John Rettie recently achieved a Saltire Award for the independent research he has conducted into his family history. For the past year John has been researching online and at the Mitchell Library, uncovering documentary evidence providing a fascinating insight into people and events from his family’s past spanning six generations.
John has discovered his showman heritage on his father’s side of the familyand a shipbuilding and naval tradition on his mother’s side.

John decided to contact several long-lost members of his family, and organised a meeting to reunite his gran and her cousin’s family, thus using all of his hard work and research skills to bring distant family members back together. Well done, John!