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Misfortune

Many of my direct ancestors had hard lives with deaths at sea, loss of children at a young age, poverty and hardship, but their stories and their lives are known.  Is the greatest misfortune perhaps to be unremembered? My father knew the names of all his grandfather’s brothers and sisters, married names, where they lived,  |  more…

The man behind a family heirloom

The “Burmese gong” stood on a shelf at my parents’ house for as long as I can remember. I knew that “hid cam fae [it came from] Thistlebank” but little more. Perhaps it is not even Burmese.                                                      The man who brought  |  more…

S is for Statistical Accounts of Scotland

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…