Are You Connected to the Robertson Line?
If your family research overlaps with the Scattered Stones documentary biography series, this page is for you.
This research follows six generations of the Robertson family of Bendochy and Blairgowrie, in the Perthshire country where the Highlands meet the Lowlands: a weaver, a mason, ten children, and the great emigration of the 1870s that carried the family to Brooklyn and beyond. It is a story of stone cutters and iron moulders, of a father who died five days after reaching America, of a son who vanished in a Georgia swamp, and of an orphaned girl who became a matriarch. Research like this is better as shared work: documented Scottish trees, census and parish references, DNA matches, and family stories from cousin researchers can all move it forward, and contributions are acknowledged in published research according to each contributor’s preference.
Research collaboration is informal, peer-to-peer, and reciprocal. There is no fee, no client engagement, no formal arrangement — just shared work on shared ancestry. (Prospective genealogy clients are welcome to use the main contact page instead.)
A Mason's Household, a Pioneer's Crossing
George Robertson — The Mason of Blairgowrie
Baptized 1809 in the parish of Bendochy, youngest of seven children of Duncan Robertson, a weaver and church officer, and Jean Angus. A mason by trade, he married Margaret Paterson (1821–1892) in 1838 and raised ten children in Blairgowrie. In the summer of 1872, at 63, he sailed for America — and died five days after landing in New York, felled by sunstroke in the July heat.
Bendochy & Blairgowrie, Perthshire · ten childrenDavid Paterson Robertson — The Stone Cutter Who Crossed First
Born 1842 in Blairgowrie, David was the pioneer — the first of the family to cross the Atlantic, in 1869. A stone cutter in Brooklyn, he raised eleven children and, with his wife Elizabeth, returned to Glasgow for three years (1875–1878) before coming back. Newly widowed in his sixties, he reinvented himself as a game trapper in Georgia, where, in February 1910, he vanished. His boat was found; his body never was.
Brooklyn, New York & Georgia · eleven childrenWhere the line runs. David’s son Joseph Robertson (1884–1924) married Mary Agnes Kenny, daughter of Brooklyn’s mat maker — uniting two immigrant families. Their daughter, Lillian Josephine Robertson (1905–1991), orphaned at eighteen when both parents died within twelve days, married into the O'Brien family of the Hidden Bonds series and became the matriarch of nineteen grandchildren. Two of the families this series traces independently meet in her.
For the full documented story, see the series: Scattered Stones: The Robertson Family of Blairgowrie.
The Robertson Line Surname Signature
Core Family Line
Robertson of Blairgowrie, Bendochy, and Rattray, Perthshire · descendants of George Robertson & Margaret Paterson, and of Duncan Robertson & Jean Angus
The Paterson & Angus Ancestral Lines
Paterson · Craig · Anderson · Pearson · Strachan · Fenton · Hutchison · Angus
The Ten Children's Marriages
McNab · McIntyre · Ferguson · Nisbet · Lockhart
Connected Immigrant Families
Kenny (the Brooklyn mat-maker family — collaboration page forthcoming) · O'Brien (the Hidden Bonds line, via Lillian’s 1928 marriage)
Geographic path: from the Perthshire parishes of Bendochy, Blairgowrie, and Rattray — where Duncan the weaver was still at his loom at 81 in the 1841 census — the family scattered. The great emigration of 1869–1872 carried several siblings to Brooklyn, New York; others remained in Scotland (Perth, Dundee) or returned to Glasgow; one branch reached Liverpool, England by way of Canada; and the American line settled finally in New Jersey. If your family record places Robertson ancestors in any of these places in the nineteenth century, your research may overlap with this series.
What You Might Bring to This Research
Forms of contribution that move research like this forward:
- Documented family trees — pedigrees with source citations for any of the ten children of George and Margaret, the Paterson or Angus ancestral lines, or the Scottish, Brooklyn, New Jersey, Liverpool, or Canadian branches
- Scottish records — Old Parish Registers (OPRs), statutory births, marriages, and deaths, and census references for Bendochy, Blairgowrie, Rattray, Perth, Dundee, or Glasgow
- DNA test results — from Ancestry, 23andMe, MyHeritage, or FamilyTreeDNA, especially kits uploaded to GEDmatch where chromosome comparison is possible; Y-DNA results from male-line Robertson testers are especially valuable
- American and English records — Brooklyn directories and vital records, New Jersey records, Georgia records that might bear on David’s disappearance, or Liverpool records for the wandering branch
- Family oral history, photographs, and papers — the stories your elders carried, emigration documents, and family materials from the relevant timeframe
Open Research Questions
The Stone Cutter's Lost Trail
David Paterson Robertson (1842–c.1910) was the first of the family to reach America and the last to be accounted for. After forty years in Brooklyn he reinvented himself as a Georgia game trapper and disappeared into the swamps in February 1910 — his boat recovered, his body never found. Descendants of his eleven children, and any Brooklyn or Georgia records that bear on his life and disappearance, would help close this thread.
The Scattered Ten
Of the ten children of George Robertson and Margaret Paterson, several fates remain open: Margaret (b. c.1851), Jean (b. c.1859), the death of William Fraser (the iron-moulder twin), John’s line traced to Rattray, and the Liverpool-and-Canada branch of James Penmuire Paterson Robertson, the gamekeeper. Researchers descending from any of the ten would help complete the family.
The Perthshire Roots
Behind George lie the deeper Perthshire generations: Duncan Robertson the weaver and Jean Angus, and Margaret Paterson’s family — the Paterson, Craig, Anderson, and Fenton lines around Bendochy, Blairgowrie, and Rattray. Researchers with documented eighteenth-century Perthshire ancestry in these names would help extend the tree back beyond the mason’s household.
How to Reach Out
The form below is the most effective way to begin. The fields are designed to give us both the right starting context — what you have, what you’re looking for, and how our research might intersect.
I read every inquiry personally and respond as I am able — typically within a week, sometimes longer for inquiries that require research before a substantive reply.
Privacy and Use of Submitted Information
Information shared through this form is used only for research collaboration purposes. Names, DNA kit identifiers, family details, and other personal information are not shared with third parties, are not added to public-facing pages without explicit permission, and are anonymized (initials only) in any subsequent publication unless you indicate a preference for full attribution.
Living individuals are not named in published research. Deceased ancestors documented in primary sources are named in full as part of standard genealogical practice. If you have specific privacy preferences for your contribution, please indicate them in your inquiry and they will be respected.
If you’d prefer to reach out directly rather than through the form, email mary@storylinegenealogy.com.
Genealogy Is Better as Shared Work
A family scattered like stones across two continents leaves its record scattered too — in Scottish parish registers, Brooklyn directories, a Georgia swamp, a New Jersey churchyard. Your family records, your DNA matches, and your family stories may be the next stone that helps complete the picture. Thank you for considering the work.