Scattered Stones: Episode 7

In February 1910, Joseph Robertson traveled to Georgia searching for his missing father—the stone cutter who had vanished into the swamps. He never found answers. Fourteen years later, Joseph died of the same stroke that killed his mother. Twelve days after that, his wife Mary Agnes—daughter of Brooklyn's mat maker John Kenny—followed him to the grave. Their three children were orphaned within two weeks. This is where two Brooklyn families meet, and where my grandmother's story begins.

Part of the Storyline Genealogy series : Documentary Biographies

Scattered Stones: Episode 6

Of all the children of George Robertson and Margaret Paterson, David was the pioneer—the first to cross the Atlantic, the first to establish the family name in America. For forty years he built a life in Brooklyn, cutting stone, raising eleven children. Then, at sixty-three, newly widowed, he reinvented himself as a game trapper in Georgia. In February 1910, he vanished. His boat was found swamped. His body was never recovered. This is the story of David Paterson Robertson—and the son who traveled from Brooklyn to Georgia searching for answers that never came.

Part of the Storyline Genealogy series : Documentary Biographies

Scattered Stones: Episode 5

They scattered like seeds in the wind — some taking root in Brooklyn's granite, others drifting to Liverpool's docks, still others clinging to the Scottish soil where they were born. John married in Dundee; his grandson's gravestone still stands in Rattray. Margaret worked as a tablemaid in Blairgowrie. James became a gamekeeper in Liverpool after passing through Canada. And Mary Ann — the firstborn — wandered from Nova Scotia to Saskatchewan before dying in New Jersey in 1921, the last survivor of all ten children.

Part of the Storyline Genealogy series: Documentary Biographies

Scattered Stones: Episode 4

Robertson, Margaret, wid. Geo. 119 Hamilton av" — For twenty years, Margaret Paterson Robertson was defined by loss. The Brooklyn city directories traced her through the decades, always listed as "wid. Geo." But Margaret was more than a widow. She was the anchor of a family scattered across an ocean. Around her, the surviving children married, had children of their own, and established themselves in skilled trades. Then 1892 took everything — Margaret in July, her daughter Clementina just four months later. They lie together now at Evergreens Cemetery, in unmarked graves.

Part of the Storyline Genealogy series: Documentary Biographies

Scattered Stones: Episode 3

How long resident in this City: 5 days." Those words on George Robertson's death certificate tell the story of a journey that ended almost before it began. In 1869, his son David boarded the steamship Europa for Brooklyn. In 1872, George followed — only to die of sunstroke in the brutal July heat, just five days after arriving. His widow Margaret would spend the next twenty years in Brooklyn, always identified as "wid. Geo." in the city directories. They lie together in unmarked graves at Evergreens Cemetery.

Part of the Storyline Genealogy series: Documentary Biographies

Scattered Stones: Episode 2

In the summer of 1839, George and Margaret Robertson welcomed their first child at Couttie, near Blairgowrie. Over the next twenty-one years, they would baptize ten children in this Perthshire town — including twins named William Fraser and Clementina Stewart Ramsay, whose distinctive names hint at connections yet to be uncovered. Four Scottish censuses captured this growing family before the great emigration scattered them across two continents.

Part of the Storyline Genealogy series: Documentary Biographies

Scattered Stones: Episode 1

In 1786, a weaver named Duncan Robertson married Jean Angus in Bendochy parish, Perthshire. Over the next two decades, they raised seven children in the townland of Myreridges — including a youngest son, George, born when both parents were nearly fifty. George would leave weaving behind to become a mason, marry a local woman, and eventually die just five days after arriving in America. This is where his story begins.

Part of the Storyline Genealogy series: Documentary Biographies