The Rettie Family Tree

While this page is under construction, we invite other Retties and relatives-of-Retties to e-mail us with any information they have to share on family history. We will be in touch and let you know what we know and what we are working to learn more about.

Our part of the Rettie family came from Aberdeenshire, Scotland, beginning in the 19th Century. Dwight's grandfather William Rettie (1859-1924) came in about 1886. Dwight's grandmother Jane Cardno Rettie (1875-1948) came in 1903. William Rettie was born in New Pitsligo, but much else of his ancestors we know very little. My grandmother, about whom we know a lot more, came from a farm named "West Tarwathie," located near the village of Strichen, about 4 mi. (6.5 km) east of New Pitsligo and about 8 mi. (13 km) south of Fraserburgh, a seaport.

The nearest landmark of note is the Hill of Mormond, a short distance east of West Tarwathie. On the hill is the figure of a horse cut into the hillside above the village around 1800 and filled with white quartz. The horse is 164ft. (50m) long and 146ft. (44.5m) tall. It is said to have been created by a Captain Fraser of Strichen as a tribute to a Sergeant James Hutcheon of New Pitsligo. Sergeant Hutcheon gave the horseless captain his mount during a battle against the French near Gilze in Holland on August 26, 1794. The sergeant was killed before he could find a mount for himself. To the right of the horse on the crest of the hill are ruins of a hunting lodge built in 1779 by the same Captain Fraser. {The photo below was taken by Dwight in July 2002.)

The name "Tarwathie" has gained a touch of immortality through a poem, "Farewell to Tarwathie," written by George Scroggie and contained in a book of his poetry, "The Peasant's Lyre: A Collection of Miscellaneous Poems," published in Aberdeen in 1857. The poem was later set to a popular tune of the time as a sea chantey. It has been recorded several times in recent years, the most widely known version of which was done by Judy Collins. Collins' version is sung to the accompaniment of sounds of Humpback whales.

The poem is about a man who leaves Tarwathie to go whaling off the coast of Greenland. It is a rather sad poem, as are many of Scroggie's published poems. There are actually three farms near Strichen having the name Tarwathie (North Tarwathie, South Tarwathie, and West Tarwathie), and no one has yet discovered from which farm the man in the poem might have come. Seafaring was, however, a popular form of livelihood in that part of Scotland, most of the farms, including West Tarwathie, being rather small and unlikely to support growing families. The closest ports then supporting large fishing fleets were Fraserburgh to the north and Peterhead to the east. Both cities have grown and prospered in modern times because of North Sea oil developments.

West Tarwathie had been in the Cardno family for many generations (some say the 16th Century, but I have no documentation to support any particular era.) The last family member to live at West Tarwathie was Mrs. Jean Murray, widow of James Cardno Murray. She now lives in Mintlaw, a few miles distant. The arable part of West Tarwathie was sold about a dozen years ago to a neighbor (farmland consolidations have been taking place there, too.) The house and other structures were sold out of the family about five years ago to a young Irish couple who now live there. At the time it was sold the house was quite run down, needing extensive repairs and rehabilitation. In 2002 my wife Karen and I visited West Tarwathie and saw the "new" place after it has received a notable facelift by a young family obviously intending to make it their permanent home. (The photo below was taken by Karen in July 2002.)

Tarwathie has taken on another life as the name given to several sailboats here in the United States. We had two ocean going sailboats which we named TARWATHIE, an Endeavour 32 which we had on the Potomac River and Chesapeake Bay from 1976 to 1984 (in which I took two cruises from Chesapeake Bay to Bermuda in 1980 and 1982), and an English-built Buchanan Albatross 42 ketch on which my wife Karen and I lived and cruised from 1986-95 (along the eastern seaboard and as far east and south as Grenada.) We knew of three other boats having the same name in the Chesapeake Bay area, all of them apparently inspired to use the name by Judy Collins' recording of the song. A search of the Internet also reveals numerous other Tarwathie-related sites, most of them connected to the sea chantey.

My grandfather William Rettie was born in New Pitsligo on July 17, 1859. He was the son of William and Mary Crichton Rettie. Thanks to Barbara Dawes of Ontario, Canada, I know that William was the son of another William Rettie (b. abt. 1822 in Gamrie, Banffshire) and his wife Mary Chrichton (b. abt. 1833, place unknown.) My grandfather had twin siblings Mary and Als (b. abt. 1855, place unknown.)

My grandfather's grandfather James Rettie (b. abt. 1787 in Monquhitter, Aberdeenshire) was listed as a retired farmer in the 1861 Census.

Barbara Dawes of Ontario, Canada, wrote to me that: "I am not actually related to the Rettie family except as Helen (Nellie) Rettie (1864-1945) married William Strachan (1st cousin twice removed) (1868-aft 1945) whose mother Christine Milne (born out of wedlock) (great grandaunt) was the daughter of Mary Angus, my 2nd great grandmother.

Dawes reports that:

"Helen had two children out of wedlock James Bannerman Dunn who also emigrated to Fossil, Wheeler County, OR in 1913 with his family Bella Grant who married William Morrison. . . [Jimmy Dunn was a longtime family friend in Fossil. Jimmy worked on the Rettie Ranch several years, including 1920 when Dwight's father accompanied him with a band of sheep to the Steens Mountains for summer pasture.]

"Helen appears in the 1871 Census as the step-daughter of James Bannerman at 15 Low St., New Pitsligo, Aberdeenshire as a Scholar. Also shown are her mother Mary, her sister Margaret Rettie age 9 and step-siblings Charles Bannerman age 3 and Barbara Bannerman age 1. Helen doesn't appear with this family in the 1881 Census unless she is the Mary age 25 listed with an occupation of Domestic Servant. At the time of her marriage in 1890 her residence is at 22 High St., New Pitsligo, Aberdeenshire, and her occupation is a Domestic Servant. Following this the 1891 Census shows her at Kirktown, St. Fergus with her husband. And, the family have relocated to Brigend Cottar, Longside, Aberdeenshire in the 1901 Census."

Dwight's grandfather William Rettie grew up in Aberdeenshire. In the 1881 census William was listed as working on Cairnorchies Farm for the Alexander Lamb family, near the village of Old Deer (or New Deer?.)

William left Scotland in the mid-1880s and landed first in eastern Canada, then moved west to Winnipeg, Manitoba. The story was told (by Dwight's parents) that William did not like the cold winters in Winnipeg, so he emigrated to Oregon's Willamette River Valley. There he worked on the Chalmers farm and at Foothills Farm near Carlton, Oreg., owned by a fellow Scot. (According to William Rettie's obituary in the February 1, 1924, edition of "The Fossil Journal," he [also?] worked during this time "for Ladd and Reid on the Broadmeades Farm.")

According to a sketch about William and Jane Cardno Rettie (submitted by William's daughter Mary [Rettie] Reese), published in a 1983 "History of Wheeler County Oregon:" "While working at Foothills with a fine herd of Shorthorn cattle he dreamed of someday owning his own farm and raising registered cattle. He became a naturalized citizen November 2, 1897.

"Homesteads were being filed on in Eastern Oregon, so he left the Valley and worked in the Shaniko area. About 1895, he arrived in the Fossil [Oregon] area where many of the homesteaders had "proved up on their claims" and were anxious to sell. In 1899 he purchased land near Thirtymile Creek seven miles north of the later site of [the lumber mill town of] Kinzua. This tract was the Ed Baker Smith and D.H. Smith holding and would become his "home place."

"Additional lands were acquired from homesteaders Sherman Wade, John Leslie, Jane Leslie, William Higgins, S.C. Thomas, Henry Williams, and James Edwards. The Leslie transaction for 1,080 acres represented homesteads acquired by them [the Leslies] from earlier settlers including Andrew Leslie and Benjamin Bare.

"On the Bare place, an old log schoolhouse stood for many years, but was never used after 1903, to our knowledge. In the 1930s it was dismantled; the logs used for firewood.

"Andrew M. Patterson, also a Scotchman [sic], became Mr. Rettie's partner. Together they purchased land in the Buckhorn area, west of Mayville, and engaged in the sheep and cattle business until 1907 when the partnership was dissolved, Mr. Patterson taking the Buckhorn ranch and Mr. Rettie keeping the Comstock Basin ranch. Comstock Basin lies partly in Wheeler, partly in Gilliam County. The Rettie holdings were all in Wheeler County, one fence forming the Gilliam County line for approximately a half mile."

Again from the Wheeler County history: "In 1903 Mr. Rettie returned to Scotland (he had made two previous trips) and there on Christmas Day 1903 he married Jeanie (Jane) Cardno, (b. 10-8-1874), a dressmaker in Strichen, who lived with her parents on the farm West Tarwathie. He brought his bride to Oregon in 1904. . . ."

Some members of the family long characterized the marriage of James and Jane as "arranged." However, William's daughter Clara Rettie wrote on December 10, 1981, in a letter to "Cousin Jeanie" [last name unknown, but she was the daughter of] . . ."Helen (Rettie) Strachen, known to us as Aunt Nellie, [and] was a sister of our father William Rettie . . . Our mother, Jane Cardno of Tarwathie, near Strichen and our father were friends when they were probably in their teens." [Some arithmetic on William and Jane's birth dates shows their "teens" never overlapped. William was a teen 1872 to 1878. Jane was a teen 1888 to 1894. The likelihood of them having been friends while they were growing up seems rather remote. Clara may simply have felt uncomfortable with the notion of her parents having an arranged marriage, albeit such marriages would have been rather common in those times, especially for men who had emigrated to the U.S. but wished to marry someone from "back home."]

Other documentation says he made a previous trip to Scotland in 1899. As reported in the local newspaper's November 24, 1899, issue: "Mr. Wm Rettie returned Wednesday from a three month trip to his former home in Scotland. He enjoyed the visit very much; even if he did come back without what he went after, and is still a maiden bachelor."

A fascinating feature of William Rettie's life was that he left Scotland under pressure because he had an affair with a married woman, whose name I do not know, nor do I know where she lived, but it was possibly New Deer, where he may have then still worked. That affair produced a child, whose name is also unknown. I know almost nothing about that child who was my father's half-brother. What I do know is that when my grandfather died in Fossil, Oregon, in 1924, his illegitimate Scottish son showed up at (or shortly after) William's funeral in Fossil. He received at that time his "share" of his father's estate, which has been said to be something like $800 (or about $8,600 in 2003 dollars.) He then disappeared and has, as far as I know, never been heard from again. Interestingly, that $800 was about half what the other five legitimate children received--not an unreasonable "share." The shares for the five legitimate children are listed in an accounting Ledger covering years before and after William's death. That Ledger contains no information about the half-brother.

The existence of William Rettie's illegitimate son was a deep family secret, such matters then carrying a stigma of large proportions. Obviously, my father James Cardno Rettie, knew about him, but my recollection is that my mother, Lois Morris Rettie, did not know about him until after my father's death in 1969. She learned about him from two of my father's siblings then still living. I learned about him from my mother after my father's death. My sister Jo [Rettie] Morgan believes she heard about it before our father's death directly from him.

One of my father's siblings, his sister Clara Rettie (she never married), confirmed to me in the mid-1980s that the half-brother was a real person and not merely a rumor. However, in spite of repeated pleas from me and my wife, several times in person, she never gave us any details, if she knew them. Clara died in 2000, the last of her generation of Retties.

I have recently gone through Clara Rettie's surviving papers and photographs and found nothing that might shed any light on the subject. Clara spent her last years in a retirement home in The Dalles, Oregon, in a one-room apartment with no place to store anything, so what she kept was in a single small suitcase, now in the custody of Sheri [Rettie] Kimberling of Prairie City, Oreg., the daughter of Edna Rettie, widow of Kenneth Rettie, my father's brother. Edna lived in John Day, Oreg., for many years. She died in 2008.

But the plot thickens.

A couple of years ago, out of the blue, one John Davidson contacted me by e-mail from Whitehorse, Yukon Territory, Canada, with the story that he was looking for his grandfather, one James John Davidson. James John Davidson was born in Scotland in the 1880s, and emigrated to Canada a few years later in the company of a brother David. The potential connection with me was language in something belonging to his grandfather linking him to a "Mrs. Rettie" in the States. The surmise is that this Davidson may have been my father's half-brother and the link was to my grandmother Jane Cardno Rettie.

This might be explained because there presumably had to be some continuing contact between the illegitimate Scottish son and his father in order for him to have been summoned to Fossil, Oregon, in 1924 to receive his share of his father's estate. It is unlikely that he traveled very far to do that, because one account had him "at" William Rettie's funeral. I have never seen anything to confirm that account. Even if he arrived somewhat later, it is unlikely he traveled a great distance.

My father's half-brother would in all probability not have had the name Rettie, but it is remotely possible he did change his name to agree with that of his father.

All of this is still conjecture, because even though I paid an outfit in Scotland called "Scot Roots: Scottish ancestor service" to do a search for James John Davidson and his siblings Charlotte and David, Scot Roots did not find any of them. I could not afford to keep the outfit in Scotland searching (such as church and other records in Aberdeenshire), so everything related to James John Davidson is at present an unconfirmed, albeit intriguing, possibility. More details on the contact with John Davidson are contained in an endnote to the family tree for Murdo McLennan at the link below.

I would like to learn the name of my father's half-brother and, perhaps, more about him. His descendants are, in fact, blood relatives of mine and whatever stigma might have attached his existence has now passed long ago into history. Such relationships are not uncommon at all in these times. Perhaps someone doing a web search on this site holds the key to knowing. If so, please do contact me.

Another interesting vignette from William Rettie's life involves the fact that he and his wife Jane visited Scotland in 1911, with my father James Cardno Rettie in tow (who would have been only seven years old), and with sisters Mary and Clara. William Rettie booked his return trip home on the maiden voyage of the TITANIC in April 1912. So the story goes, William became anxious to get home to Oregon, cancelled his TITANIC reservations, and left several weeks earlier aboard the White Star liner CELTIC. The family arrived at Ellis Island on February 24, 1912, according to research of the Ellis Island records by my grandson Brian Melton. The CELTIC was in 1901-03 the largest ship afloat. The TITANIC, of course, was sunk Sunday, April 14, 1912, on its maiden voyage, with most of the adult male passengers aboard going down with the ship. However, I suspect a cancelled reservation on the TITANIC would not be a matter of permanent record.

The James Cardno Rettie family, including Lois and Dwight, traveled to England in 1932 aboard the GEORGIC, another White Star liner, built in 1895. They returned from England in 1935 aboard the same ship. They visited West Tarwathie at least twice. James was a graduate of Willamette University in Oregon, and after two years of graduate study at Yale University, studied further at the London School of Economics for two years. The family lived at Toynbee Hall in London those years.

I will add more details about James Cardno and Lois Morris Rettie, my parents, below (in time.) We are still "under construction."

More is known about my grandmother, Jeanie (Jane) Cardno Rettie. She was born in 1875 and her marriage to William Rettie in 1903 was a first marriage for both. She then left Scotland and moved with William to his sheep and cattle ranch in Wheeler County, Oregon. It must have been a massive cultural shock for her. Again quoting from the Wheeler County history, after arriving in the U.S.:

"Mrs. Rettie stayed several weeks with the James Stewart family in Fossil to meet the people and become oriented to the ways of cooking, etc., in her new homeland. She had been used to cooking over an open fire (fireplace.)"

In 2002 Karen and Dwight visited Scotland where they connected with distant relatives of the Rettie family who are related through Murdock (Murdo) McLennan to Dwight's grandmother. That relationship is contained in a family tree showing the descendants of Murdo McLennan. Research on my grandfather William Rettie's family awaits the doing.

View the Descendants of Murdock (Murdo) McLennan.

William and Jane Rettie had six children: James Cardno, my father (1904-1969); Mary Elizabeth (1906-1990); Robert Crichton (1908-1981); Kenneth (1913-1988) ; Clara Helen or Nellie (1911-2000), and Charles Bannerman (1916-1948.) More information about each of their families is located at the McLennan link above.

Continuing from the Wheeler County history: "Mr. Rettie ran a band of fine-wooled sheep . . . always topping the market. The sheep were trailed to summer range in Whitman National Forest sear Susanville [Summerville? There is no Susanville on a modern map of Oregon.] -- a fifteen day trip from the ranch [about 150 miles as the crow flies.] Each of the three older boys took his turn as packer. Jim, not yet sixteen, was the first to go with herder Robe [pronounced Rowbee} Greer [of Shady Valley, Tenn., who worked several summers on the ranch."]

"In 1912 Mr. Rettie bought the first of his herd of registered Shorthorn cattle. . . "

"Mrs. Rettie made a trip to Scotland in 1928 to see her aging mother who died while she was there.

"In 1948 Mrs. Rettie and [son] Charles were drowned when a flash flood hit the ranch. In 1951 the ranch was sold." The children then remaining on the farm included Bob, Kenneth, and Clara. James had left the ranch in 1928 to go to Willamette University and Mary married Freeman ("Doc") Reese and left also. Clara moved to Portland, where she lived and worked for many years, retiring to The Dalles, Oregon. Bob and Ken moved to John Day, Oregon, where they both worked many years in the local sawmill. Bob died in 1981, Kenneth in 1988.

There is also an interesting story about Bob. While living in John Day, Bob lived in the basement apartment of a home just up the hill from his brother Kenneth and wife Edna. A "confirmed" bachelor, Bob took most of his meals at a local restaurant in town, and apparently became very friendly with its proprietor, a woman. Shortly after Bob's death in 1981, a woman and her two sons from Pendleton, Oregon, showed up with a truck, declaring themselves Bob's common law wife and sons. [According to Edna Rettie and her sister living in Fossil, the woman was one Eva Schell (sp?) with sons Robert and James.] They loaded up Bob's personal effects and drove off. According to Edna Rettie the woman was then a Deputy Sheriff in Pendleton. I have not been able to locate her or either of Bob's two sons. The rest of the family only learned about the relationship from the proprietor of the restaurant where Bob ate, he having apparently shared knowledge of his otherwise-unknown family only with her.

Grandfather William Rettie settled on a livestock ranch in eastern Oregon near the town of Fossil (Wheeler County). Dwight's father, James Cardno Rettie (1904-1969), and his mother, Lois Chloey Morris Rettie (1908-1987), were born in Fossil, and in the years that followed they lived variously in New Haven, Conn.; London, England; Portland, Oreg.; Juneau, Alaska; Philadelphia, Penna.; and in Arlington, Va. Dwight Fay Rettie was born in 1930 in New Haven, Conn.; sister Winnefred Josephine (Jo) Rettie in The Dalles, Oreg., in 1935, and brother Charles William (Bill) Rettie in Portland, Oreg., in 1938.

Dwight lived with the family for all of the moves listed above. He left home in the summer of 1948 following graduation from The Haverford School in Haverford, Pa., to take a job in white pine blister rust control for the U.S. Forest Service in Trout Creek, Mont. He returned to Montana each summer during his college years at Yale University, and again following graduation in 1952. In November of that year he was drafted and served in the U.S. Army during the Korean Conflict (1952-54), then went to graduate school in Berkeley, Calif.

In 1955 following completion of work for a Masters Degree at the University of California at Berkeley, Dwight moved back to Arlington, Va., and lived briefly again with his parents while beginning a career with the federal government. He was married in 1956 to Marilyn Louise Burton; they had three children: Stuart Burton (b.1957), Catherine Eileen (b.1960), and Thomas Joseph (b.1963.) They lived in Arlington, Va. Dwight and Marilyn were divorced in 1978.

Dwight was married again in 1984 to Karen Elizabeth Ross (b.1946 in Roanoke, Va.) Karen had a son Jeffrey Mathias Hoffman (b.1968.) Dwight and Karen continued to live in Arlington, Va., until 1986 when they sold their house, cars, etc., and moved aboard TARWATHIE, the sailboat referred to above. Between 1987 and 1995 they cruised the Atlantic seaboard between Washington, D.C./Annapolis, Md., and Ft. Lauderdale, Fla., and through the Bahamas to the Windward and Leeward Islands, getting as far south and east as Grenada. In 1990 they returned to the States for a variety of reasons, including the birth of a grandchild. For the next three years they continued cruising along the eastern seaboard while Dwight wrote and published a book he had aspired to write for many years: Our National Park System: Caring for America's Greatest Natural and Historic Treasures (University of Illinois Press, 1995). More about the book including some excerpts are included on this web site. In 1995 they purchased a home and moved ashore in Morehead City, N.C. In 1997 Dwight and Karen sold the boat to a Canadian couple who, with their three young boys, did a four-year circumnavigation.

In that same year Karen and Dwight took the first of two freighter cruises, this one with Karen's mother Emily Ross, from Ft. Lauderdale, Fla., to New Orleans, then Honduras and Guatemala, returning to New Orleans. As can happen with freighters, the ship was re-routed to Costa Rica, so we flew back to Ft. Lauderdale to retrieve our motorhome and drive to Emily's 80th birthday party in Roanoke, Va. Without that occasion--not to be missed--Karen and Dwight could have continued on the freighter, eventually returning to Ft. Lauderdale. The trip was superb. There were just five passengers aboard the German containership with sumptuous accommodations, excellent food, and fascinating things to see and do. Freighter travel is not exactly like normal cruise liner travel: no gambling, no flashy stage shows, and no 24-hour buffets. But lots to keep yourself busy if you wish.

Dwight began teaching political science at Carteret Community College and Karen got a realtor's license, at which she worked for about two years. Then in 1997 they purchased a motorhome and during 1998 and 1999 spent a little over a year traveling the United States. They went west by way of New Orleans to Texas, Colorado, Montana, Idaho, Washington, and by ferry to Alaska, the latter leg with Karen's mother Emily Ross with them. They returned to Vancouver, Wash., in the fall of 1998 and left the RV with an uncle, Fred Good, returning home to Morehead City for the holidays.

Early in 1999 Karen and Dwight returned to Vancouver, retrieved the RV and spent a month as lighthouse keepers at the 107-foot Gray's Harbor Lighthouse near Westport, Wash. That lighthouse is the tallest in the State of Washington and the third tallest on the Pacific Coast. The lighthouse still has the original third-order Fresnel lens at the top of the tower, though it is now lighted by an automatic light manufactured in New Zealand that operates on a mere 35-watt bulb that can be seen 19 miles at sea (white sector) and 17 miles red sector. With the RV parked at the base of the tower, they gave 2-6 tours a day up the 135 steps to the lantern room to over 300 visitors, during a part of the winter when few to none was predicted. It was a wonderful experience. The lighthouse was closed shortly after we were there because of residual mercury clinging to the walls, but was subsequently cleaned and according to the light's web site it was reopened to the public in 2001. The lighthouse is now owned by the Westport Maritime Museum. For more information about the lighthouse see: http://www.lighthousefriends.com/light.asp?ID=117. Some fine pictures of the lighthouse and lens are located at: http://www.silvan.cc/Lighthouse/7AW.htm.

Then Karen and Dwight began what they assumed would be an 8-9 month trip home, going down the Oregon and California coasts, seeing Yosemite and Death Valley National Parks (they actually visited 76 units of the National Park System in 1998-99), then to Santa Fe and Denver. While in Denver Karen was advised that East Carolina University has accepted all of the credits she had earned while attending Radford (Va.) College some 35 years earlier. That fact was stimulus enough for them to skedaddle home so Karen could enroll at ECU in August to get a B.A. in Elementary Education.

Between August 1999 and December 2001 Karen studied and Dwight taught political science as a Visiting Professor in the Political Science Department at East Carolina University. In December 2001, Karen graduated Magna Cum Laude, receiving a B.A. in Elementary Education with a Reading Cert. She taught the next semester on short term contracts and began the 2003-2004 school year with a contract teaching 4th grade at Newport Elementary School.

Dwight has not returned to teaching, spending time being something of a house-husband while Karen has been teaching, and doing woodwork in a shop behind their house. Dwight also writes on park and other matters, and has started a novel about an incident in the Civil War, a short-story version of which won a prize in a contest sponsored by a local writers' group. Dwight also served three years on the Board of Trustees of the Unitarian Coastal Fellowship, holding the office of vice president, then president. Karen also later served on that same Board of Trustees with responsibility for the religious education program. Dwight has also been active in the Carteret County Democratic Party, having served as chairman of the committee that completed the party's 2003-2004 Party Platform.

In the summer of 2001 Karen and Dwight took a second freighter cruise, this one from Norfolk, Va., to Savannah, Ga., to Valencia, Spain. The cruise was 14 days and a wonderful experience. This time there were only four passengers, though they didn't see a lot of the other two, both of whom were French speaking. The ship was again German. This vessel had on it a swimming pool, sauna, exercise room, lounge, and other amenities. They had the run of the ship and Karen spent many hours in the bridge, including time at night.

They landed in Spain during a general strike, which made it somewhat difficult to meet the rest of their schedule that included a trip on Spain's high speed railway, the Euromed (the best train they rode on for food, service, and a smooth ride) to Lyon, France (they stayed overnight in Barcelona because of the strike and made their way from there to Lyon on local trains.) From Lyon Karen and Dwight traveled on France's high speed train (actually the fastest they rode on, but rather bumpy and the service was much less attractive) to Paris. In Paris they had rented an apartment for a week, where they were joined by long-time friend Brigitte Rohrbach from Switzerland. After "doing" Paris, they took the Eurostar train through the chunnel to London. There they stayed with friends outside London, commuting to the city daily to see it all. Their friends also took them around southern England.

Then they took the train to Coventry, England, and stayed with a friend, Tom Wood, whom they had met while cruising--an over-70 man who singlehanded the Atlantic Ocean west and east. He showed them much of Wales and other sights reachable from Coventry. Then they took the train to Aberdeen, Scotland, again staying with friends Ishbel and Michael Barron whom Dwight had met when they were all (except Karen) in Australia in the early 1970s. Their friends not only showed them Dwight's ancestral home TARWATHIE (now owned by a young Irish couple who have done a handsome restoration job on the old buildings) but arranged to connect them with other Rettie family members, one of whom is responsible for the incredible family tree descending from Murdo McLennan (see the above link.) The Barrons loaned them a car and they traveled to Inverness and the Highlands. They did manage to visit one of Scotland's whisky distilleries, albeit not either of Dwight's favorites: Glenfarclas or Laphroaig.

After Scotland Dwight and Karen rode the Flying Scot to London, returning to the States by air.

In June 2008 Karen retired from her teaching position after five years at Newport Elementary School.

For information about Dwight's professional career see his resume, available on his Home page. Karen's resume will be added.

Josephine Rettie (now Jo Morgan) lived with her parents until . . . [to be added]

For the beginnings of the Morris family tree (also under construction) click here.