MASSON FAMILY FROM LONGSIDE

George Masson born Longside in 1851; died 1930. According to 1881 census he was the son of Margaret DAVIDSON . who later married a man named John WHYTE in Cruden. Margaret was the daughter of Alexander Davidson and Jean Wilson . I have traced Margaret's maternal line back to 1690. George's father was JAMES MASSON a station master at Keith, Banffshire, born 1827 at Peterhead. He retired to Huntly where he died in 1926.
James was married to Elspeth Thomson or Johnson [as appears on his death certificate] (born 1829 at Turriff) but they had no children.
George married Jane CLARK possibly originally called Jean McGregor, (born Longside in 1863), in 1882 in Longside. She was the daughter of Mary Anne MCGREGOR[1833-1924] and James CLARK , a farmer . Mary Anne McGregor was the daughter of John MCGREGOR, born Kirkmichael, Banff c 1795 to Mary GRANT and possibly Alexander McGREGOR ,and Margaret BARRY who married 17 December 1829 at Old Machar in Aberdeen. John MacGregor had served in the army from the age of 17, and had been in the Peninsular War, being wounded in the leg on the Frigate Phoenix. He then signed on for service in India, at Fort William, Calcutta. After Margaret died he remarried a Janet KELMAN and had several more children, namely:John [1845], Helen [1846], James [1848-1852], Janet Andrewina , Alexander Keith, and Margaret Sangster McGregor. John Mcregor died at Longside in 1855.
George Masson was a farm labourer/gardener , and Jane had been a domestic servant, living with her cousin William CULLEN at Longside in 1881. George and Jane had 11 children: