With the thought that maybe if someone starts things off, more people will be willing to post -- I'll go ahead and share the following. Be assured that oral family history can be turned into a brief biography, or perhaps your memories of that person. It doesn't have to be from a published biography of a famous ancestor or individual bearing the surname "LAMONT."

This biographical article, entitled "Faithful at the Start and Loyal to the End" appeared in AOL's Genealogy Forum in February of 1998 under "Sweetheart Stories."

Margaret Borthwick Harkes was born in the summer of 1883, the eldest child of George Harkes and Mary Ann Cowe of East Salton, East Lothian, Scotland. She grew up within view of the scenic Lammermuir Hills in a part of the country that is today only a half hour's drive to Edinburgh by automobile, but before the turn of the century took considerably longer by horse and buggy. The royal burgh of Haddington was an easier distance for a rider on horseback or by cart.

The Harkes family were members of the Kirk at Salton; an ancient parish dating from 1244. Here Maggie and her siblings were schooled in Scripture, and learned faith, temperance, and patience (especially during the minister's long sermons!) Young Maggie earned ribbons, Bible story picture cards, and eventually was awarded a New Testament for excellence in her Sunday school classes.

Mr. Harkes worked as a journeyman joiner in the area; his father-in-law, a shepherd. Maggie's mum was busy at home with seven children and as the eldest of these under her mother's guidance, Maggie no doubt learned to be the responsible and caring individual that she grew up to be.

At some point during the "gay 90's" Margaret Borthwick met her future husband, Alexander Lumsden Lamond. Alex's parents, John Lamond and Catherine Ferguson, were both Highlanders from the Isle of Skye who had grown up and married in the Parish of Duirinish near Dunvegan. It was most likely the Clearances that brought them south seeking a fresh start for their young family. Alexander, born in June of 1880, was probably the youngest lad at home, growing up just east of Haddington near Hailes Castle in the parish of Prestonkirk. When he was old enough to earn his own bread, he went to work for the Fletcher family of West Salton. He lived with other single men in a bothy on the estate where he laboured in various jobs, and discovered that he had a green thumb. It was during this period that he must've met young Maggie.

In 1899 Margaret was enrolled on a scholarship as a student at Knox Institute in Haddington, living away from home. (Neither family was wealthy and both knew financial hardship and loss of children before the Great War.) She graduated with honors in French, German, Sewing, Book keeping, English and Writing. It is easy to imagine Miss Borthwick coming home on week-ends to help her mother around the house and attend services at the family kirk. By this time she had reached her full height of 5'4" and had sparkling blue eyes and a slender figure. (Alexander was just two inches taller, with a lean muscular physique, and was also blue-eyed.) Alex may have spoken with her at church gatherings and may have even asked her father's permission to drive her back to school. Sometime before 1902 they fell in love and spoke of marriage.

After earning his gardening apprenticeship at the Vogrie in Midlothian, Alex worked as an Improver at Balindeau, Perthshire, and as a Journeyman at the Inch. Presumably employment opportunities were scare and short-lived, and perhaps he had friends who had moved to America and found gainful employment and hope for a better future than what they perceived as a bleak life in Scotland. Whatever the reason in March of 1902 young Alexander answered the call to emigrate to the United States, leaving family and fiancee behind in Scotland.

Alexander was employed for four years at a large estate in Quissett, MA and then for a time at the Westminster School in CT. He also practised his gardening skills at Tarrytown, MA and at the Causeway in Washington, D.C. For seven years he laboured, saving money and sending letters and funds home, in anticipation of the day that he could send for his Maggie. During these long years of separation, Margaret worked as a tutor and governess, writing letters to her intended and faithfully awaiting the time when they could be together as husband and wife. Finally the time came for her to book passage and leave the port of Greenock for her journey to America. We don't know yet if someone met her in New York or if she travelled alone to Detroit, where Alexander was waiting. It is very likely that one of Alex's sisters was now visiting, or possibly, living in the States, as she was a witness to their marriage in Grosse Pointe, MI in April of 1909.

Around this time Alexander was offered a job at the Cranbrook Estates in Bloomfield Hills where he worked for several years and advanced to the position of head landscape gardener. Here their three daughters were born: Rosemary, Irene, and Virginia. Alexander held several other positions before his retirement and in the 1930's served as president of a major national gardener's association. He never again set foot on his native soil, although his wife travelled at least three different times during her lifespan back to the "auld countrie." Alexander became a US citizen in 1928 and Margaret was naturalized just one month before her husband's death from pneumonia in August of 1942.

I never knew my great-grandfather Alexander Lamond as he died years before I was born. I do have faint, fond memories of my great-grandmother Margaret Lamond. She lived with her daughter, Rosemary (my grandma) in her later years. She died in 1963 at the age of 80. I know she loved children and I'm sure she must've dearly loved her husband and missed his presence during those last 20 years of her life she spent without him. It is amazing to me that she waited seven years for him to send for her. She was faithful at the start and loyal to the end.