Harkness – MacGillivray Stories

Sir Peter Heatly

As far as I know, l am the first to attempt a family tree of Georgina Hume, my paternal grandmother. My father, Alexander Whitecross Harkness, was fond of talking about his illustrious ancestors and relations. Some of these are documented and specific, such as the relationship between my grandmother and the famous champion Olympian swimmer and diver Sir Peter Heatly.

The Spanish Aristocracy

However, it has been more difficult to trace his claims of being descended from the Spanish aristocracy (the Armada).

In other words, at least I have identified the family relationship to Sir Peter Heatly.

People like to talk about their “heroic’ ancestors, but are not so keen to talk about infamous ancestors, unhealthy family genes, pauperism, illegitimacy, and so on. So not all the discoveries one makes will be met with family ‘applause’.

These notes are, of necessity, ‘a draft, because the work of uncovering family secrets is a never-ending task; but hopefully, I can publish the results on the internet, and perhaps print 10 examples or more and send to interested relatives. The Internet is perhaps impermanent, but it has the advantage of being able to post ‘ongoing results’, whereas paper productions are expected to be more complete.

It should be noted, that when doing this type of research there is always the risk of errors, but I would propose that my research is at least 90% correct, and the various interpretations, although not wholly correct, providing more information rather disinformation.