Sivell: my maternal grandfather, Robert Sivell, R.S.A., was a painter whose art work I respect and enjoy. His work includes commissioned portraits, commissions from the British War Musueum during WW II, and an immense set of murals on the walls of the Student Union of Aberdeen University. Various members of the family, especially my mother and grandmother, show up often in Robert Sivell's paintings. I try to track these paintings and collect images for my family records.

My grandfather, known always to me as Bob, was the grandson of Henry James Sivell, of Port Glasgow Scotland, the captain of a sailing ship named the "William Campbell" which sank in 1858. My great grandfather was also named Robert Sivell, he married Agnes Wylie in 1876. Members of the Sivell family dispersed to Australia, Canada, and the United States. I have collected a little information about the Sivells, and I hope to receive a copy of a family tree that a cousin has been working on, but genealogy makes my head spin, and I don't have the necessary dedication to keep track of the expanded family tree!

JamesSayerswfamilySayers: the Sayers were boatbuilders and wood workers from Paisley, who moved to Kirkcudbright (the Galloway coast of Scotland). My maternal great grandfather James Sayers is the white haired gentleman in the photo at left; that is my mother on his lap. My maternal grandmother Isobel Sayers, stands behind her father. Photo of Kate Sayers Hunter and Molly Sayers Walmsley andBelle was one of thirteen children, and a photo of two of her sisters, Kate Sayers Hunter and Molly Sayers Walmsley, is shown below. These are the two sisters that I knew as a child. I recall Great Aunt Kate when she lived in a red brick house next to Belle at the Stell, Kirkcudbright, and kept her bad leg up while watched football (the only television I had access at the time) and always had a bowl of licorice allsorts out (at least in by my recollection!). I don't have much other information collected about the Sayers, but I have been in touch with a relative in California, U.S.A. and one in the United Kingdom.

Photo of Charles SayersOne of Belle's brothers, Charles Sayers, joined another brother in Seattle, Washington for a few years before moving to California. He was a very skilled woodworker, who built two homes, doing all the woodwork himself, creating beautiful hand carved mantles, doors, gates, and furniture. He ran a small woodworking school for many years and in 1942 published a book on woodcarving that has been reprinted by Dover Press. There are quite a few photos and records of his work. His grandson, Kenneth M. Davis carries on the wood carving tradition of the Sayers family.