Delving deeper into letters from the past

 

The extraction of information from Alexander Matheson's letters is going slowly. When I wrote about pulling them out of their dusty confines I wasn't sure how many letters there were. I imagined a few missives written to his sister after they first made contact after 40 years. The few were actually nineteen. That means there's a lot of information to extract.

His sister, Margaret was not his only correspondent. He also wrote to her husband, John Thomson. Alexander also indicated that he wrote to some of Margaret and John's sons, but those letters have not survived. As the sons were out of their parents' home at that point, it's no surprise they didn't preserve the correspondence from their long lost uncle. The girls, Margaret and John's daughters, also exchanged letters with him.

As with all the other correspondence only Alexander's letters were preserved. But those to the girls of the family are frustrating. He addresses them to "My Dear Niece". That would be fine if he only had one niece but that was not the case. Margaret and John Thomson had 10 children, 4 girls and 6 boys,* so was he addressing Elizabeth, Louisa, Minnie or Margaret, also known as Peggie, when he wrote the letters to his dear niece? They were also not the only nieces attached to the Thomson household. Charlotte or Lottie Tripp had also lived with the Thomsons for a time. She was also his niece, the daughter of his deceased sister, Kate.

By the time Alexander Matheson got in touch with his family in Canada again, a lot had happened in all of their lives including births and deaths. Helpfully, Alexander reacted by citing some of the details of what he had been told while answering his relative's queries which helps in piecing together the story. I'm about halfway through the correspondence, extracting details as I go. I know there will be plenty of research to spin off from the information covered and I am looking forward to finding out more about the Thomsons and Mathesons and Alexander's life. 

Sources:

*Littlefield, Angie Tom Thomson’s Fine Kettle of Friends: biography, history, art and food. Angielittlefield.com/books.html p11