Cemetery, churchyard, graveyard, kirkyard, words that bring a gleam to the eye of family history addicts. Handled carefully, they can be treasure chests but there are a few caveats: not everyone had a gravestone, some stones have gone or are no longer readable and, most importantly, the information on them is not always correct. Cemetery | more…
Storms are a fairly common occurrence in Orkney where the majority of my known ancestors lived their lives. I have a newspaper cutting from the mid 1960s with the headline “Five weeks of gales without let up”. Storm is not used so much: “gey windy”, “blowan a gale” or “right coorse” would be more common | more…
Taxes, not the most immediately appealing topic for the #52ancestors challenge but it is a challenge after all so here goes. I’m looking at William Sinclair (c1770?-aft 2 Jun 1841?), one of my maternal x4 great grandfathers. He lived in Stronsay, Orkney, was married to Barbara Miller and they had at least five children: Isabella | more…
