Today we drove 3 hours down to Greenock to visit the city which our direct family resided. Greenock is a seaport that thrived in the mid to late 1800's. It also was seriously bombed by the Germans in WWII with thousands killed.
My father's cousin, Bob, researched our family tree about 15 years ago. I further advanced his findings, allowing us to visit many of the former homes of my grandfather, his father, and my great great grandfather. All their homes, including some of their siblings, were within blocks of each other. I could of used a time machine today!
We also found the graves of our last verifiable family, James and Annie Robertson. The grave was unmarked (too poor or vandalism?) with many grave markers nearby in sad shape. I started the process with the Scottish government to obtain title to the plot, which will allow us to place a proper grave marker.
George Robertson, an uncle of James, was the proprietor of the Tontine Hotel on Robertson Street. The hotel still operates and looks decent. However, it has lost a few rating stars with time. It is now three star, at best.
The photo of the run-down building is where my grandfather lived (1900-1910) before emmigrating with his family to Superior,Wisconsin. The flat had three rooms and a window... plenty of room for a family of five... It was about 1500 feet from a sugar refinery which was bombed and never rebuilt (ruins left intact).
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