I operate a Facebook site known as Chatham History which, of late, has grown to more than 10,000 members.

Participants are encouraged to submit information and photos regarding Chatham-Kent history, and I must write that I have been very excited with the posts.

I am particularly fond of pictures and information regarding Chatham’s founding families which include the Baxters, the Eberts, the Oldershaws, the Cornhills, the Chryslers and the McKeoughs.

One of our members, Jamie Gray, is a descendant of the Gray-Witherspoon-Charteris families, and on more than one occasion, he has submitted an outstanding photograph related to these three clans, all of them being closely related.

Jamie, recently, sent me a photo of Alexander Charteris who was one of the earliest Chatham merchants.

Alexander was born at Tinwald, Dumfrieshire, Scotland on Dec. 15, 1810 to a family with 16 children. Large families, of this scale, were not uncommon in that age with several of his siblings not living beyond childhood.

On reaching adulthood, Alexander saw, like many others of Scottish origin, there being little chance of prosperity in his homeland so he then focused his attention on pre-Confederation Canada.

Specifically,........

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