What's In a Name? Part II

When I was thinking of naming my brand Anabaglish, my husband suggested that we take a day to find Anabaglish in Scotland while on an upcoming business trip to the UK.

My ancestor, Andrew McCornick, a youngest son, had left the Anabaglish farm in Scotland to come to America.  My grandfather had named his farm after that farm.

We had a plat map my cousin had given me.  The farm’s shapes were on the map, but not street names.

We drove through southern Scotland comparing Google Earth to our plat map through narrow roads lined with either rock walls or deep ditches.  The phone batteries were dying and then we were out of service.  We took a wrong road and with no place to turn around and had to go a long way to get back to where we came from.

My husband was driving by memory of what he thought he had seen.

We passed a farm house and I said, “I am sure that is a farm similar to what my ancestor came from and so now I have seen the land of my heritage.  Let’s just go find a hotel.” 

And then we came down a road and saw the sign.  We both felt tears come to our eyes. 

I didn’t think I cared that much, but when we found the place, I cared.  I thought it was beautiful.

We drove up to the house, passing the fields with sheep. The house and barn are on the top of the hill.  We saw someone heading out to the barn in rubber boots to feed the animals.  We called out, but they pretended they didn’t hear us.  We backed down the long drive. 

And, that was it.  So at Anabaglish we are a little bit Scotland, some the Pacific Northwest, USA, and a lot India. In the name, I honor my grandparents and my great, great, great, great grandfather, Andrew McCornack.  He left his home, and in doing so created a new home for the likes of me.

Recently I received an email, ”I think I am your relative.”  It  was another ancestor of the McCornack clan.  Now we are Facebook friends.  Our posts let us know we are similar in some ways.  We are part of the very big family of a certain penniless immigrant farmer who once lived on a farm called Anabaglish.