Week of October 30

It was another good week. We worked with cemetery records some this week . These will be very useful in helping people find out about their family. It told who bought the plot, who was buried there and the relationship between that person and the one who bought the plot. It told where they died and when. We will continue to work on these records next week.

Monday we attended Family Home Evening at the mission home with other senior couples and senior sisters.  We watched  17 Miracles.  If you have not seen it, I highly recommend it.  It is about the Willey & Martin Handcart companies.

This weekend we took the tour “What Lies Beneath the Royal Mile?”   Elder and Sister Connelly set up the tour.  We went with them and the Flynn’s.

Mary King's Close (you and I would call it an alley) is one of the most famous in the city.  It's famous for the mystery surrounding it.  The close was named for Mary King, a lady who must have been important to have an alley named for her.
Think of a close as a very narrow space between two tall buildings.  On the ground floor were shops and businesses.  Up above were flats.  Some flats contained single families, others could be crowded with several families.

The living conditions were such that when the plague arrived in the 1600's it easily spread. In 18 months much of the population died.

In time these dwelling places were torn down and new buildings built on top.  In this area the government actually built a large complex and covered over the lower floors.  In some cases they used the lower floors for storage.  Some areas were just bricked off.
Eventually the areas were rediscovered and that lead to opening them up for tourists.  There are ghost stories associated with the tour.  Read more about it on their website http://www.realmarykingsclose.com/

Afterwards we ate at an Indian Restaurant that was having a special--buy one meal, get one free.  They forgot to tell us that we had to buy drinks, and that the rice and bread was extra.  Our bargain meal didn't turn out to be much of a bargain.