Moncrieff is one of the more unusual surnames in my family tree. Unusual for Orkney that is. The name links to Houton, formerly a small estate in the parish of Orphir, Orkney. Map (name spelled Houston) Moncrieff origins I’d never investigated where the Moncrieffs came from but last year I had a client whose ancestry | more…
Blog category: Family Stories, page 6
“I mind hid fine” – hearing granny’s stories again, some oral history
How often do you say, “How I wish I had listened more carefully to granny’s stories”? For “granny” substitute parents, grandad, great uncle, great aunt, and many others of the older generations. I certainly have a list of questions for several deceased relatives. There are two stories where I don’t have to rely on my | more…
Grandma’s elderflower wine
Jessie Sclater, my grandma, and her sisters, “the aunties o Kebro”, were all very competent women: working on the farm, managing the house, baking, cooking, brewing and, in grandma’s case, making elderflower wine. Nothing evokes the long, light, summer days of my Orkney childhood like the fragrant, sparkling taste of grandma’s elderflower wine. Food and | more…
