A bit of a long story this, but I will try and keep it reasonably brief.
My sister recently mentioned on the telephone that she had two paintings, by an artist called Eric Johnstone, who, it was thought, is a cousin of our granny, Agnes Anderson (née Turnbull). Our Auntie Jean (Mitchinson, née Anderson) had seemingly commissioned two paintings from this Eric Johnstone, one of Hermitage Castle, the other of Ewes Church in Dumfriesshire. When our Uncle David Mitchinson passed away in February 2020, our cousin asked my sister if she would like anything from our uncle's house as a keepsake, hence my sister having the two aforementioned paintings.
Although I have been working on my family history for over 30 years now, the surname "Johnstone" was not one I was familiar with. I had investigated the Anderson and Turnbull sides of my family, getting quite far back on both families but had never yet seen the "Johnstone" surname. So, with no luck from my own research, I decided I would go down the social media route.
I put a post up on a Facebook page called "Lost Scottish Borders", which mainly shows old photographs of villages and towns in the Borders and such like. I mentioned my granny and the potential cousin connection and did anyone have any information about Eric. Quite a few very prompt replies, mostly telling me that they owned a painting by Eric Johnstone and although very nice that he seemed quite popular, this didn't actually tell me anything about the person. That was at the very end of last year but a couple of weeks later, in the second week of this month, I received a message from a cousin of Catriona Johnstone, Eric's wife. This cousin had spoken to Catriona, who had suggested that I telephone her at her home in Selkirk, where she and Eric had lived for over 60 years.
So, the following day, I spoke to Catriona, who said that she and Eric had lived in Selkirk since the mid 1960's, and in the same house they had had built at that time. They were both in their 80's and kept reasonably well, although Eric had suffered a stroke about 15 years ago and wasn't too keen on talking on the telephone. Catriona was quite chatty and cleared up the mystery of the family connection between Eric and my granny. Because there is indeed a connection!
My great great grandparents, Thomas and Margaret McGlasson, had 12 children including my great grandmother, Agnes and Eric's grandfather, James. Agnes had three children including my granny, Agnes Turnbull, and James had three daughters, including Daisy Martha McGlasson, Eric's mother. So my granny and Eric's mother were first cousins! This means that Eric is my second cousin once removed. (This relationship aspect can get quite complicated, particularly when we move on to second cousins, but my family history computer programme comes in handy for cases like this).
Catriona seemed quite keen for us to meet up, as indeed I was, so our telephone conversation was left on the basis that I would call her again in the next couple of weeks and arrange to go over to Selkirk and meet her and Eric. This I am planning to do next week.
As an aside, I had previously done a quick search on the internet for any information on Eric, but there was nothing at all of note. One or two of his paintings showed up and he seemed to have painted a lot of landscapes, including the two paintings my sister now has. I did find a painting of his for sale on eBay, which was described as a "contemporary watercolour of a riverside town". On further investigation, I discovered that the "riverside town" was in fact - Peebles. That was quite a coincidence and I've made enquiries of the seller of the painting to see if I could negotiate a lower price than that being asked. I await a response. A copy of this painting is below.
Well, that just about covers the story up to now. I will put up another post after I meet Eric and Catriona next week.
