Person Page - 1098

     William Reith was born on 5 November 1843 in New Brunswick.^2,3,4 He was the son of William Reith and Isobel Henderson.^1,2 He married Jane Langford on 2 February 1869 in Lucan, Ontario, Canada.³ He died on 10 July 1893 in London, Ontario, Canada, at age 49.³
     William Reith (age 8) was enumerated in the census on 12 January 1852 in Hay Township, Huron County, Canada West, in the household of William Reith.¹ William Reith (age 18) was enumerated in the census on 14 January 1861 in Hay Township, Huron County, Canada West, in the household of William Reith.²
     William H. Reith was enumerated in the census on 2 April 1871 in London Township, Middlesex County, Ontario, Canada, as a farmer, age 27 with Jane Reith and Ezra Reith in his household.⁵
     William Reith was enumerated in the census on 4 April 1881 in London Township, Middlesex County, Ontario, Canada, as a farmer, age 37 with Jane Reith, Ezra Reith, Isabella Reith, Elizabeth Jane Reith, William Reith, Alexander Reith and James Reith in his household.⁶
     William Reith was enumerated in the census on 5 April 1891 in London Township, Middlesex County, Ontario, Canada, as a farmer, age 47 with Jane Reith, Ezra Reith, Elizabeth Reith, William Reith, Alexander Reith, James Reith, Arthur Reith and Annie Reith in his household.⁷

     Margaret Ley was born on 1 March 1850 in Knockbank, Fordoun, Kincardineshire, Scotland.¹ She was the daughter of James Ley and Helen Reith.^1,2,3,4 She married James Watson on 11 September 1877 in Knockbank, Fordoun, Kincardineshire, Scotland.^2,3 She died on 9 June 1930 in 51 Laurel Street, Glasgow, Scotland, at age 80.³
     Margaret Ley (daughter, age 1) was enumerated in the census on 31 March 1851 in Knockbank, Fordoun, Kincardineshire, Scotland, in the household of James Ley.⁴
     Margaret Ley was enumerated in the census on 3 April 1871 in 29 Castle Terrace, Edinburgh, Scotland, as a domestic nurse, age 19.⁵ Margaret Watson (wife, age 37) was enumerated in the census on 5 April 1891 in Orchard Cottage, Orchard Place, Aberdeen, Aberdeenshire, Scotland, in the household of James Watson.⁶
     Margaret Watson was enumerated in the census on 31 March 1901 in 448 King Street, Aberdeen, Aberdeenshire, Scotland, as a widow and boarding house keeper, age 46.⁷
     Margaret Watson was enumerated in the census on 2 April 1911 in 16 Arlington Street, Glasgow, Scotland, as a widow, age 61.⁸

     Jane Ley was born on 6 August 1853 in Knockbank, Fordoun, Kincardineshire, Scotland.² She was the daughter of James Ley and Helen Reith.^2,3,4,1,5 She married Andrew Allan on 5 April 1873 in 104 Bank Street, Edinburgh, Scotland.^3,4 She died on 15 May 1946 in 95 Ayr Road, Prestwick, Ayrshire, Scotland, at age 92.⁴
     Jane Ley (daughter, age 7) was enumerated in the census on 8 April 1861 in Knockbank, Fordoun, Kincardineshire, Scotland, in the household of James Ley.¹ Jane Ley (daughter, age 17) was enumerated in the census on 3 April 1871 in Knockbank, Fordoun, Kincardineshire, Scotland, in the household of James Ley.⁵ Jane Allan (wife, age 28) was enumerated in the census on 4 April 1881 in 62 McLellan Street, Govan, Lanarkshire, Scotland, in the household of Andrew Allan.⁶
     Jane Allan was enumerated in the census on 5 April 1891 in 2 Caroline Place, Aberdeen, Aberdeenshire, Scotland, as a pensioner's wife, age 35 with Margaret Allan, Charles Allan, Mary Allan, William Allan, Louisa Allan and George Ley in her household.⁷
     Jane Allan was enumerated in the census on 31 March 1901 in 55 West Cumberland Street, Glasgow, Scotland, as keeping lodgers, age 47 with Margaret Helen Allan, Mary Allan, Louise H. R. Allan and George C. Allan in her household.⁸
     Jane Allan was enumerated in the census on 2 April 1911 in 158 Woodlands Road, Glasgow, Scotland, as a widow and boarding house keeper, age 57, with Margaret Helen Allan, Mary Allan and Louise Helen Ruth Allan in her household.⁹

     Elizabeth Ruxton Gray was born on 13 October 1885 in Dorbshill, Logie Buchan, Aberdeenshire, Scotland.² She married William Burness, son of James Burness and Ann Hird, on 12 April 1909 in 18 King Street, Aberdeen, Aberdeenshire, Scotland.^1,3 She died on 3 March 1968 in 36 Whitehall Terrace, Aberdeen, Aberdeenshire, Scotland, at age 82.³
     Elizabeth Ruxton Gray (wife, age 25) was enumerated in the census on 2 April 1911 in 15 Foxley Gardens, Purley, Surrey, England, in the household of William Burness. She had been married 2 years with 1 child (living.)⁴

     Lawrence Ruxton Burness was born on 24 July 1910 in 10 Purley Vale, Purley, Surrey, England.¹ He was the son of William Burness and Elizabeth Ruxton Gray.^1,2,3 He died on 17 February 2004 in Ninewells Hospital, Dundee, Angus, Scotland, at age 93.²
     Lawrence Ruxton Burness (son, age 8 months) was enumerated in the census on 2 April 1911 in 15 Foxley Gardens, Purley, Surrey, England, in the household of William Burness.³
     L. Burness (clerk, age 26) was listed as a passenger aboard SS Bhamo which departed on 21 August 1936 from Liverpool bound for Rangoon, Burma.⁴
     Obituary: Lawrence Burness's direct descent from James Burnes, grandfather of Robert Burns, influenced the twin features of his life's work. He was one of Scotland's most notable twentieth-century genealogists, and he remained a lifelong scholar of the bard. His practical work in the 1960s ensured that the Burns family gravestones in Kincardineshire were preserved, as well as securing the establishment and endowment of a centre devoted to genealogy and the study of Burns. Burns and genealogy ran in the Burness line. His father, William, inherited a graphic family tree from Lawrence's grandfather, tracing the line to the seventeenth-century Robert Burnes in the croft of Bogjorgan in Kincardineshire. Lawrence remembers being fascinated by this at 16. Immersed in matters Burnsian and ancestral, Burness had made valuable pre-war contacts in the wider Burns world. These he nurtured in the post-war climate, especially the American benefactor William Coull Anderson. By 1967, an obelisk on the A90 in Kincardineshire overlooking the lands of Clochnahill, the home of William Burnes, Robert's father, had been unveiled. With Charles Easton (later president of the Burns Federation), Fenton Wyness and Norman Marr, Burness established the Glenbervie Burns Memorials Association, designed to draw attention to the decaying condition of Burns's family gravestones in Glenbervie Kirkyard. With Anderson's financial assistance, the stones were removed and placed upright inside all-weather frames. The relationship prospered once more, when Anderson endowed the Coull Anderson Genealogical Library in Arbroath for the study of family history, with Burness installed as keeper. Tall and ascetic with wavy brown hair, Burness met demands on his time with patience and courtesy. The Burns season each January weighed heavily, particularly in his time as president of Aberdeen Burns Club, and during his involvement with Stonehaven (Fatherland) Burns Club. For his lifetime work in the field, the Burns Federation appointed him an honorary president. Lawrence was born in Surrey, and he worked in London for a Scots company of importers. He was transferred in 1936 to Burma. At the outbreak of war, he volunteered for the Burma Navy and, in 1940, was one of the first officers to be commissioned. He saw service with bases in Akyab, north Burma and Calcutta, before taking command of his own vessel in Bombay, patrolling rivers and creeks of the Irrawaddy river. He finished the war ashore in Rangoon as lieutenant-commander. Always the ''ardent Scot'' and intent on returning to Scotland, he settled in Aberdeen. He made the Granite City his home, setting up as a west-end grocer and playing the organ in local churches. For half a century, he contributed to the journal of the Scottish Genealogy Society, and at the SGS golden jubilee in Edinburgh in November, was presented with an illuminated scroll. He was also a vice-president of Tay Valley Family History Society and travelled the world lecturing and researching. In sorties away from Burns and genealogy, he was knowledgeable about railways. He took particular care to travel in 1966 on the last train to ply the Bervie line near the Burns fatherland in the Mearns. He was also an early visitor, in 1973, to the headquarters of the then newly-established Greater Glasgow Passenger Transport Executive. He died in Dundee after a short illness, and is survived by his younger sister, Elma Burness, formerly a Methodist missionary in West Africa. Lawrence Ruxton Burness FSAScot, genealogist and Burns scholar; born July 24, 1910, died February 17, 2004.⁵