Our Family ... The Kirklands

To get the feeling of leaving your homeland of Scotland and coming to America to start a new life is hard to imagine for me...I have never been to Scotland. I can share with some videos of Scotland and New York, U.S.A. and what our family arrived to and their experience of living now in Detroit, Mi. Take a few minutes and experience the times of their day. Scroll down to the play list/music and turn off to be able to hear the videos. Put on a pot of tea...I remember drinking tea with cream & sugar and eating open faced broiled cheddar cheese toast and a soft boiled egg in the special egg holder with Great Grampa Kirkland in Aunt Jean's kitchen. How calm he was and the way he walked and sat there and just talked with a little girl of 6-7 years old and how I loved to hear that Scottish brogue... I really miss not hearing all of them together talking, laughing and singing. I can smell his pipe tobacco just thinking of him. Enjoy some good memories of your heritage...would be great to share a wee bit with me over a cup of tea anytime...soon. Hot tea is always in my kitchen with cream & sugar...thanks to my Great Grampa teaching me how to drink a a cup of tea.
Tea, I think, fosters friendship by inviting us to be present to one another -
right now, in the moment.

Polly put the kettle on, we'll all have tea. CHARLES DICKENS





Last week... I went to Patty's and she had scanned many of my photos for me in her computer and Jim put the pictures on CDs for me...plus I now have old family heritage
photos of my Mom's family...The Kirkland's. My grandfather... Andrew, was the oldest
of eleven...11 children and Patty's mother...my Aunt Jean, was the youngest of the siblings. My grandfather was the first of the family to leave Scotland and come to
America. Then in 1929... my Great Grandparents, James & Janet and six more children came to America, and arrived in Detroit Mi. Waiting for their family were their sons,
Andrew, Jim and Bill. Their married daughters, Polly & Isa stayed in Scotland.
With all these photos I will be working on a wonderful Memory Frame for Mom ...that
will show her life in photos. Thanks, Patty for your kindness and the treasure you have shared with us.