Harvey - Reunion 2007 Menu

Day 6 of the reunion comprised a variety of events. For the adventurous Ian Herbert led a challenging hike across the Cheviot Hills with some folks traveling to the end of the hike to meet up with them.

Others took part in an interesting walking tour of Wooler, led by xxxx of the xxxx who discussed the various points of interest in the community as well as the various places of worship that would have been in use at the time when the Harvey settlers emigrated in 1837.

That evening the long- anticipated evening conference banquet took place at the Ednam House Hotel in Kelso. Moving speeches were made by a number of reunion attendees summing up their feelings in having had the opportunity to visit so many places where their various ancestors had lived and the fine hospitality that had been shown to them.

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Harvey Settlers Reunion
Evening Address at Ednam House, Kelso
by Ian Herbert
Saturday 1st September

Welcome to Ednam House, Kelso. I hope you have had a good day – we certainly have.

The very first thing I would like to say is that I have been in touch with Ewen Herbert in Melbourne and he sends his best wishes to all of you. He and Betty would have dearly liked to be here but Ewen’s health has prevented the journey; however they are represented here tonight by there three nephews Peter Searle and Don and Robin Lawson, together with Dianne, Felicity and Jennifer. Ewen and Betty have actually stayed here at Ednam House five times. It’s one of their favourite places and we can see why.

In the introduction in the reunion book you will have read how Dora Hunter met up with Ewen back in 1976. Almost 30 years later here we are gathered together again. It’s very pleasing to have Kirsten Opdebeck, a great great niece of Dora’s, here with us tonight.

Ewen continued to stay in touch with Dora and when she passed on he corresponded with Marlene MacMillan. Marlene has been responsible for organising many of the early Robison reunions and Pam and I had the pleasure of attending the last one in Lethbridge in 2003. We first visited this border country and Northumberland and then flew over to meet up with Marlene and Don at their home in Nova Scotia. We then drove with Marlene to Harvey Station where we received a very warm and memorable welcome. We’ll be back there again later this month. We then flew to Alberta to meet more of the Robison clan (more third cousins as two Herbert sisters married two Robison brothers).

Presentation of a Quaich to Marlene
in thanks for the part she has played in bringing us all together.

Traditionally the ‘Quaich’, a small silver or pewter vessel which originated in the Scottish Highlands, was used both for a cup of welcome and also when offering a farewell drink. The distinctive design has remained unchanged over the centuries.

Now I must offer an apology. I have to admit that easy walks are really moderate, moderate walks are hard and hard walks are extreme. Congratulations to everyone who got out to explore the hills, to experience their beauty and to reflect on the lives our forefathers lead, or perhaps endured. We come from a fine tradition of walking. Thomas Craigs used to walk the six miles each way from Milfield to church in Wooler each Sunday. When he arrived in Harvey at age 70+ he is said to have walked to Red Rock in a day, a distance of over 50 miles, and only towards the end of his life did he stop the night at Fredericton. It is recorded too that Margaret Little nee Herbert and her sister, probably Isabella Little, walked and ran to Fredericton and back in a day, exchanging eggs and butter for shop goods. They were spurred on to get home before dark by the thought of bears in the woods. Here in the borders there is a network of public footpaths on the ordinance survey maps and these are the very same paths that our ancestors walked.

Before 2002 most of us knew very little about our Northumberland and Borders origins. What a difference this discovery has made to our lives. We have travelled to some beautiful places and our Harvey, UK and Australian cousins have all been brought together.

I’d like to introduce one of my Australian cousins to you. You may have met Peter Searle during the week but let me tell you just a little about him. He and I have some uncanny similarities. We both do orienteering as a sport, we both did tertiary studies in physics, we were both married on January 5th and we both have a bit of a tremor in our right hands ( an ‘essential tremor’ the doctor’s call it but I don’t really consider it essential).

Now we’ve put this down to our common ancestor Robert Herbert but Tim Patterson in his talk on Genetic Genealogy tells us that the common genetics between third cousins once removed is something like .001% or some low number. Don’t believe him! You mustn’t let facts like that get in the way of a good story.

Talking of likenesses and DNA, did you like the gypsy story? Are you shocked? Are you proud of it? (Much clapping from the audience).

Tomorrow we visit Kirk Yetholm, the home of the gypsies. Back in the 1851 census there were just two families named Herbert in Roxburghshire, both in Yetholm. (There was also a single 13 year old lad, Robert Herbert, who was Ewen’s great uncle and who was living and working as an errand boy with his uncle Robert Shiel at Sourhope). The last Herbert living in Yetholm was Tibby Herbert who died in early 2000.

Before the reunion I had an extensive article published in the Southern Reporter, a local Borders newspaper. I was trying to trace a branch of the Yetholm Herberts who moved to Galashiels early in the 1900’s. I received three responses from the article. The first was from David Roseburgh who operates a genealogy service called Scottish Genealogy www.scottishgenealogyrresearch.com who offered to supply me with the family tree. We were in the UK when I got to read his email with the results of his research. A tree was supplied which descended all the way to five living brothers. The second response was an email from one of those brothers ‘Billy Herbert’. Billy lives in Duns but couldn’t meet me as he was going to London to see a show with his brother Robert who was over visiting from Tasmania! His sister-in-law Karen is the family genealogist and I arranged to visit her and her husband Doug at their home in Galashiels, just a few blocks away from the Robert Herbert Engineering works (see the photo on page 61 of the reunion book). The first thing Doug said to me, unprompted, was that their family story is that we are descended from the gypsies of Yetholm. I shook his hand when I heard that! Furthermore Doug has offered to take a Y DNA test to prove that we are indeed cousins.

The third response was from a Cath Henderson nee Herbert in Selkirk who believes she is descended from the Herberts of Yetholm from her childhood trips there to meet up with relatives. On Friday Pam and I spent a couple of hours in the Berwick Record Office and we’re now well on the way to putting the whole Yetholm family together and hopefully proving all the linkages.

Over at the Record Office we met up with Bob Grieve, Bob & Gertrude Wilson and Barney & Adelia Robison who were all exploring their family connections. We wish everybody much success with their research and please stay in touch through the internet with all your findings.

I hope you will all take home some wonderful memories of the week. Personally I’ll never forget Thursday when we walked up to Old Rookland, had lunch at Clennel House and then visited the Alwinton Church. Margaret Sinclair and her brother Richard met up with us. I had only had email contact with Maragret before this meeting. She is a descendant of Archibald Herbert, the brother of Thomas Herbert who sailed on the Cornelius. She and Richard had charts with them and explained to people just which ancestors were buried at Alwinton (including Archibald). It’s probable that ggg grandfather Robert Herbert is also buried there with three of his sons.

And what of the Burns Supper! On a night like that it makes you proud to be Scottish – whatever side of the border you come from. Those people are so talented.

Hopefully you have all got to experience Life past and present here in the Borders and in Northumberland – by bus, through history and DNA talks (top rate), by car or minibus exploring the towns and villages, visiting Alnwick (for a Harry Potter experience) or Hadrians Wall (for a Roman experience) and at Ford Castle, a tremendous venue.

We have met some wonderful hosts, met some really great people and had terrific support.

Tomorrow we will have our own thanksgiving service at Yetholm. Some may miss this because of school terms so we wish them Bon Voyage and hope to see you again. After the service we all return home and what then? Hopefully we will all have new projects and new adventures. I wish you good health and happiness and may we met again. Please stay in touch.

Thank you.

Ian Herbert

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The following numbered images of the evening conference banquet at Ednam House Hotel require captions. Please send any contributions to:
Tim Patterson <tim.patterson@carleton.ca>