In the seventeenth century my McCreath ancestors were farmers in Ayrshire – in the area to the north of Maybole.
Documentation of these early ancestors was only made possible through the generous help of a fellow genealogist cousin, Keith Percy. Keith had ‘unearthed’ and meticulously verified an old family tree drawn up as a conventional ‘drop line chart’ with brothers and sisters side by side. It was 9 feet wide.
The main benefit of this ‘Old Tree’ is that it goes back two further generations beyond those documented in the General Register Office in Edinburgh.
In 2004, Keith published his findings in a volume, ‘The McCreaths from Pimore’.
Keith acquired his copy of the tree from Geoffrey McCreath, of Berwick upon Tweed. Later and quite independently, I received a copy from Lesley McCreath of Harrisburg, Pennsylvania; alas both Geoffrey and Lesley are now deceased.