My mother was one of the two daughters of Georgina Gray. She was not raised by her mother, but lived in her grandfather's house and was looked after by "Auntie Jean".
There are very few photos of her taken in her early life. The only one I know of is that one shown here taken when she married my father, Walter Murray.
She had an elder sister Isabella (Bella) who also was raised in her grandfather's house and cared for by "Auntie Jean".
To me, Auntie Bel was very much part of my life. She was talked of quite a lot and we would see her and Uncle Tom from time to time; living on the south coast of England was a long way from Keith, where the two lived. We also had a lot of contact with the Booth family, but this was lost after my mother's death.
There is little doubt in my mind that the two were only half-sisters. During some rather evasive conversations with my mother I have a clear memory of saying to my mother "So she is your sister?". The reply started off with something a long the lines of "No, it is more complicated than that" before wandering into a set of words that were never meant to illuminate the topic!
Whilst there is no record of who Isabella's father might have been, my mother's birth was registered with "William Burges" as the father.
The search for this man lead me to a William Burgess who lived near by. The evidence is very strong that he was my grandfather.
There is no evidence to say why his name appeared on the Register of Births - such a thing is quite unusual. It might suggest that, at the time, there was an intention of marriage. Probably we will never know.
About three years after my mother's birth William Burgess married Elizabeth Robertson. They had two children and then Elizabeth died at the shockingly early age of 27 years.
The younger child, James, is the grandfather of Sandy Burgess who now lives in Portgordon. Sandy has very kindly made me a copy of the photo shown here: almost certainly William and Elizabeth Burgess.
When we first saw this photograph, my wife and I were struck by a likeness to my eldest brother, Ron.
In our own family there is a picture of a man and three women. It has no identification on it, but the faces of the girl and the young women look to me like my mother and her sister, my "Auntie Bel".
With that assumption, the man is almost certainly my great-grandfather William Gray. The intriguing question is the identity of the third female: is she William Gray's elder daughter Isabella, my grandmother Georgina, or "Auntie Jean"?.
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