Martha came from a large protestant family, who were latterly from a farm labourering background. Her mother was Martha Geddes Ferguson and her father was Alfred Varney. The Fergusons have been traced back to 1700s Ross of Mull. The Varneys not so far back to Dumfrieshire where Alfred Varney was believed to have inhertited land but did not have the finances available to him (a large family to upkeep) to claim it. Alfred Varney was involved in the buiding of the A8 in Scotland. The Fergusons of Ross of Mull and Iona were a religious crowd as was common in their day and had lay-preachers amongst their mid. It is believed in family lore, that Duncan Ferguson of Ross of Mull was a relative of Thomas Ferguson (Martha's Gaelic speaking grandfather) Iona: The Living Memory of a Crofting Community, 1750-1914 by E. Mairi MacArthur. 260 pgs. Read the complete book Iona: The Living Memory of a Crafting Community, 1750-1914 by becoming a questia.com member. Choose a membership plan to an academic-level library with more than 67,000 full-text books, 1.5 million articles, an entire reference set with a dictionary, encyclopedia, thesaurus plus a collection of digital tools to organize your information. publication details Contributors: E. Mairi MacArthur Publisher: Edinburgh University Press Place of Publication: Edinburgh Publication Year: 1990 Subjects: Crofters--Scotland--Iona--History, Farm Life--Scotland--Iona--History, Oral Tradition--Scotland--Iona, Iona (Scotland)--History a comprehensive guide to IONA with family stories and gaelic songs relating to Malcolm Ferguson