Great Scotts! 150 of Merton couple’s 800 descendants look back
A FAMILY journey which began in the Scottish borders in 1861 paused for reflection in Waikouaiti on Saturday.
It was in nearby Merton where the Roxburghshire couple of Henry and Helen Scott settled soon after they arrived in New Zealand, and over the weekend more than 150 of their descendants returned there for a family reunion.
The Scotts retain close ties with the area but the family has spread far and wide in the intervening decades, with Scotts living in Germany, Finland, Australia, England and Japan.
The Waikouaiti Community Hall was festooned with sepiatinted photographs of previous generations of Scotts, watching the more recent generations celebrate their family connections.
‘‘The organising committee is a generation above me, but they’ve done an amazing job mustering up photographs and other things from people,’’ family spokesman Sam Scott said.
‘‘I’ve never seen a range of photos like that: in terms of my family I’ve seen the odd photograph, but what’s here is quite comprehensive and a lot of work has gone into it.’’
Below the photographs were very long and elaborate family trees which strained to hold the weight of the approximate 800 descendants of Henry and Helen Scott.
The family believes around 600 of those people are alive today: the Scotts had 13 children, 53 grandchildren, 111 great grandchildren, 220 great great grandchildren and 400 great great great grandchildren.
After Saturday’s gathering at Waikouaiti, yesterday featured a barbecue at the wellspring of the Scotts, ‘‘The Braes’’ farm.
Henry and Helen bought three titles totalling 43ha in 1869, and added a further
121ha in 1907.
Their youngest son, Elliot, farmed the land until the 1960s, and the farm remains in Scott family ownership.
‘‘It’s great for the family reunion that we retain that connection,’’ Sam Scott said.
‘‘Why they chose Merton, the reunion organising committee speculates that it may have been some of the cheapest land available at the time because of the hilly terrain and native bush.