About Leaving Scotland
While I was doing research for Left at Hiva Oa, I came across a document in Capt. Ken’s U.S. Navy Officer Service Records. It was his Statement of Personal History, to be completed to upon entering the Navy. Here he listed all the jobs he had worked as a young man: farm hand, mason tender, construction worker; his education; social clubs and professional affiliations; and he gave an answer to this question: “Are there any incidents in your life not mentioned herein which may reflect upon your loyalty to the United States or upon your suitability to perform, the duties which you may be called upon to take, or which might require further explanation?” Being the above-board guy that he was, he put forth this information:
Helen Cameron, my mother, entered the port of Boston on 22 April, 1923 from Glasgow Scotland. She was accompanied by her stepfather Oliver Lockhart who became a citizen on 30 September, 1931 at Superior Court Worcester Mass. We have since lost contact with my mother and as far as all court records show she never filed citizenship papers. Whether she became a citizen by marrying my father we don’t know. Oliver Lockhart has since deceased.
In the fall of 2017 I had the chance to visit Scotland; I found many corroborating records and additional information about the family. I spent hours in the library, explored the neighborhoods, and found the very building where Helen Cameron was born, at home, in 1916. But many questions remain. Who was Helen Cameron? Why did she leave Scotland with her stepfather? What were her hopes and dreams for the future? Leaving Scotland seeks to answer those questions, and explore the story of another who sailed across an entire ocean to begin a new life.