This is all that remains of the house on the former croft of Elster, near Lyness, in the island of Hoy, Orkney. Location map. My grandfather, John Ross, was born at Elster on 28 May 1889 and his family was still there on 5 April 1891 when the census was taken. But very recently, in | more…
I’ve recently been looking at death records for the North Walls and Brims area, Orkney, Scotland, and one of my questions was “Were there many who died as young children?” I have a partial answer from the wonderful Populations Past website, the Atlas of Victorian and Edwardian Population. That site shows that in 1861 the | more…
Were your ancestors crofters? That is, living in one of the seven crofting counties of Scotland – Shetland, Orkney, Caithness, Sutherland, Ross and Cromarty, Inverness-shire and Argyll – with a holding of not more than £30 in annual value or rent. If the answer is yes and they were there from 1886 onwards there’s a | more…
