History

To the post war generation the last war will appear as distant as the 1st World War does to those of my generation. To those of us who were around at that time however it appears very close and as the war years coincided with my teenage years in Kemnay, growing up in Kemnay and the war are closely linked. In retrospect I find it surprising how I accepted the war and the changes it entailed in everyday life. To a schoolboy this was something new and I suppose I regarded it as something of an adventure, not being aware of the full implications at that age.

Certainly being in the country we were shielded from many of the unpleasant aspects of the conflict and there were many advantages to living in a country village. Food rationing for example was never felt by country dwellers to the extent it was by those in the city. I can' t honestly remember being adversely affected by rationing and if one was on good terms with the local grocer, as mother appeared to be, additional items could always be obtained "under the counter" as the saying went.

Recently, Bill Summersgill and his wife Midge, from Vancouver in British Columbia visited the area in search of their roots.  Bill's grandfather, William McDonald was the younger brother of John McDonald, who older members of the community will remember as vanman to Gordon the grocer in the village.  As a young man, John lost his right arm in a threshing mill accident.  Their father Donald McDonald was born in Croy, Invernesshire, around 1838 and as a young man travelled to Aberdeen in search of work.  He was staying at 25 Gaelic Lane in Woodside when he married Ann Brown, a Kemnay lass, on 19th June 1865.  Donald soon moved to Kemnay and obtained a lease of ground on Parkhill where he built a house overlooking the farm of Wellbush and with views to the Hill of Fare and Learney.  This was a small thatched cottage, but here the couple reared their family of four daughters and three sons, Donald earning his living as a labourer at the nearby quarries.

E Glennie (via email) asks:

Can anybody tell me anything about a family that lived in the Killing House (I presume a butchers)
Elizabeth Simon would have been my great aunt.

Hi