Introduction
This section contains family trees where there are several ministers in the one wider family. It is hoped that the trees will display these relationships better than can be conveniently done in the Supplementary Information attached to Ewing’s Annals.
So rather than say that John Kennedy, minister of Dingwall, was the son of John Kennedy, minister of Killearnan, and the nephew of Neil Kennedy, minister of Logie Easter, and the cousin of Elizabeth Forbes Kennedy who married John Noble, minister of Fodderty, and who had two daughters, who married ministers … etc. – the whole complicated business is set out in a family tree, where relationships hopefully can more clearly be seen.
These are not full family trees, only outlines, containing what is necessary to see the relationship of one minister to another.
All individuals are numbered to aid navigation. But note that “1.1.2. James Smith” does not necessarily mean that this James Smith is the second child of “1.1. John Smith”; but it does mean he is the second child, relevant for our purpose, of “1.1. John Smith”.
Each tree is laid out with equal indents for each generation so that relationships can be more easily seen.
All individual entries that have references to ministers are printed in colour. Those that refer to Free Church ministers are printed in this colour. And those that refer to ministers of other denominations are printed in this colour. However be alert to the fact that some individual entries may contain references to ministers of more than one denomination.
An attempt has been made to give the dates of birth and death of each individual who is named and numbered in the tree, but where this has not been possible some other date has generally been given – for example, a marriage date or a date when a man inherited from his father – so as to provide some time-orientation.
The best way to access these trees is from the Free Church/Ewing’s Annals/List of Ministers page in the top menu. If you find there the minister you are looking for, there will be links to other parts of the web-site, including the trees, if indeed he figures in the trees.
Nonetheless there are two indexes provided here. The Index of Trees takes you to an alphabetical list of the 39 trees which are available here. Really you cannot learn much from the names of these trees. Of greater usefulness is the Index of Free Church Ministers. Here there is an alphabetic list of all the Free Church ministers – approximately 331 of them – who appear in the trees, together with a direct link – this symbol: ⦿ – to the appropriate tree.