Thy Will Be Done" bit.

On the drive out of town, we saw a sign for the Kilsyth Burns and Old Parish Church, which is part of the Church of Scotland (Presbyterian). We didn't know if any relatives had been married in this church or even how old the church is, but we made a quick stop to take a few photos.

Church bell sitting next to the steeple.