When you are searching ANY of the Genealogy Reports, or for that matter any text, you can use Ctrl + F or Edit / Find... from the drop-down menu to assist you.

Perhaps one of the most important things a family can do is to instill in their offspring a sense of heritage, that is, the culture, characteristics, traditions etcetera that have been handed down from their ancestors through the ages preceding their birth. If these are to remain extant for times to come, then it is equally important that each new generation have knowledge of them and also knowledge of who their ancestors were and the pathway by which they arrived here on Earth.

Not so long ago, this obligation was mainly performed (if at all) by the parents over the course of a child's upbringing. In some cases, depending upon the circumstances, a grandparent may have felt the urge to tell a grandchild the little that they knew about their past. I know that in my case, I was a "senior citizen" before I knew anything about my ancestors beyond my immediate family and grandparents. Yes, I remember hearing something in my distant youth about maybe being related to "Mary and David Thomson" but that was the extent of it. I was a snot-nosed kid, ill conceived from out of the Depression and, "who cared anyway!".

My retirement years found me looking for something to do with my time. Through my nephew Brad Ledger, I financed a small search to get a little information about my maternal grandfather William F. White who had been quite a WW-l hero. (Brad wanted to get miniatures of his Service metals and ribbons for his collection.) Needless to say, we both learned a great deal about "Bill White".

Over the next few years, this half-inch-high pile of paper that my money had bought, sat gathering dust on the corner of my desk. It's still here [2004]! And still collecting dust! But what it accomplished was that it was, and is, a constant reminder of my heritage. A small part that I had not known anything about. One day, while I was idly surfing the Internet just to see what was out there, I very accidentally got into a website that had a genealogy report for part of the Mary and David Thomson Family. (We Canadian bred descendants say "Mary and David" as opposed to others who say "David and Mary".) It turned out that the site belonged to Sandra (Sandi) Lee Sullivan whom I later found to be my second cousin twice removed. Well, while I'm reading all this stuff, I suddenly came upon an e-mail someone had sent to Sandi and in it was reference to my paternal grandmother and the address where she used to live. I COULD NOT BELIEVE IT - I THOUGHT I WAS ALONE IN THE WORLD (well, almost)!! Fortunately for me, the author had included her e-mail address to which I promptly fired off an inquiry.

To cut the story short and get to the point, the episode led to the reunion of my first cousin David Ross Robertson and myself. The author of the e-mail had been Dave's daughter-in-law, Sandy Robertson. Dave and I had not heard from each other for more than 54 years! He had been doing genealogy for some time and he brought me up to speed real fast about our family forbearers - much faster than I could have ever done alone. As a result, I can now go into oblivion with some tiny inkling of the pathway I followed to get there. It is my prayer that others will find our heritage as informative as I have and that they will expand on it, correct it if needed, and pass it on with pride to the generations that are sure to follow us.

It should be emphasized that the photographs presented are not necessarily up-to-date and that the person or persons may be many years older now than they appear in the photograph. In many of cases, they may even be departed. Quite often, the photograph shown is the only one that was available for publication and no deception is intended. We consider ourselves lucky to have the pictures we have.

The album is arranged in pages with buttons at the top center of each page for moving forward    or backward    one page in the album. The schema is circular, in that, if you select the "Next" button on the last page, you get the first page and if you select the "Previous" button on the first page, you get the last page of the album. There is also a button at the top that will take you to the home page    .

At the bottom center of each page is a row of link buttons that will take you directly to the page of your choosing without going through the intermediate pages. The button for the page that you are currently viewing is faded and inoperative. Above these link buttons, some album pages have one or more button(s). These link buttons will take you to a single page having a quasi-montage of similarly related pictures.

The icons (thumbnails) on each album page are themselves links to "Picture" pages containing enlargements and commentaries about the picture, the people or objects in the picture and, occasionally, the circumstances of the picture. These Picture pages may also have links pointing to other pages of further interest.

At the top right of each Picture page is a    button. It will take you back to the page you came from. You can exercise this link at any time.

A leaf shown on a Picture page indicates that at least one of the persons shown belongs to our family tree, and hence, is one of Our Family Leaves.

There is no particular rhyme or reason for the order in which the photographs are laid out except to say that there may be some logic behind it. That is, wherever possible, we tried to keep close family members together on the same album page with the oldest preceding the youngest. This was not always possible and will probably vary as new pictures become known and usable. Also, the album pages are in no particular order. Someday I hope to provide links throughout the Genealogy Reports that will link directly to the family member's photo(s) and back again to their genealogy. I have initiated one trial example of this with a link beside my own genealogy entry under the Andrew Thomson line. If you click on the link, a page from the Photo Album showing a picture of me, will open. When you click on my face in the photograph, you are taken back to the genealogy entry. Conversely, if you are viewing my picture in the Photo Album and wish to see my genealogy entry, just click on my face in the photograph and a page will open showing my genealogy entry.  I am not sure whether this is a good way of doing this sort of thing so I would appreciate any comments you might care to make regarding this procedure. You can always e-mail me through the "Webmaster" link at the bottom of the Our Family Leaves (Home) page.

I have done very little to establish or extend the genealogies presented on this website. That is not my expertise. What I have done is to combine the genealogies that others have provided and present them in a standardized format while at the same time embellishing them with stories and other material that I have personal awareness of or that I believe are commonly accepted.

The bulk of the Robertson genealogy I acquired from my first cousin David Ross Robertson in the scant four months of our reunion prior to his demise in December of 2003. There is every reason for me to believe that it was his original work since I know of no large source that he might have drawn from and he occasionally spoke of his efforts, "to verify the facts".  It would not surprise me though, to learn that he had acquired some knowledge of our family from other sources and individuals.  I strongly believe that genealogical knowledge is the product of everyone and should be shared generously.

Before I forget, Ethel Muriel Thomson-MacPherson is (was) my 1st. cousin once removed; she died in 1972. Apparently, the first edition of her work was not published until 1958 and it occurs to me that there was some problem with finding a publisher and/or financing. I don't know if this is true or not, but it would explain the seemingly long delay.

What caught my attention when I was looking through the "MacPherson Genealogy" was that the Andrew Thomson line ended at my niece, Stephanie Ruth Ledger, and I knew that she had a brother with children, and sons and a grandson of her own. So, with the help of my niece,  we extended the Andrew Thomson line to include this portion of the family. Incidentally, the extension also applies to the Robertson line under Louis Robertson since he married Clarissa Anna Sanderson who is in the Andrew Thomson line. Mr. Sewell has a GREAT website which has his reproduction of the MacPherson Genealogy, along with some history and photographs, Mary Glendenning-Thomson's will and much more. See this website's "Other Links" to get connected.

Incidentally, this site that you are now connected to, has a reproduction of The MacPherson Genealogy which is essentially a copy from Mr. Sewell's site with very minor editing and face-lifting. See "Other Links" to get connected.  I have recently [Winter - 2008] received an electronic [scan] copy of Ethel's original book from Donald Walton, who happens to be a 3rd cousin according to Ian Glendinning.  As time permits, I shall compare this website's copy against the original.  Thanks Don!

The MacPherson Genealogy Reports  are presented in a format called, "Register". Below is a definition of the Register format taken from "Family Tree Maker - Help"

• Register (Descendant Ordered) — The Register format is a descendant-ordered format; it presents information about your family starting with an ancestor and moving forward in time to that individual's descendants. The Register format is the format which is accepted by the New England Historic Genealogical Society, one of the oldest genealogical societies in the country. The Register format dates back to 1870 and is used to establish "pedigree."

All the other Genealogy Reports on this website are presented in a format called, "NGS Quarterly". Below is a definition of the NGS Quarterly format also taken from "Family Tree Maker - Help".

• NGS Quarterly (Descendant Ordered) — The NGS Quarterly format is also a descendant-ordered format; it presents information about your family starting with an ancestor and moving forward in time to that individual's descendants. The NGS Quarterly format is the preferred genealogical report of the National Genealogical Society. The format dates back to 1912.

While this was happening, my cousin David Ross Robertson, sent me his work on the Thomson genealogy which I immediately compared with and incorporated into the "MacPherson Genealogy". In addition, I had twice read the book by Russell Braddon entitled, "Roy Thomson of Fleet Street", (London 1965), and was able to enhance the suggestions put forth by Robert James Sewell regarding Roy Herbert Thomson's family ties. The photographs of Lord Thomson are taken from Russell Braddon's book and the photo of his grandson, David Kenneth Roy Thomson comes from THE THOMSON CORPORATION website. Again, see this website's "Other Links" to get connected".

There is a book entitled, "A Backward Look at the Fore Folk of Lord Thomson of Fleet and Northbridge"  by William Porter, (London, 1976). Lord Thomson financed the research and had the book privately published.  The book is out-of-print but some private libraries may have a copy. There is another book entitled, "Debrett's Illustrated Guide to The Canadian Establishment", general editor, Peter C. Newman, (1983). This book contains a genealogy chart of Lord Thomson's family from Hugh Thomson and Mary Nicole Sylvester to the 1980's. The photographs of Kenneth Roy Thomson where copied from this latter book.

The first of the two books cited above, I was unable to obtain through my local library, however, I have heard of one person who obtained a copy from a company in England who search for out-of-print books. It cost the tidy sum of $230.00 Canadian. Corporations usually have their own libraries and it occurred to me that the Thomson Corporation is probably no exception. I'll bet my first child that they have a copy of this book and that it is probably obtainable through an "inter-library loan". It might be worth a try.

Margaret Emily White-Robertson, my mother, inspired and contributed all of the material for the "Peggy's Last Whimsies and Satire" page. She also provided most of the entries on the "Peggy's Clan Recipes" page including the one referred to as "Grandpa's Beer" which she acquired from her father William F. White. Little did she or I know that they would end up here when she passed them on to me those many years ago. Thanks Mom!

I have tried to make this website as easy to use as I know how with the limited resources I have available. I have also tried to make it as interesting and informative as the material would permit. My prayer is that it may help someone to learn a bit more about who they are and where they came from. If you have any suggestions or wish to contribute toward the material, please don't hesitate to get in touch. You can do this by going to the "Our Family Leaves" home page and clicking on the "Webmaster" link at the bottom.