Next Talk at Melrose on 25 October - 'The pre-1855 Parish Registers of the Roman Catholic Church'

Our next talk is this Sunday, 25 October when Donna Maguire, archivist and records manager to the Bishops Conference of Scotland, is coming to speak to us.

The title of her talk is ‘The pre-1855 Parish Registers of the Roman Catholic Church'. The talk takes place at the Corn Exchange and Ormiston Institute, Market Square, Melrose, TD6 9PN. Map.

I’m eagerly looking forward to this talk. Donna is going to tell us about the Catholic registers for parishes that were founded before 1855, the six Scottish dioceses and the records of the Bishops Conference of Scotland and its agencies.

I warmly invite you to attend the talk whether you are a member or not.

Doors open at 2pm; the talk begins at 2.30pm.

Knowing how to find Catholic records is vital in family history, even if you think you have no Catholics in your family, you may be wrong, as I was.

I suggest you come early to get a good seat.
We'll have a range of family history publications available to buy, and there’ll be light refreshments (donation expected) available after the talk.
If you have a problem with your family history, please discuss it with one of our volunteers.

Have you a Wicked Criminal in Your Family ?

Our next talk is on Sunday, 26th April when Margaret Fox will talk about "Crimes of an Heinous Nature - Looking at some High Court Trials" and it's being held at the Corn Exchange & Ormiston Institute in Market Square, Melrose. Map.

Margaret will be looking into the darker side of life across the Scottish Borders during the 18th and 19th centuries, examining not only crimes which have long passed into oblivion but also those which are still making the headlines today. Drawing on her extensive research in the High Court of Justiciary case papers in the National Records of Scotland, her talk will range from the political to the domestic, and from the violent to the less so, showing how these records serve to illustrate changes in society and illuminate the past in a unique way.
She will also dip into Lord Cockburn’s ‘Circuit Journeys’ which gives a truly fascinating insight into 19th century crime and criminals from the perspective of a judge who was not afraid to speak his mind !

Her previous talks about the Kirk and its records, and about Traquair House were well attended so come early to get a decent seat.

I warmly invite you to attend the talk whether you are a member or not. Doors open at 2pm; the talk begins at 2.30pm.
We'll have a range of family history publications available to buy, and there’ll be light refreshments (donation expected) available after the talk.
If you have a problem with your family history, please discuss it with one of our volunteers.

Beggars, Thieves and Whores - Talk on Sunday 22 February at Melrose

She has told us about witches and the Black Death in the Borders. 

Now she’s talking about beggars, thieves and whores. 

Mary Craig’s style is very lively and entertaining and Mary is going to talk about the lives and deaths of these, the ultimate medieval outsiders in the rural Scottish Borders of the 13th and 14th century. 

How did they survive in a highly class-structured and religious society ? 

What happened to them when living conditions worsened ? 

That talk is this Sunday, 22 February at the Corn Exchange and Ormiston Institute, Market Square, Melrose, TD6 9PN. Map.

I’m expecting this to be a very interesting talk and very popular; so come early to get a good seat. I warmly invite you to attend the talk whether you are a member or not. 

Doors open at 2pm; the talk begins at 2.30pm. 

We'll have a range of family history publications available to buy, and there’ll be light refreshments (donation expected) available after the talk. 

If you have a problem with your family history, please discuss it with one of our volunteers.

Speakers at meetings occasionally need to be changed at the last minute, due to circumstances beyond our control.

Days of Our Youth - Memories of Melrose, is a snapshot of childhood in Melrose, Scotland, before the First World War.

John Dick, born 1888, was the son of the local ironmonger and had the sort of happy childhood that was the lot of the children of prosperous families in country areas. The text in this memoir is exactly as John Dick wrote it in 1950, and was supplied by his nephew, Ian Dick of Auckland, New Zealand.

The 52 page book discusses life in Melrose, the shops, excursions, church antics, local characters, celebrations, holidays, and school. It's all a fascinating read about Melrose in the late 19th and early 20th century. It's well illustrated by photos, some in colour, many of which even our older citizens won't have seen for years.
Price £3.75 excluding postage. Weight 90g.


You can get a copy at our archive at 52 Overhaugh St, Galashiels, TD1 1DP, or by choosing the appropriate delivery option and pressing the Buy now button below. Please note: World Zone 1 generally covers countries in North America (excluding the USA), South America, Africa, the Middle East, the Far East and South East Asia. World Zone 2 includes Australia, New Zealand, Singapore, Oceania. World Zone 3 is USA. Europe includes Eire and Russia.

Delivery Options

Days of Our Youth - Memories of Melrose - UK - 2nd class £5.80 GBP Days of Our Youth - Memories of Melrose - EU Airmail £7.75 GBP Days of Our Youth - Memories of Melrose - World Zone 1 £8.55 GBP Days of Our Youth - Memories of Melrose - World Zone 2 £8.55 GBP Days of Our Youth - Memories of Melrose - Surface Mail £8.35 GBP Days of Our Youth - Memories of Melrose - UK - 1st class £7.40 GBP Days of Our Youth - Memories of Melrose - World Zone 3 £8.55 GBP

If there are other publications you want to buy at the same time, please contact the Sales Convenor on our Contacts page using the contact type Order for Publications.

The Radio Officers' War - a talk by Harry Scott, Sunday, 28 September at 2.30pm

The first talk of our 2014/2015 syllabus is on Sunday, 28 September, when we will hear Harry Scott, whose talk is 'The Radio Officers' War '.

It takes place at the Corn Exchange and Ormiston Institute, Market Square, Melrose, TD6 9PN. Map.

Ian Robert Hendry Waddell, whose home was in Galashiels, was a bright and gifted 20 year old who joined the Merchant Navy in 1940 after qualifying as a Seagoing Radio Officer at Leith Nautical College. In all, he made 14 crossings of the North Atlantic Ocean at a time when German U-boats were sinking a huge amount of Allied shipping. He wrote a series of journals, and wonderfully descriptive and amusing letters, about his life and work at sea.

He captured on film the dramatic events as his ship was bombed during the Allied landings in Norway. Ian also described the harrowing scenes, he and his shipmates witnessed, and the danger they faced, as they became involved in the dramatic rescue of the crew of a Royal Navy ship sunk by a U-boat.

Radio officers had a lot of responsibility – listening to weather reports, warnings of storms and about enemy shipping, maintaining communication with the outside world, listening for distress calls from other ships.

I think you'll find this a very interesting talk whether you're interested in family history, World War II, radio or shipping. I warmly invite you to attend the talk whether you are a member or not. Doors open at 2pm; the talk begins at 2.30pm. It’s free to come in. We'll have a range of family history publications available to buy, and there’ll be light refreshments (donation expected) available after the talk. If you have a problem with your family history, please discuss it (no charge) with one of our volunteers.

Why Do We Need the Guild of One Name Studies ?

Our Annual General Meeting is this Sunday, 25th May, at 2.30pm in the Corn Exchange & Ormiston Institute, Market Square, Melrose, TD6 9PN, however, as is usual, we'll have a talk too.  Map.

We desperately need new members to help us run the Society by standing as specific officers and as members of Council.

In particular, we have no nominations for Book-keeper, Treasurer or Editor.

 This Sunday's talk is by Lorna Kinnaird.  Lorna has been a member of the Guild of One Name Studies for over 15 years and is the Regional Representative for Scotland South.  

 A one-name study is a long project researching information about a surname and all the people who have held it, as opposed to a particular family tree (the ancestors of one person) or descendancy (the descendants of one person or couple). Her initial research into the Muat name created a love of genealogy and she now runs her own business, ‘DunEdin Links Genealogy’. She will be sharing her experience of genealogy in this talk with particular focus upon the nature of the Guild of One Name Studies, the benefits that membership of the Guild can offer the genealogist and her own research on the Muat name.  I think you'll find this a very interesting talk whether you're interested in family history, or Muat, Mouat or other spellings. 

Come along and find out why we need the Guild of One Name Studies.

I warmly invite you to attend the talk whether you are a member or not. 

Doors open at 2pm; the AGM begins at 2.30pm and the talk after the AGM, perhaps about 2.45pm. 

It’s free to come in. We'll have a range of family history publications available to buy, and there’ll be light refreshments (donation expected) available after the talk. If you have a problem with your family history, please discuss it (no charge) with one of our volunteers. 

This is the last talk before the summer; the subsequent talk (the first one of the 2014/2015 syllabus) will be on 28^th September.

Carving History - the Life and Works of Andrew Currie of Darnick - 11 March 2014

Melrose Historical & Archaeological Association's talk in the Upper Hall of the Ormiston Institute, Melrose on Tuesday, 11th March is called 'Carving History' and it's about the life and works of Andrew Currie of Darnick.

The speaker is Bob Johnstone, who has researched his family tree to find the link to Andrew, his great-great-grandfather. Bob will be signing copies of his book.

Admission is £3 to non-members.

Andrew Currie (1812 to 1891) is famous for his stone monuments like Mungo Park in Selkirk, the Ettrick Shepherd at St Mary’s Loch and King Robert the Bruce, erected on the esplanade at Stirling Castle in 1877; as well as other pieces in plaster, wood and marble. He was also an enthusiastic antiquary, an oral historian, and a writer who wrote colourful stories of life in the Borders of the early nineteenth century. Born to a Selkirkshire sheep farmer who fell on hard times, Andrew Currie was obliged against his will to take up a trade. He worked as a millwright until his mid forties, when his health broke. Only then did he become a sculptor, which had long been his dream.

Get Old Images of Scotland for Nothing

Do you want to see what Scotland used to look like ?
Do you need a picture for your website or publication ?

2 weeks before last Christmas, the British Library announced that they had put on Flickr over a million scanned images from books originally published in the 17th, 18th and 19th centuries for anyone to use, remix and repurpose.

At the time I couldn't see a particular use for them especially as they weren't sorted or arranged into subject collections, so it would be very difficult to find a particular picture.

If you know the title of a book, you can search for that but that doesn't help to find a specific picture.

Old Scottish Genealogy & Family History have created an interactive map that links images to a map of Scotland.

It's simple to use.

You pan the map to see the area in which you're interested and if there are images available, you'll see either a blue pin with a number or a red pin.
If it's a blue pin that means there's more than one image so you need to zoom in to see the individual red map pins.
Click on a red map pin to see one or more images, then click on the image to expand it.

Although there are more than 200 pins for Scotland, there are only 19 pins for the Scottish Borders but it's a start and a week ago there were only 15.

The red map pin near Melrose shows lots of views of Melrose Abbey; here's one:

More On Charlotte Wintrup's Boots

Regarding Charlotte Wintrup's boots, no Wintrup descendants have contacted me yet.

Gwen Stein has done some research. The gravediggers' book shows that Charlotte was buried on 19th May 1876 in Kirklands churchyard, Innerleithen. It's not in our Innerleithen Monumental Inscriptions CD because there's no gravestone at her grave.

In the 1881 Census, James Wintrup was shown living at 13 Woodside Place, Galashiels, and his occupation was General Labourer. There were 7 children: Margaret, aged 26; Mary R, aged 21; William, 19; Thomas, aged 16; James, aged 14; all of whom were millworkers and Mary Ann, aged 10 and George, aged 6. George was born in Innerleithen; all the other children were born in the parish of Melrose.

There's also a John Wintrup, a groom and domestic servant employed in the household of Dr John D. Cox who lived at Hillend, Innerleithen and Gwen thinks this John Wintrup might have been Charlotte's eldest brother. Dr Cox was a poor carriage driver and particularly for night calls he would have needed a coachman.

I've found James Wintrup, Charlotte's father, an agricultural labourer living at Bridgend (Melrose) in the 1861 census, and as a baker living at Leaderfoot Mill in 1851 census.

Charlotte's boots were bought from an antique dealer in Michigan, so perhaps one of the Wintrups emigrated to America, possibly even to the Michigan area.

Are you related to those Wintrups ? If you are, please get in touch, either at Old Gala House or via our Contacts page selecting the Contact Type 'Border Telegraph'.

Online booking for our Conference on 11th May 2013 in Galashiels, Scotland has closed.

Change to our Programme for Sunday 25th November

Our next meeting is on Sunday, 25 November at 2.30pm in the Corn Exchange in Melrose, when Marjorie Gavin returns with a talk about Thomas Pringle of Blakelaw, near Kelso; a poet, traveller and anti-slavery campaigner - Thomas, in the early 19th century, was secretary of the Anti-Slavery Society and was famed for his poetry. Many people may not have heard of this Roxburghshire man but his story has many exciting ingredients including South Africa, Sir Walter Scott connections and politics !

The original planned talk on the 'Black Death' has been postponed due to unforeseen circumstances and may be re-scheduled for 2013.

As usual, the doors will open at 2.00pm and the talk starts at 2.30pm.

Admission is free and we’ll have usual sales tables and refreshments after the talk. I hope to see you there. Map.

From Kelso to Kalamazoo

I’ve just returned from our November open meeting in Melrose.  The speaker was Margaret Jeary who talked about the memoirs of George Taylor who was born in Yetholm in 1803 and died in Michigan in 1891.   George was the son of a shepherd and grew up in a literate household.  He first went to school when he was seven and was taught by a pupil teacher aged 18.  He was an avid reader throughout his life and a self-educated man.  He became a fluent writer using clear evocative English.

George’s journal or memoirs came to light as part of a local history project by Eckford Woman’s Rural Institute.  With the help of an IT literate daughter they were first in published on the web.  In 2009 “From Kelso to Kalamazoo” appeared in book form as part of the Flashbacks series published by the National Museum of Scotland.  (From Kelso to Kalamazoo: The Life and Times of George Taylor, 1803–1891Margaret Jeary and Mark Mulhern Eds: NMS Enterprises, Edinburgh 2009. ISBN: 9781905267279).

The book is full of delightful little vignettes of 19^th century life in rural Scotland.  The author tells of getting drunk for the first time as a teenager after helping with sheep washing.  He so disliked the result that he eventually signed the pledge.  To save the coach fare he would walk to Edinburgh – 50 miles in around  36 hours.  On one trip to Edinburgh he saw an advert for a train trip to Burns Country and in Alloway he met an old lady who said that she was Tam O’Shanter’s wife.  Another train trip to the Great Exhibition in 1851 was on a Sunday.  George, a devout church man, squared his conscience by handing out religious tracts on the train.

George Taylor became a market gardener eventually becoming foreman of a Kelso market garden.  He thought about his work carefully and found that protecting potato plants with straw reduced the instance of blight at a time that it was ravaging the potato crop in both Ireland and Scotland,  He also observed that there was a connection between water and the spread of cholera.

In 1855 George Taylor emigrated to the United States and started a truck farm in Kalamazoo, Michigan.  The soil there was ideally suited to celery which he introduced into the USA.  Clearly this was a successful enterprise as George was able to return to Scotland twice.   On the first occasion he returned with his third wife.  In all he had 4 wives and 9 children but all four wives and 5 of the children died before him.

Thank you to Margaret Jeary for a clear and interesting talk.

Our next meeting is on 26th February 2012 in Melrose when Peter Munro will talk about Saving, Spending and Family History.

Letters to and about George and Elizabeth Broomfield, who Emigrated from Darnick, Scotland to Australia in 1839

The Darnick Village site has an interesting article about George and Elizabeth Broomfield who emigrated from Darnick (in the parish of Melrose, Roxburghshire),
Scotland on the 'Formosa' which left Liverpool on 18th January 1839 and arrived in Sydney, Australia in May 1839 (see ship arrivals ) with their children, Margaret, Thomas and Robert. Another son, Alexander, due to an epidemic of whooping cough did not survive the voyage and there were two daughters, Mary and Alice who died in Scotland.

Their passage on the 'Formosa' (535 tons) under the command of Captain Alexander Adam was assisted under the Bounty Scheme, there were 250 passengers (see shipping intelligence) and the ship's cargo. Thanks to Trove Australia for these newspaper images.

The Broomfields were the first settlers of 'Bow Hill', Dingo Creek, Manning River, Australia, but they evidently lived in other locations, too, including Green Hills by Maitland; Upper Patterson; Paterson, Hunters River; Mudgee, Bungy Bungy.
It would be nice if these locations were pinpointed - perhaps a reader in Australia can do this ?

Also on board the 'Formosa', were Robert and Hellen Wallace, of Melrose, accompanied by their three children, William, Ferguson and Nancy.
The article is accompanied by more than 25 letters written to or about the Broomfields. The spelling in some of these letters leaves a lot to be desired but is understandable, and contains interesting details, for example,

Earlstown 12th November 1838
I the undersigned hearby sertify that George Brumfield (Broomfield) was engaged by me as shipard (shepherd) on the farm of West Morristown Parish of Legerwood Shier (Shire) of Berwick Scottland for the last two years that I passed at that farm from Whitsunday 1823 to Whitsunday 1825 and managed my stock of sheap (sheep) which extended to upwards of seven hundred young and old at sertan (certain) seasons of the year – which he managed with great cair (care)and atenchion (attention) with the assistance of a boy for a few days in the throng of the lambing season he contended (continued) on the farm when I left with my sucksesor (successor) as shipard (shepherd) for years and left that Parish with a good moral carater (character) and in full comanion (communion) with the established Church he has bean (been) resident in the Parish of Melros(e) Roxburgh Shier (Shire) since and hes caried (carried) on the business of dealing a little in cattle and sheap (sheep) and ocationly (occasionally) trying the *flecher business and was sumtimes employed by Gentelmen in the neighbourhood for sorting ther (their) stock and from the practice hes hed (had) from his youth of manigin (managing) and sorting stock – I consider him a first reat (rate) hand to send to a new colenay. (colony) for aney (any) Gentelmen with a large stock who engage a man unexperienced to tak(e) charge of it may run a great risk of losing mor(e) in wan (one) year then culd (could) pay duble (double) and treple (treble) his wages
I have no hesitation in saying that the main motive of his leving (leaving) his native hom(e) is by the great encurigment (encouragement) now held forth and the reasonable charge now mead (made) for transporting emigrat (emigrants) to such a distant colony and by persyvering (persevering) in honesty and diligent in business that he will be enabled by the greace (grace) of God assisting him that he will acquier (acquire) a mor(e) ample livelihood than he hes (has) hitherto dun (done) for himself and yung (young) family and that he may do justly love mercy and walk humbly with his God is the arnest (earnest) wish of his old master
George Scott

*Probably flesher, a Scottish word for butcher.

Read more of the Broomfield letters.

Interestingly, the Formosa doesn't appear on Immigrant Ships Transcribers Guild, and, of course, the Broomfield's departure date is too early for the Scottish Emigration Database because that deals with ships that left from 1890 to 1960.

(My thanks to Charlie Denoon, a Society member, who I saw at the Maxton kirk coffee morning and told me about these letters and gave me permission to use content from the article).

The Witch Trials of the Borders - a talk by Mary Craig

Our first talk of the 2011/2012 season is on Sunday 25 September at 2.30pm at the Corn Exchange, Market Square, Melrose, TD6 9PN. Map.

Mary Craig is the author of Border Burnings and she will be telling us about the witch trials of the Borders.
Her talk will outline the trial, torture and execution of hundreds of innocent people, (mainly women) in the Scottish Borders during the 17th Century at hands of the Church of Scotland and the local judiciary. Between 1600 and 1700, more witches were accused, tried and executed in the Scottish Borders than any other area of Scotland except Edinburgh and the Lothians.
The doors will be open at 2pm, with the talk starting at 2.30pm.
We warmly invite you to attend the talk whether you are a member or not.
There is no admission charge.
We'll have a range of family history publications available to buy.
If you have a problem with your family history, please discuss it (no charge) with one of our volunteers.

Speakers at Society meetings occasionally need to be changed at the last minute, due to circumstances beyond our control. Where possible, updates will be made on our What's On page.

Transcribing at Lilliesleaf

This week-end (27^th. and 28^th.) August we shall be transcribing the stones at Lilliesleaf.

Lilliesleaf is a very old Church which can trace its history back to 1116 although perhaps fortunately from our point of view we shall not be called upon to transcribe stones quite so far back although there will certainly be a number going back to the 18th. and 19th. centuries which will no doubt prove challenging.

The transcribing of these stone is a vital service for family research as often information contained on the stones is simply not available from any other source and if not recorded is in real danger of being lost. Once transcribed the information with photographs of every stone and also other information pertinent to the parish such as the Hearth Tax, Militia Lists, lists of Ministers etc. is produced on C.D. and is available both to purchase and to view within our Archive. For a full list of the parishes/graveyards which we have transcribed to date see our Sales List.

We shall be transcribing on Saturday between 10 and 4 p.m. and on Sunday between 1 and 4 and we invite anyone interested in helping to come along even for a brief period during these hours. Don’t worry if you have no previous experience in transcribing as full training will be given. Bring though a notebook and pen/pencil and also a soft brush and also optionally chalk, water and a kneeling pad.

This is an opportunity to meet with other members of the Society who usually bring along a picnic so it becomes quite a social occasion.

Lilliesleaf is situated about 7 miles north-east of Hawick, 7 miles south-east of Selkirk, 7 miles north-west of Ancrum, and 7 miles south-west of Melrose so very central for all these places. The Church is situated on the left hand side of the village approaching from Melrose.

If you can manage let me know as this helps with organizing or if you wish further information please contact.

Looking forward to a successful week-end and fingers crossed the weather holds.

Ronald Morrison

Melrose Parish War Memorials

This lovingly researched book identifies each of the persons recorded on the Melrose Parish War Memorials in Melrose, Darnick, Newstead, and Gattonside.
It has a subtitle, 'The Men and their Stories', because for each of those listed on the memorials, there is a short biographical note of those named, and even of 5 men who should have been named on the Melrose War memorial, compiled from a variety of sources including military records, the census, newspapers, and local knowledge. Where possible, photos of the men are included. There is a surname index.
It covers both World Wars, and includes the Roll of Honour of St Mary’s School, Melrose.

Surnames in the index: Allan, Anderson, Andrews, Babington, Bain, Barclay, Barton, Bell, Beveridge, Binnie, Black, Blackadder, Blake, Bowie, Boyd, Brown, Buchan, Bunyan, Calvert, Calwell, Carlyle, Chambers, Chapman, Constable, Cook, Crooke, Cruickshank, Curle, Currie, Darling, Davidson, Deans, Dick, Dickinson, Dodds, Dorward, Doughty, Douglas, Douglas-Hamilton, Dun, Dunlop, Dunn, Elliot, Evans, Fernie, Ferrier, Fleming, Fortune, Frew, Gibb, Gibson, Gifford, Gill, Gordon, Gray, Grigor, Hair, Hamilton, Hart, Hastie, Henderson, Hill, Hobkirk, Hogg, Holmes, Honeyman, Hopkirk, Hutcheson, Jardine, Keddie, Kennedy, Laidlaw, Lang, Lawrie, Lees, Leithead, Lockie, Lockton, Logan, Lorimer, Lowe, Lumgair, Lyall, Mack, Maclaren, Maclldowie, MacPherson, Mann, Matthew, McDiarmid, McDonald, McDougal, McGinnis, McIntosh, McMillan, McVittie, Mein, Middlemass, Millar, Mitchell, Montgomerie, Morrison, Morvo/Morow, Munro, Murry/Murray, Myers, Notman, Paterson, Paton, Polwarth, Pringle, Purdom, Purves, Rafferty, Ramsay, Redpath, Reid, Richardson, Riddell, Robinson, Romanes, Rosie, Ross, Rutherford, Sanderson, Scott, Sharp, Sheldrick, Shiel, Sladen, Smart, Smith, Spiers, Spottiswoode, Sproat, Steedman, Steel, Stewart, Telfer, Thompson, Thomson, Todd, Tulloh, Tully, Turnbull, Wade, Walker, Webb, White, Whitelaw, Wilson, Wright, Wynn, Young.

Researched and written by Major Trevor S Mills, RE (Rtd) and Mrs Fiona M A Mills.
78 pages including index and illustrations. Card Covers. A4 size.
ISBN 978-1-874232-09-2.
Price £7.00 plus postage. Weight 285g.

See our Publications Sales List to buy.

Dingleton Lunatic Asylum

From the Aberdeen Weekly Journal, Friday, November 30, 1894:

A new arrival at the Border Counties Lunatic Asylum near Melrose was sent out with others to work in the grounds. After he had been working for some time, an old inmate, who had been watching him said "Unless you delve (dig) with the rake, and rake wi' the spade, ma man, ye'll no be lang here".

Visualising Urban Geography Launch Event

Last Thursday (23 February) I attended the launch event of the 'Visualising Urban Geography' project at the National Library of Scotland in Edinburgh. About 80 other people attended. There was an introduction to the project at the Addressing History launch event in November, and I reported on the December Visualising Urban Geography workshop that provided a chance to try out one of the tools, ExtMap (now Map Builder), that the project had developed using sample data produced by the project.

In last week’s event, Professor Richard Rodger discussed the objectives of the project:

• to create geo-referenced maps of Edinburgh
• to develop software that could be used for free
• to reach a broader public
• to develop dynamic maps so as to further knowledge in the 19th and 20th centuries

He gave interesting examples in the ways, the tools developed have been used; we saw the development of Edinburgh over time, easy ways to calculate the area size and the length of the perimeter of irregularly shaped plots of land. He suggested other sets of data that might be used with these tools:

• landowners and property holdings
• shareholders
• store and credit card holders
• utility bills
• census information

The new tools, ExtMap and MapBuilder, use a Google interface for viewing maps and the open source Thematic Mapping Engine.

Chris Fleet discussed the mapping results of the project including a demonstration of geo-referencing and suggested this would be a good tool to use for mapping burial grounds.

Professor Bob Morris talked about the massive impact this project will have on historical analysis. He said that images, graphs and maps are more important in
writing about history than ever before. He used examples to compare the ration of women to men in Edinburgh's 19th century population.

Lastly, Dr Gittings, a geographer at the University of Edinburgh, pointed out how this project has brought history and geography closer than ever before.

Borders Family History Society has been closely involved with the project since the December workshop, and our goal of representing poor relief recipients in Melrose and Jedburgh representation on dynamic maps was mentioned as one of the case studies. For me, there’s been a steep learning curve in using the new tools, ExtMap and MapBuilder, to produce these maps, however, we’re very grateful for the support we’ve had from Stuart Nicol in using these tools and from Professor Rodger in analysing the results.

In our research into poor relief, we transcribed the core information exactly as it’s written, but that was not the end of the process for creating these maps. In the case of Jedburgh, the Poor Law Inspector did not record the town name of Jedburgh, so I had to add that for Jedburgh addresses. For Melrose, the inspector abbreviated many road names (often in different ways) and they needed to be manually expanded. Any addresses that are unrecognised get assigned to 0 degrees latitude and longitude, which is in the ocean to the west of southern Africa, so such addresses need to be removed or substituted with the modern address and that has been a lot more work. We have so much data that the tool is quite slow at creating the map co-ordinates, and I found that for each set of data there’s a re-iterative process – run the tool, check the results, resolve the problems and repeat until there are no more errors. The tool uses a vast database created by Google of addresses, and that imposes limitations, as their database is not completely accurate.

Residential Addresses of Poor Law Recipients in Jedburgh and Melrose

Have a look at our initial attempt at mapping the residential addresses of poor relief recipients. The image is a snapshot, click the link to see the full interactive map. There's still a bit of work to be done on this map.
Each pin represents one or more recipients - we can't yet show the number of recipients represented, however clicking on a pin shows the information about one of the recipients.
Click on the ticks on the layers to the left of the map to select or deselect specific layers corresponding to our different publications.

The main drawbacks are:

• There are still some recipients positioned off the coast of Africa
• Only recipients in and around Jedburgh from our Jedburgh publications have been included
• The pink pins represent Melrose 1871 to 1874, the blue pins representing the other publications
• Each pin represents one or more recipients - we can't yet show the number of recipients represented

We hope you find this map as interesting as we do.
These are early days in the use of this tool, and we expect to be able to use it more effectively in the future.

We would like to have your feedback (using the comments link below), especially any suggestions you have for further improvements and suggestions of other data sets that you would like to see mapped.

Visualising Urban Geography Workshop at National Library of Scotland

Poor Relief Recipients (with identifiable Edinburgh addresses) from Jedburgh and Melrose parishes Poor Law Records volumes 1852-1930

At the AddressingHistory Launch Event, Professor Richard Rodger mentioned a workshop on 6th December at the Maps Reading Room, National Library of Scotland, to explore their new web-based resources, based on the work they've done for Edinburgh; and in spite of the snowy conditions, I attended this. Although they advertised the workshop for a general audience, it contained a lot of discussion about the technologies involved in the website, as well as a hands-on opportunity to show a set of data on a map.

Chris Fleet began by showing us a variety of maps, prospect views, plans, aerial photos, and digital maps of Edinburgh, all part of the 20,000 items digitised over the last 15 years. Key to this is their collection of geo-referenced maps, maps that can be perfectly positioned in relation to another map by using lots of co-ordinates, and it’s these maps that allow data about locations of people and objects to be combined with maps. Chris demonstrated how new geo-referenced maps could be produced using free technology and said he would be delighted to hear from anyone interested in volunteering to produce new maps.

Professor Richard Rodger then demonstrated the Visualising Urban Geography project with some exciting tools bringing together sets of historical geo-referenced maps, social and demographic information to analyse and present data in more detail than at the AddressingHistory launch in November. He showed Edinburgh as a collection of registration districts, the growth of Edinburgh since medieval times, as a comparison of sanitary districts and property rents, as a comparison of advocates and solicitors homes over time, the occupations of Edinburgh’s colony residents and discussed the historical reasons for the changes we saw on the maps.
He showed too, how they could accurately measure distances and areas of land, which could be useful to a lot of professions.

Stuart Nicol discussed the technologies involved which was rather complicated, and I think most of us were glad that this was followed by a coffee break.

After the break we had a go at using one of their tools, ExtMap (now Map Builder), to plot a set of trades-people on a map of Edinburgh, using spreadsheet sets of data that Professor Rodger’s team had extracted from a 1911 post office directory. There were coal merchants, cycle repairers, dairymen, egg-producers, and many other trades. Using their instructions, I managed to plot the egg- producers, who surprisingly were concentrated in northeast Edinburgh and on the road to Leith. Professor Rodger explained that often it’s difficult to guess, when looking at a mass of data, what plotting locations on a map will show, but the resulting map often presents new insights.

Since the workshop I’ve used the data from our publications of Poor Law Records for Melrose and Jedburgh to plot recipients of poor relief (see the yellow circles), who lived in Edinburgh, and that's in the picture. I'd like to be able to show this as an interactive web page, and a future intention is to show recipients in Jedburgh on a map, and those recipients that lived in the bit of Galashiels that was in Melrose parish on a map of Galashiels.

Melrose Poor Law Records

In Scotland, the Poor Law was the means of providing food, accommodation, financial assistance and, latterly, care to those in need from the late 16th century onwards. There was a new Poor Law Act in 1845, which created a huge variety of records covering details on those who applied for assistance in specific areas, case studies, details on inspectors and much, much more. In many respects it saw the beginnings of local government, as we know it today. We’ve been transcribing the most important information from applications for relief and registers of the poor after 1845 in association with the Hawick Heritage Hub.

Apart from the obvious interest to the local historian, the publications open up a new horizon for the genealogist, providing details on peoples’ movement between the censuses, descriptions of illnesses suffered, domestic circumstances and more. Uniquely, the records provide details on people not born in the Borders but who lived or died there.

Although most of the people receiving relief lived in Galashiels, Melrose, or elsewhere in the parish of Melrose, some lived in other Borders localities: Clovenfords, Grantshouse, Hawick, Jedburgh, Redpath, Selkirk, St Boswells; in other parts of Scotland: Biggar, Dundee, East Duddingston, Edinburgh, Falkirk, Glasgow, Joppa, Macmerry, Murthly, Stirling, Stonehaven; or in England: Balsall Heath, Bournemouth, Cumberland.

The list of birthplaces is much larger, most of the applicants were born in an astonishingly wide variety of places in Britain or Ireland, but some were born in Australia, Barbados, Canada, Germany, India, Malta, or USA.

The information transcribed comprises names, place of birth, age or date of birth, address, other family members, description of disablement, date of death, and there’s more information on the images themselves, including occupation, benefit received.
You can see details of many people between the censuses, women’s maiden surnames, family details often not shown in the census, religion, and disabilities; and find people who moved away from their birthplace. If your family has lived here for 3 generations but you don’t know where they came from, these records may help you.

The Society has published the Poor Law records Melrose Parish in 3 volumes, each volume on a CD.
Each CD has chapters on Melrose parish – the historical context, English and Scottish Poor Law history, how it worked, using the Poor Law records, Dingleton asylum, duties of inspectors of the poor, a map of Melrose parish and a railway map, and the index to the Poor Law Records images contained on the CD, illustrations in the text, and digital images of the records transcribed, most of which have additional information.

Melrose Parish Poor Law Records Contents (1884-1930 volume)

In addition, the 1884-1930 volume contains legal cases and an additional map showing Melrose parish after the boundary changes of 1889 (see the Contents page).

The 1871-1874 and the 1884-1930 volumes each cover over 760 named people, the 1875-1883 volume covers over 820 named people.

Their surnames comprise Adams, Agnew, Aikman, Ainslie, Aitchison, Aitken, Alister, Allan, Anderson, Archer, Archibald, Armit, Armstrong, Askew, Atkinson, Auchincloss, Baillie, Bain, Ballantyne, Balmer, Barron, Bates, Bathgate, Beattie, Bell, Bennet, Bennett, Berry, Bishop, Black, Blackburn, Blackhall, Blair, Blyth, Boa, Bogg, Booth, Borthwick, Boston, Bower, Boyd, Bradley, Bradshaw, Braidie, Braidy, Bremner, Broad, Brockie, Brodie, Brogan, Broomfield, Brotherstone, Brown, Brownlee, Bruce, Brunton, Bryce, Brydon, Buchanan, Buist, Bunyan, Burn, Burns, Burrell, Burton, Cairns, Callaghan, Cameron, Campbell, Carey, Carlysle, Carmichael, Carnachan, Carr, Carruthers, Carson, Cartmill, Cassidy, Cavers, Chambers, Chapman, Charleston, Cheyne, Chisholm, Christie, Clark, Cleaver, Cleghorn, Clemiston, Clifford, Close, Closky, Cochrane, Cockburn, Coldwell, Colledge, Collier, Coltart, Colvin, Common, Connar, Connel, Conner, Connor, Conolley, Cook, Corcoran, Cormick, Cossar, Coulter, Cowan, Cowe, Craig, Craise, Cranston, Craw, Crawford, Crines, Crooks, Crosbie, Crossan, Cruden, Cruickshank, Culbert, Culbertson, Cunningham, Curle, Curran, Currie, Cuthbert, D'Agrosa, Dalgetty, Dalgleish, Dalgliesh, Danes, Danoir, Danvir, Darling, Darrie, Davidson, Dawson, Deans, Develin, Dewar, Dick, Dickson, Dinnany, Dobie, Dobson, Docherty, Dodds, Dods, Donachan, Donald, Donaldson, Donelly, Dorey, Douglas, Dowie, Downs, Doyles, Drawhill, Drummond, Dryden, Duncan, Duncanson, Dunlop, Dunn, Duthie, Edenton, Edgar, Egan, Elder, Elliot, Emmonds, Enterkin, Faed, Fairbairn, Fairgrieve, Fairley, Fairnie, Falla, Feely, Ferguson, Fernie, Ferries, Fiddes, Field, Finlay, Finlayson, Fitzpatrick, Fleming, Foggie, Foggs, Foley, Forbes, Ford, Forrest, Forson, Fortune, Fowler, Fraser, Frater, Freil, Friel, Fyfe, Galbraith, Gallocher, Galloway, Ganard, Ganyard, Garvie, Gavin, Gibson, Gilday, Gillespie, Gillies, Gillon, Gilmartin, Gilroy, Givan, Gladstone, Glen, Glover, Goldie, Goldsmith, Gordon, Gough, Graham, Grant, Gray, Green, Greenan, Grey, Grierson, Grieve, Griffen, Grossart, Grossert, Guthrie, Haig, Haldane, Haley, Hall, Halley, Halliday, Hally, Hamilton, Hanlon, Hannay, Hardie, Harkness, Harrison, Hart, Harvey, Hawkins, Hay, Helam, Henderson, Hendry, Henry, Hepburn, Herson, Hill, Hillock, Hislop, Hoban, Hobkirk, Hodson, Hogarth, Hogg, Holmes, Hood, Hope, Houstler, Howard, Hoyle, Huggan, Hughes, Hunter, Hutton, Imrie, Ingles, Inglis, Innes, Instant, Ireland, Irvine, Jackson, Jamieson, Jardine, Jenkinson, Jerdan, Jobblin, Johnston, Johnstone, Jollie, Jones, Keddie, Kelly, Kemp, Kempsell, Kennedy, Kerr, Kiernan, Killin, King, Knox, Laidlaw, Lamond, Lanerd, Larkin, Lauder, Laurie, Law, Lawrie, Lawson, Lawton, Learmonth, Lee, Leech, Lees, Leishman, Leitch, Lennie, Lennox, Leonard, Leslie, Lessels, Lever, Lidster, Lillico, Lillie, Lindsay, Lines, Linton, Little, Lockie, Loftus, Logan, Logree, Lowrie, Luke, Lumsden, Lunn, Lusky, Lynch, Lyons, Mabon, Mack, Mackay, Maginnies, Maguiness, Main, Maloney, Mann, Maquigan, Mark, Mars, Martin, Mather, Mathieson, Mathison, McAdam, McBryde, McCannon, McCardell, McCarron, McCorkindale, McDonald, McDougall, McEwan, McFayden, McFie, McGalvie, McGill, McGinn, McGlasson, McGlinty, McGowan, McGregor, McGrigor, McGuire, McInnes, McInspinte, McInspirit, McIvor, McKay, McKenna, McKingstree, McKinstrae, McLaren, McLauchlan, McLay, McLean, McLeish, McLeod, McLusky, McMichan, McMorran, McNab, McNair, McNamara, McNaulty, McNeill, McPartlan, McPheely, McPherson, McWilliams, Meenan, Meickle, Meikle, Mein, Melrose, Melville, Mercer, Middlemas, Middlemass, Miles, Millar, Miller, Milne, Mitchell, Moffat, Montague, Monteath, Monteith, Moran, Morris, Morrison, Morton, Mossman, Mowat, Mowbray, Muckersie, Muir, Mulvey, Munro, Murchison, Murphy, Murray, Neilson, Nevin, Nichol, Nicholson, Nicol, Nicoll, Nicolson, Nilson, Nisbet, Nixon, Noble, Norrie, O'Brien, O'Connell, O'Donnel, O'Donnell, O'Hara, O'Keefe, Oliver, O'Mailley, O'Neil, Ord, Ormiston, Orr, O'Shaughnessy, Ovens, Paisley, Parish, Parker, Paterson, Patterson, Peake, Peden, Phaup, Philipps, Philips, Phin, Piercy, Pirrie, Pittillo, Polson, Porteous, Porter, Pow, Preston, Pringle, Proudfoot, Pryde, Punton, Purvis, Quinn, Rae, Raeburn, Rankin, Rattray, Redpath, Regan, Reid, Reilly, Rennie, Renny, Renton, Renwick, Reynolds, Richardson, Riddell, Rigley, Robertson, Robson, Romanes, Ross, Rule, Russell, Rutherford, Ruthven, Saddler, Sanderson, Sandis, Schick, Scott, Scougal, Scoular, Screen, Sell, Semple, Sharp, Sheach, Shieils, Shiel, Shields, Shiell, Shiells, Shillinglaw, Short, Shortreed, Sibbald, Simpson, Simson, Sinclair, Sinton, Sked, Skeldon, Skellin, Skelling, Skirving, Slater, Smail, Small, Smellie, Smith, Smith Knox, Sneddon, Snowden, Solan, Somers, Sornbay, Spence, Spiers, Spott, Sprott, Stavert, Steele, Stenhouse, Stevenson, Stewart, Stirling, Story, Stott, Stuart, Sullivan, Sunderland, Sutherland, Swan, Swanston, Sweeny, Swinton, Symington, Tait, Taylor, Temple, Thin, Thomson, Thorburn, Tilly, Tinlin, Tocher, Tolmie, Tosh, Trenchard, Trotter, Tucker, Tully, Turnbull, Turner, Vair, Vallance, Veitch, Von, Waddell, Waite, Walker, Wallace, Wanlass, Ward, Warrick, Waters, Watson, Watt, Wayness, Weatherston, Weir, Welsh, Whillans, White, Wight, Wightman, Wilcox, Wilkie, Williams, Williamson, Wilson, Winning, Winton, Wintrup, Wishart, Wood, Woodend, Woods, Wright, Wylie, Wynne, Wyse, Young, Yule.

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The CDs are priced at £12 each or £22 for two different volumes, or £30 for the set of 3; all plus postage.  Two other CD volumes were published last year, Jedburgh Parish 1852-1874 and Jedburgh Parish 1875-1893, both priced at £12, £22 for the pair, plus postage.

CDs can be purchased directly from us via our Contacts page using the contact type ‘Order for Publications’.