Who was first?

Nana’s brothers Peter Munro Greenan 1919 and Michael Denholm Greenan 1921 moved to London in 1955 ish to work at Guinness Brewery. Every Christmas we would receive a fresh new Guinness Book of Records from them which we loved…

Here are some firsts (and mosts) in our ancestral line:

1605 James Dickson and Isobel Bell first recorded marriage (Prestonpans)

1684 Gavin Black (Covenanter) first to be exiled (to South Carolina)

1701 John Wedderburn 1681 first (and only) murderer - he killed a fellow student at St Andrews and headed north to escape being caught (so the story goes)

1704 William Milestones 1678 first known weaver (Inveresk)

1792 William Templeton 1765 first to move to the big city (Auchinleck, Ayr to Paisley)

1801 Robert Hay 1774 first to go to prison for sheep stealing (and exiled to Tasmania)

1832 James Moffat 1832 first to rent a beach house for the summer (Largs)

1863 Catherine Clark 1842 first (and only) to file a paternity suit

1885 George Munro and Georgina McCabe first mixed marriage (he was Protestant; she was Catholic)

1900 George Brodrick Robertson 1882 first to join the military

1957 Gillian Margaret Moffat first to be born in a hospital

1960 James Fairlie Moffat 1925 first to own a car

1963 James Fairlie Moffat 1925 first to own a home

1979 David John Moffat 1961 first to graduate from university

Most children fathered: 18 by Gavin Black 1704 (2 consecutive wives)

Runner up is 13 by George Brodrick Robertson 1882 (wife and girlfriend, concurrent)

Most children birthed: 12 by Janet Chapman 1843 (wife of George Gordon Smith Munro)

Good job fam!