“That should have been ours”, the usual family refrain as we drove anywhere near Houton in Orphir, Orkney. The tale is strong and persistent: a young woman was tricked into signing away her right to the Houton estate, the story goes. So it fits well with ‘Family legend’ this week’s theme for #52ancestors challenge. Williamina | more…
My great great uncle Nicol Slater/Sclater* was the black sheep of the family. He left his young family in Orkney, went off to Canada and never returned. The name Nicol, shared with his father and grandfather, was not used again for two generations. I’d assumed that he left and never contacted his family again so | 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…
