The above is a scene of the ship-building port and quay of Geurock, Invercllyde, on the south side of the Firth of Clyde, in 1815.       Alexander Allan, with his cousin, John Galt, built their first of a fleet of ships here in 1812, later known as The Allan Line of Shipping.      Alexander Allan and his cousin, the Scots novelist, John Galt, are seen in this artist's rendering of their awaiting arrival of their cousin from America, John Allan, his wife Frances (aka Valintine), and their son, Master Allan.       Nevertheless, at that time, "Eddie" was known with the name of his "father's" family, Allan, but it was not a part of his name, which he incorporated in later years, as Edgar Allan Poe.  Our research has shown us that his same-age cousin, James Poe, acquired the name Allan for the same reasons, as well, but he was known in Canada as James Allan Watt, so does not appear in American scholarship of the family.   James was born in Saltcoats, in 1810, and became part of Alexander Allan's extended family.   When John Allan sailed into Gourock Harbor, in 1815, only John Galt had any financial success. Pictured above is the John Galt family lair in Greenock. The fact that Galt's cemetery plot has also been removed from its original site, and moved to its present location, where family and friends of the deceased are also no longer living to visit the grave, suggests the same disregard for the dead that Poe wrote about so often. John Galt was one of the most famous and successful businessmen and writers of Scotland during his time, 1781 to 1839.  His father, William, a "substantial ship master," removed his son from the Irvine Academy, where both John Allan and Master Allan attended. William Galt moved to Greenock to escape his son's substandard academic performance at the school for Irvine-area sons of the elite.  As Galt tells us in his autobiography, he was slow to learn, but learn he did, at his chosen pace, and in his own time.   This writer is reminded of the now common word dyslexia, ADD, and similar.  How many had it, and will have it?  But his "slow to learn, but learn he did," reminds me of my own damnable inability to remember and learn.  If he only had a partner like Ms. Kenmotsu!  Galt married into the Tillock family, and his father-in-law, Doctor Tillock, largely support his new son-in-law, in aid of his daughter's situation.  Readers of our book will learn that the daughter went to a nunnery, after she lost her mind, and never was released! Ms. Lesley Cooperwhite is the sort of Local Historian-Council employee without whom our findings were impossible. She both directed us to the John Galt connection to Edgar Allan Poe, but to all of the materials of interest in a search of Galt. In no other repository of archives did we find what is available of Galt only at The Watt Museum Library.  Except in the library of the Glasgow University, all other local and public libraries gave us full access and assistance with locating information form their available materials.  We found American collections and libraries to be places of, "Look, but on't touch!."  Ms. Cooperwhite volunteered that the very first Burns Club in the world was founded by his cousin, John Galt. That Club is known as "The Mother Club." Both Grace and I have become friends of all at "The Mother Club," as well as the Robert Burns World Federation, Ltd., headquartered in Dower House, Dean Country Castle, Kilmarnock, Ayrshire.  But another important fact we learned only from visiting the Watt Museum Library and gaining the friendship of Ms. Cooperwhite, the "how" and "why" Galt and Lord Byron became friends in Gibraltar.    Ms. Cooperwhite has become an active correspondent with us since her retirement. Fortunately, she has remained an ongoing source of facts of which only the local historians in Scotland know. She has, for example, provided facts of the heretofor unknown family connection of Burns' Highland Mary, which we present elsewhere.  She now works privately as a genealogists, and visitors to our sight would do well to employ her expertise.	The above illustration of Edgar Allan Poe's uncle is from the cover of JOHN GALT 1779-1979, Ed. by Christopher Wahtley, published by Ramsay Head Press, Edinburgh. However, the illustration is from, "the portrait by Charles Grey, reproduced by permission of the Scottish National Portrait Gallery." This, and many other books Ms. Cooperwhite brought to our attention while in the James Watt Memorial Library Museum on Union Street. From this, and several other books of and by John Galt, we were able to establish the blood and legal relationships of the Allans, Burns, Galts, and Poes neverbefore known in the scholarship of each writer.  Grace Kenmotsu at John Galt Memorial Font      Grace Kimi Kenmotsu, who acted as "research assistant" throughout our field research and since, is standing at the Memorial Font of Scots novelist John Galt. [The photo had been deleated, somehow?  Grabbed by the cybor goblins?  Consequently, I have re-posted the photo of Grace with Mrs. Shirley Bell, now retired CEO of the Robert Burns World Federation, Ltd., and her administrative assistant, Margaret, who is very much at work for the Federation at the Dean Castle offices.]  I use italics because neither of us knew that we would encounter so much about Poe that is unknown, and our 'holiday" became a scholarly project.  For example, unknown that Galt was both cousin of Scots National Bard, Robert Burns, and their cousin, John Allan. Allan was the "father" of American literary genius, Edgar Allan Poe, adopted under the prevailing Highland's Law of Scotland at the time, known as "fostering."  Unfortunately, as a consequence of ignorance of how to use the Register.com, self-service, editing program, dyslexia, and an absence of funds to hire a competent web-master, I have deleted the photograph of Grace at the font, and cannot find it!  But never mind, Poe's poems and short stories did not come with illustrations, either.  Of course, the consequences are that some of the most ridiculous and bizarre interpretations of his writings are now regarded as "Poe canon."      This and other Galt sites in Greenock, Strathclyde, Scotland were shown to the researchers, courtesy of William Wallace independent scholar, Paul Cooper, B. A., Oxford University. Cooper advanced the concept that Wallace otherwise was the Robin Hood of British literary interests.  These sites, however, in Greenock, as elsewhere in Scotland, have since been displaced by "development" in the area. The Galt family lair has been moved, and contents now uncertain. It was stated that Burns' Highland Mary was buried in this Galt lair, with a daughter born stillborn.       Both Ms. Cooperwhite and the Secretary of the Greenock Burns Club have since corrected this error of fact.  Although we do not have a literary interest in William Wallace, and aside from the fact that his father, Sir Malcolm Wallace, lived in Riccarton, as did one of Poe's Scots ancestors, Cooper was diligently pursuing his historical interests in the national hero we mention often in our own book, in context with Lord Murray, Earl of Atholl, with whom Wallace fought Edward the Second, and historical facts of the Highlands.  All of these pieces of desperate facts dovetail into a connection with Poe.  Nevertheless, such connections are too complicated to share in these pages.
This is one of many photos of, and with, officers and staff of the Robert Burns World Federation, Ltd., that we have taken over the years.  On this occasion we visited the Federation's new CEO, Shirley Bell, and our friend, Margaret, who invited the author to become an Individual Memberof the Federation.  This I did, and have been ever since.   I gave Shirley a copy of the Caledonian Club of San Francisco's program for their Annual Scottish Gatherin' 'n Games, in which the Federation are a part, and Shirley gave me my Certificate of Membership in the Federation!  All over the world the 80,000 members of Burns Clubs and Individual Members of the Robert Burns World Federation, Ltd., join together on the Bard's birthday, 21 January, to celebrate the event.  No one celebrates Poe's birthday, only his death, and that is in Baltimore, in the cemetery where he is buried, with half-a-bottle of cognac and 3, red roses.  He is so important to the psyche of Americans that we refuse to admit that he is dead.  Mrs. Bell retired as CEO of the Robert Burns World Federation in 2010 to the serenity of her estate in Dumfries, Galloway, Scotland, where Burns is buried.