Starting Point

David and Ellen Graham

The Starting Point

My maternal great-grandparents pictured here are the starting point of this blog.  David Graham and Helen Watson Greenfields Graham (Ellen/Nellie) emigrated to Arlington, South Dakota, from Edinburgh, Scotland, in the 1880s.  David, a bookseller's clerk, arrived in 1880; Ellen, with baby daughter Jessie, arrived the next year.  The Dakota Territory, recently opened for settlement, offered the young couple opportunity to make their way as pioneers in the American Plains.

Blog Purpose and Strategy

I intend to write separate entries for the members of three families:


The Grahams:  David's family is settled in Edinburgh with roots in Carluke, Lanarkshire.

Agnes Ormiston Graham (1878-1972), daughter of David's brother, John Ormiston Graham.

The Greenshields:  Ellen's father, Gavin, spent most of his adult life in Broughton, Peeblesshire, where Ellen was born, but was born in Lesmahagow, Lanarkshire.

James Thomas Greenshields 1863-1925, brother of Helen Watson Greenshields.

The Ormistons:  The family of  David Graham's mother, Agnes Ormiston, claims Lamington, Lanarkshire, as its home.

My plan is to share as much information as I can find on as many generations of these families and those connected to them.  I welcome additional information or corrections for any of the people, contexts, or facts included here.  I will revise and edit posts as I learn more.  I hope that these posts will create a community and a conversation for those family members I know and those more distant relations and friends who read this blog.