Acknowledgements
This book is a summary of the results of family history research done by a number of people over many years. My
role as author has been to select and organize the information, and provide the narrative. My brother Murray
Ross organized the photographs and the graphic images, and prepared them for submission to the printer. The
preparation of this book has been a joint effort.
Gordon Lawson, Murray Ross, and the author did most of the family history research. We have been working
together for about 25 years, and sharing information as we found it. Murray Ross also maintained a family
history database and made it available on the Internet. This not only facilitated sharing the information we
had, but also became a source of new information. Family members we didn’t know found us, and gave us
information from their records. The database has grown to contain over 5,000 individuals, of whom only about 200
are mentioned by name in this book.
Harry Ross, Eila Ross Lawson, Bruce Ross, and Edith Latham Ross all recorded recollections of their early years,
either on tape or on paper. Their own words have been used to tell large parts of their stories. I have
summarized only to the extent of selecting the passages that seemed most relevant and interesting. A very small
amount of editing was done, but this was minimized to retain a feeling for the personalities of the authors. In
a sense, they are my co-authors. Individual credits appear in the book, with their words, which are in quotation
marks.
In addition, Laurie Lawson wrote part of the Eila Ross and Francis Lawson chapter, and Don Mitchell provided new
information and photographs for the Willy Ross and Georgina Dobson chapter.
Lois Nickason Duncan, Arlene Le Helloco Shannon, and Sylvia Blenkin are more distant relatives who have each
done extensive family history research independently from ours. They very generously provided us with large
amounts of information from their work.
Violet Quinlan was the author of the Park Head chapter in ‘Green Meadows and Golden Sands’, the primary source
of the information about pioneer families in Park Head. She kindly allowed me to photocopy her original notes,
which were more extensive than the published material. Audrey Matches provided additional information and
photographs from her personal records and from the Tweedsmuir History books in Park Head.
Other quoted passages in the book are from various freely available Websites containing brief summaries of
relevant historical events, such as the Witwatersrand Gold Rush. I have edited these passages quite extensively
in some cases, but retained the quotation marks to indicate that an outside source was used.
Most of the photographs in this book come from three separate family collections, maintained by Murray Ross,
Gordon Lawson, and Arlene Le Helloco Shannon. I am grateful to each of them for making their photographs
available and for providing digital copies.
As this book was being written, the draft chapters were proofread by Eila Ross Lawson, Laurie Lawson, Gordon
Lawson, and Murray Ross. This process generated new ideas, and prevented me from including a number of errors in
the manuscript. Any errors that remain are my responsibility alone. I am grateful to my partners for their
participation.
Many other people responded to my questions or provided specific information as this book was being written.
Others listened patiently whenever a struggling new author needed to express his joys or frustrations. I will
not mention you each by name, but I am grateful for your help and support.
It would be an understatement to say that writing a first book has been a distraction from other activities
traditionally associated with retirement. I have received great understanding and support from my wife Doreen
Ross during the past 6 months, as I have for the past 47 years. Thank you.
Bob Ross
June, 2008