This week's theme for our "52 Ancestors in 52 Weeks" is Strong Woman.

I don't know much about my Scottish great-great-grandmother Helen Hastie. I had romantic notions a la "Brigadoon" until I saw her photo.

Doesn't she look STRONG? Actually, I wouldn't want to mess with her. Frankly, the hairdo doesn't help.

Helen Hastie was born in Lanarkshire, Scotland about 1818. She married Thomas Beveridge in New Monkland Parish Church in April, 1837. They arrived in New York aboard the ship Francis on 11 October, 1838.

Helen bore at least six children. The photo below pictures Helen in later years with my great-great-grandfather Thomas Beveridge, their daughter Nettie Clyde who became my great grandmother, and some of Nettie's children. Her son, my grandfather Norman McLeod Dingman, is not in this photo. Again, I don't think I'd want to cross this lady!