June 15th 2019

Hi,

Along with my brother Donald I travelled north on Saturday 1st June to Farr Hall at Inverarnie for the MacQueen Family Gathering.

Our mother was Grace MacQueen (1926-2008) and we were invited to the Gathering as descendents of Hugh MacQueen of Ruthven (1843-1913) our great-grandfather. It was a great opportunity to meet family, some of whom we had never seen, and jointly to explore our common heritage.

It was an amazing experience sharing historical details, memories and photos. Particularly precious was a photo of our mother from 1939 which we had never seen. (Thanks Shiona!)

There was a family tree spead along one wall and lots of old photos running on a loop, all to the background strains of Scottish tunes from Jock Fraser, whose dad I found out was a friend of our grandfather John MacQueen. We mixed with relatives from as far away as New Zealand and Australia and enjoyed a sumptuous banquet, along with speeches, cake cutting and news of a family website which will bring together a lot of the research which has been carried out on the family history.

Many thanks are due to the Dalmagarry MacQueens for organising and treating us to a fabulous day which will live long in the memory. Also to Steve Taylor for all his work in collating so much detail on the family which can now be passed on to future generations.

If I receive any more photos of the gathering I can add them at a later date, but hope you enjoy the photo album from my own camera.

All the best

Murdo