AN APPEAL has gone out to Three Towns residents from a woman in Australia who is hoping to track down pictures of long-lost family members in the local area.

Jenny Pettet’s father, George, was born in Saltcoats on September 29, 1927, but was later adopted, not once but twice.

George, who was taken away by his first adoptive parents to live in the USA before being sent back to Scotland, died on September 21, 2019, without a father’s name on his birth certificate.

Jenny is hoping to track down any pictures of her dad’s mother, Mary McQueen, and perhaps too of her great-grandfather, George McQueen, who was born in 1886 and died in 1950.

Mary was born on August 3, 1909 and gave birth to George less than two months after her 18th birthday.

Twenty-two years later, in 1933, Mary married Francis Finn, who worked on the railways as a time clerk, and the couple are known to have been living in Craigs Place in Saltcoats when Mary died on August 11, 1968.

The couple had one son, Terence Finn, born in the same year that Mary and Francis married.

Terence, who married Jean McLelland (1931-2014), passed away in 1973, at which time he is known to have been working as a recreation club manager in Saltcoats.

Terence and Jean had a son who is believed to still be living in Saltcoats – a cousin of Jenny’s – but the pair lost touch after Jenny initially made contact last year.

Jenny, who had the maiden name MacBain, the surname of her father’s second adoptive parents, said: “My parents did make a visit to Saltcoats in the early 2000s and met with Jean, who gave Dad a photo of Terence.

“He also met his nephew and his two girls.

“It was unfortunate that Jean also wasn’t too forthcoming with the family background, and so all Dad had was the one photo, to my knowledge, of his half-brother.

“Saltcoats seems a fairly small community and I’m hopeful someone somewhere would have an idea on where I may obtain a photo of my past relatives.”

If you can help with Jenny’s appeal please get in touch with the Herald in the first instance by emailing editorial@ardrossanherald.co.uk.