In message <008d01c00808$d71c71a0$168dd2cf@powell>, Liz Powell <fivecats@onlink.net> writes >Hello everyone, I'm new to this list. My interests are mainly around >Smithton, and concern the family names of FRASER, HOSSACK, ROSE and McBEAN. > >Does anyone know if there is an index/list of burials at Petty? My GM's >family were from Smithton/Smithtown, and this is where they'd have been >buried I believe. > >As a child in 1956/1957 we camped at Smithton, and I returned a couple of >times later on in the early 1970's, but the row of 3 cottages that my GGGF >built were demolished by the mid 1970's after Liz Campbell died.........she >was the last occupant of them. I believe the site is now covered by an >'Estate' of houses......... and it used to be so quiet, a standpipe for >water which ran from a well up in the forests planted by Liz Campbell for >the Forestry Commission as War Work........ The Clouty Well..... up beyond >Cumberlands Stone. Folk used to tie pieces of cloth on a tree by the well, >not sure for what reason. The burn where a tree fell down one year after a >flood, then rose again from the ground some months later. And an earth >closet emptied by the council. But to my father and me it was our 'home' in >a way no other place on earth ever was. > >Anyone else remember Smithton like that ? > >I could go on, my GGU Duncan Hossack was a carpenter and coffin-maker... had >2nd sight. Built the bureau bookcase which stands in our sitting room here >in Canada. > >Liz Powell, Northern Ontario, Canada. > > > > Hi Liz I have been holding off my reply while trying to find some names and dates but have not had a chance as yet. The Old Petty Church yard monumental inscriptions have recently been done by two different people. There is no indication when it will be published but it should be soon. Are you sure they would be buried there?? If you are looking for a recent burial you should get in touch with Highland Council, Protective Services. They have lists of all internment's in the Inverness area and will do a search for a fee. Try writing to :- Council Buildings, Glenuruhart Road, Inverness, IV3 5NX I remember Smithton quite well, before the housing estate was built it was a young boy's adventure playground. There was an old grave yard, a bridge with a big tree growing at one end blocking half the width of the bridge and the "Clooty Well" just beyond.( Quite a distance before you get to the Cumberland stone.) A description from a book from 1954 on the " Clooty Well". " You have to go down past Blackpark farm to reach the Clooty Well, which attracts hosts of " well-wishers" on the first Sunday of May every year. It is quite an occasion, although about thirty buses and some 300 cars parked in a nearby field in 1953, the number was considered locally as being a poor turn-out." It was originally known as St. Mary's Well, then Fairy Well etc.. It carries on with the history and tradition of the well, but I do not have the time to type it all. Hope you have success George -- George D. Christie " Change is not made without inconvenience, even from worse to better "