The Bannerman Family Legacy

Eight generations of Scottish family history

From the agricultural communities of Ellon, Foveran and Logie Buchan to a modern family of engineers and professionals, the Bannerman story reaches across more than two centuries of Scottish life.

From the fields of Aberdeenshire

George Bannerman was born in Logie Buchan in 1848, the son of Adam Bannerman and Isobel Knowles. In 1861, aged about thirteen, George was recorded working as a cattleman at Mill of Rannieston; later he worked as a ploughman. Adam and Isobel had married in Foveran in 1833.

Research has also identified an Adam Bannerman admitted to Aberdeen Royal Lunatic Asylum on 22 March 1849, aged 43, and an Adam buried from the institution in April 1851. Whether these records concern George’s father is still being investigated.

A possible earlier generation

In Ellon, Adam Bannerman married Helen Anderson on 20 June 1802. A child named Adam Bannerman was baptised there on 2 June 1803, with Adam Bannerman recorded as his father. This provides a promising possible extension of the ancestral line, but the relationship to the later family is not yet conclusively documented.

New generations, changing occupations

Alexander Petrie Wilson Bannerman, born in Aberdeen in 1906, worked for the Royal Mail as a postman and later a supervisor. His son Alexander, born in 1936, worked as an engineer for British Telecom. Graham Bannerman followed a career in manufacturing engineering and consulting, while his son Robert Alexander Bannerman is an engineer with Scottish Power. Graham’s daughter Anna Elizabeth Bannerman serves as a police officer.

Bringing the family together

This draft artwork combines photographs of living family members with historically inspired depictions of earlier generations. The landscape, work and locations of northeast Scotland provide the backdrop to a story still unfolding.

Research note: The earliest Ellon connection is provisional. Historical ancestor portraits are artistic interpretations, not surviving likenesses. This family legacy remains a work in progress.