Tweet
'Ours, Yours and Mines' is a family saga set in the miners' rows of Ayrshire, Scotland in the mid-1800s to early 1900s. Growing up in Australia, I had always been curious about the country of my father's birth. When I began tracing the McMurdo family history I found a long direct line of coal miners in Ayrshire. I felt a connection to the characters that I unearthed and wanted to find out about their lives. When I discovered that my great-great-grandmother, Mary Hamilton McMurdo, had borne eight children and buried seven of them, I was very upset and wondered how she, and the many women of the time who watched their children die, must have felt.
I have visited the areas around Muirkirk, Hamilton, New Cumnock and Old Cumnock where the McMurdo families lived, and researched life in the mid-1800s to early 1900s to form a picture of how life must have been. The language used in the book is English and Scots/English as I felt it was important to give the characters a voice that was authentic.
This is a story that relates to many people of the time. We often read statistics about the decimation of families due to disease, but there are few accounts of how the loss of family members, and the poor living conditions, must have affected them (particularly the women), emotionally and physically. 'Ours, Yours and Mines' is a tribute to them all. The book is available from www.amazon.com. I would be happy to discuss the book with readers and to hear from anyone whose ancestors worked in the miners' rows.
I have visited the areas around Muirkirk, Hamilton, New Cumnock and Old Cumnock where the McMurdo families lived, and researched life in the mid-1800s to early 1900s to form a picture of how life must have been. The language used in the book is English and Scots/English as I felt it was important to give the characters a voice that was authentic.
This is a story that relates to many people of the time. We often read statistics about the decimation of families due to disease, but there are few accounts of how the loss of family members, and the poor living conditions, must have affected them (particularly the women), emotionally and physically. 'Ours, Yours and Mines' is a tribute to them all. The book is available from www.amazon.com. I would be happy to discuss the book with readers and to hear from anyone whose ancestors worked in the miners' rows.
Attached Files
Comment