Orkney Image Library

My great-grandfather is the headteacher on the right of this picture. Robert Jarvie was born in Baillieston, Glasgow, in 1858 and moved to Sanday before 1887 when he married an Orkney lass, Lydia Ann Miller. They had 7 daughters and moved to Westray. I'd love to know more about his time there. He retired early due to failing eyesight to Cuminess House in Stenness where he became the registrar and lay preacher.

Robert Jarvie is also my Great Grandfather. Jane Oliver Jarvie, his seventh daughter, is my Grandmother and she married, Thomas G Smith, a soldier in the NZEF, whom she met in Edingurgh while he was on leave at the end of WW1. Jane and her sister, Robina, moved to New Zealand, and as far as I know they never went back to Scotland. They had three sons, the eldest, Travis Jarvie Smith, born 1925, was my father and I am Gary Jarvie Smith, his eldest son, born in NZ in 1952, but living in Australia since 1967. I have a book that Jane was given "For Attendance" at school in 1911. I wonder if she is in that photograph.

Robert Jarvie is also my great grandfather. Another of his daughter's, Alice married my grandfather Harry Alfred Winter. Harry was from a farm at Port Clinton in South Australia. He was a Sargeant in WW1. As an artist, he studied at London's Royal Academy of Arts after the war, where he met Alice, who was working at the academy as a secretary. Harry and Alice travelled to Orkney before they moved to Adelaide, South Australia. Alice was well read,wrote poetry and had a great knowledge and appreciation of the arts. As a child in the 1960s, I wrote to one of my aunty's, Margaret, who still lived in the Orkneys. Margaret was a teacher but I don't think she married. Alice had 3 boys and a girl with Harry, with my father Donald Roy Winter, being one of them.

Hello Sandra, I found this site again while I was noodling around on Google.
I remember my father (known as Jarvie) talking about his cousin Don who lived in SA. I think he and mum, Lotus, even went there for a visit one time when they were over from NZ. Correction - my Grandfather's first name was not Thomas, it was Travis, though he was known as Tom. Despite that, my father was known as Jarvie, his second name, to avoid confusion. We always knew Grandma as "Jean" or "Jeannie" - my sister's middle name is Jean in honour of her. It was therefore quite a surprise when we saw Jane as her name. We suspect that because of her accent, she said Jane and we heard Jean. She called me "Garddy" even after years of living in NZ. When mum met her, dad said "My mother is Scottish, but you'd never know" Mum couldn't understand a word she said! Jeannie had three sons - Jarvie, Robert and Ralph. I gave Jeannie's 1911 book prize (for Attendence) to my cousin Gillian Hall - nee Smith - as she is the eldest grand-daughter. I'm imaging that a prize for attendance was probably inevitable if your dad was the Headmaster!
Jeannie was a self-taught pianist and late in life she went to live in an old folks home. She told my brother that she had a new job. She had a job playing piano for the old people and it was such an important job that they gave her a room to stay in so she could be there whenever they needed her to play. I like to think that she was blissfully unaware and perfectly happy in her final years.
Cheers, Gary

Lovely to hear more anecdotes about the Great Aunties who emigrated 'down under'. According to my Granny Jessie Jarvie (Mrs. Jock Tait) all the 7 sisters were taught to play the piano and violin by their father Robert Jarvie. Aunty Meg or Margaret was a Music and German teacher during the time of the first World War but as was expected in those days stopped when she got married in 1923 also to an ex-soldier but had no children. I was lucky enough to have inherited Aunty Meg's piano in the 1970s when she moved in with my Granny in Stromness, Orkney and had to 'downsize'. I remember being amazed at Granny, Aunty Meg and Aunty Dorothy all singing together in perfect harmony when gathered at tea-time because my parents and I were 'home' for Stromness Shopping week. I can only imagine what wonderful music all the Jarvie sisters together would have made!
I have put more photos etc of them on 'ancestry.com'. New email address for me if you want to get in touch. Bye the way Jane/ Jean seem to be interchangeable when finding out about your Scottish heritage and Janet/ Jessie also but my Granny was definitely Jessie but called 'Tess' by her sisters. My mother was often called Jarvie by my Dad rather than Alice as it was her middle name too.