The James George Stephen Black Archive

Recently Jimmy brought his family treasures for me to pore over.

Amongst them was this picture of my mother with her mother, which is the first time I have seen them both together.

It looks like a wedding, I am guessing Billy Buchan's wedding to Lilah, since the two young girls could be Sandra and Betty Buchan, his daughters by his first marriage to Violet. Mum (second right) is looking especially stylish and it looks like she's wearing platform soles. She must have been laughing when we rushed out to buy them in the 70s. Does anyone have any better theories, or, failing that, the truth? Email me!

Lesley Cromarty wrote 13.03.02

Just a quick e-mail after looking at Jimmy's photo of your mam with her mam. I am pretty sure this was taken at my mother and father's wedding as the wee girl with the pig tails on the left is my Aunt Moira and the couple at the back are my Aunt Dorrie with her first husband. Moira and Dorrie are two of my father's sisters and I don't think they would have been at the Buchan's wedding. I'm sure Deirdre would be able to confirm this.

Just goes to show how wrong you can be when you start making assumptions!!!

Legendary bicycle trips have long featured in our family's oral history - here at last is proof that two of the rumoured protagonists were once in the same garden as a bicycle. Dad with Andrew Black.

7 October 2002 - Jimmy is 44 today, and he spent the weekend with his aunts Dorothy and Marjorie, in and around Falkirk.

"I had a huge bag of old pictures, birth certificates all sorts of stuff from my Dad's side of the family with me and got them all identified and loads of old stories too." Contact Jimmy direct if you want to know more!

Click on the little pictures to see the larger ones.