Bloodlines - Touch Not The Cat - Traces - A Scottish - American Genealogy Mystery Novel Series by Thomas McKerley and Ingrid Schippers

The Little Wonders of Writing

A new character appears in the second book of our Bloodlines series, by the name of Clementina Dorrington.

Here’s how we found her;

One day Tom was volunteering at the Oxfam second-hand bookshop in Troon, Scotland, when he found a little inscribed bible with the name and address of a ‘St. John’s Church,’ in Brooklyn, New York.

Research showed the church still exists and when Tom contacted the current pastor, he was delighted, as they were just organizing an exhibition on the history of the church.

Thus, the bible was shipped to New York and Bloodlines -Touch Not the Cat found its way into the church magazine:

Mr. Tom McKerley wrote to tell me that a beautifully preserved Prayer Book, published in 1850, was found in a bookstore where he works with the following inscription:

“For Miss Clementina Dorrington, from the Pastor and Brethern in Church, George F. Seymour, God Bless and keep you my dear child. (something unclear then) near to cherish by living in this church.

I shall use this Book in solemnizing your marriage.

St John’s Church, Brooklyn NY, 25 Oct 1866″

Tom then mailed me the little book and it will be on display on June 10 at our Solemn Evensong when we celebrate our 186th Anniversary!  Incidentally, Tom is an author himself and has written a novel called Bloodlines – Touch not the Cat which looks very interesting and you can see more about it by clicking here. I am getting the book for my Kindle from Amazon!

Even though Clementina’s bible was shipped back to Brooklyn, a character by her name remained behind in Scotland. The fact that an 1850 bible ended up in a second hand bookshop in modern day Troon, could lead to a nice genealogy story in itself.

More research showed there had been an actress by the name of Dorrington in America in the 19th century.

With a little mystery writer’s privilege and genealogy imagination, we have now changed her into a character in Bloodlines Traces, estimated publishing date: April 2014.