The theme for this week’s #52ancestors challenge is “Favourite photo”. This is one of my favourites. It shows my great great grandparents and their two youngest daughters. The date is 1875 at the very latest and the photo was taken in Orkney, Scotland. Why is it a favourite? Partly because it is the only photo | more…
Keep reading! They are far more than numbers. The Statistical Accounts are two fascinating sets of reports on each Scottish parish in the 1790s and the 1830s/40s. They cover economic and social activities as well as natural resources. What, when, who, how? Sir John Sinclair of Ulbster sent out 171 queries to the ministers of | more…
Quixotic – “preoccupied with an unrealistically optimistic or chivalrous approach to life; impractically idealistic” – a fair word to describe William M Groundwater, my great great uncle? William Moncrieff Groundwater was born on 11 March 1849 in Orphir, Orkney, first child of John Groundwater and Williamina Moncrieff, and died on 16 October 1936 at Cruan | more…
