A WOMAN has travelled to Scotland to trace the life of her grandmother who emigrated by travelling on a boat alone - aged four.

Elspet Niddrie boarded a steamship in 1912 to America after her mother became too sick to look after her.

Passenger records show that she travelled across the sea on her own when she left her home in Peterhead to start a new life abroad.

She was brought up in Massachussetts by her aunt Jane Lemmon, who had already emigrated and had agreed to take her in.

Her granddaughter Jennifer Norcross has now travelled from her village home in Connecticut, to see where Elspet came from and share her story at a family history event at Haddo House, near Tarves, in Aberdeenshire this weekend.

She said: "I cannot imagine a small child making such a journey alone but given her situation, it really was the only way for her to have any kind of future."

Elspet happily married Frank Norcross, had four children and died in 1983.